Pierogies

I just got back from a Polish dinner at Jolka Polka, a newly opened Polish restaurant in Zurich. Honestly, my visit was partly to see how their pierogies, made by actual Poles, compared to the ones I make. I took this competition seriously. 

Jolka Polka offered two kinds of pierogies: boiled and fried, with two filling options—potato and cheese or meat. A plate of nine boiled pierogies was priced at CHF 19, while the fried ones cost CHF 23.

Appearance-wise, I think my pierogies were more aesthetically pleasing. Growing up in Indonesia, we have something similar called pastel or jalangkote, which gave me a lot of practice in pinching dough to seal it. Or maybe I just like pinching things too much. 

As for the taste? It was fine. Potato and cottage cheese don’t differ much whether mixed in a home kitchen or a restaurant.

For dessert, I tried their Polish-style apple cake, which was quite intriguing. It had a layer of apple purée at the bottom and a tiramisu-like chocolate layer on top. A unique and pleasant way to end the meal!

These are Pierogies I made the other night. Not too shabby made by Indonesian's hands, yes?

With the same dough and your potentially favourite filling: potato, carrot, green peas, and corned beef, you may deep fried it and called it Pastel.