Monday, November 16, 2009
Food Chain / Food & Drink The Polish Al Pastor and Other Slavic Fast Food Finds
Posted by Mike Sula on Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 10:53 AM
- pork kebab,"middle eastern style"
"The spices come from Poland," said the woman at the counter. "Why? Was it too much?"
I'm genetically predisposed to love the heavy, starchy, porky peasant food of eastern Europe, but let's face it, Polish food isn't exactly known for its doors-of-perception-blowing spice levels. No, I assured her the "European kebab" I lunched on last week, wasn't too spicy, but it wasn't exactly Polish either. The pork, shaved off the rotating spit onto a thick, toasty pita and topped with an abundance of crunchy vegetables, then drizzled with a garlicky mayo-yogurt sauce, was mighty tasty though, and awfully familiar. In the photo it's obscured by the verdure, but it had the elusive juicy-tender and crispy-caramelized duality of a perfectly shaved shawerma, or doner kebab.
Meat-on-a spit doner joints run by Turkish immigrants are found all over central and eastern Europe—particularly in the big cities. Doner—or more appropriately its Arabic variant shawerma—isn't rare here, either. But what you don't often see in Chicago—or at all, actually—are Polish-owned and -operated doner kebab restaurants, serving pork at that.
Warsaw native Greg Kierzkowski, who makes frequent visits back home, says about five or six years ago he noticed an explosion of kebab joints there. "People are crazy about kebabs," he says. Eventually native Poles began getting into the act, adding their own particular, ahem, spin—namely pork, dressed with an abundance of vegetables such as cabbage, corn, and cucumbers.
The leap to pork isn't unprecedented in doner's relentless global conquest—Mexicans adopted shawerma from Lebanese immigrants who arrived in the 30s, layering marinated pork on the trompo, resulting in tacos arabes, and their more popular cousin, tacos al pastor, which has recently been discovered by the seething immigrant hordes of Wicker Park.
- the trompo
Kierzkowski is cagey about those seasonings he's importing from Poland—the ham and pork butt meat is tenderized in vinegar and seasoned with a red-pepper-based mix. He also offers cinnamon-seasoned chicken or turkey kebabs. Those are available on pita or tortillas or as entrees with fries, and they all come with a choice of four house-made sauces.
- ready for Gwiazdka
Royal Kebab (3051 N. Central, 773-930-3390) opened its doors about a month and a half ago in a strip mall just south of the heart of Chicago's heavily Polish Belmont-Cragin neighborhood. Kierzkowski says the high volume of recent, and young Polish immigrants convinced him he could make a go of it. Turns out that little stretch of Central is home to another source of distinctly Polish street food. Right across the street the tiny storefront prosaically named "Polish Food" offers an interesting selection including this monstrosity:
- pig in a blanket
That oversized pig in a blanket is known as a hot dog z pieczarkami, in this case a mushy skinless wiener stuffed in a hollowed-out roll, surrounded by a protective layer of minced sauteed mushrooms. The high-quality bakery roll was toasted, and under more rarefied circumstances the mushroom matrix could be called duxelles, but the sausage needs much more tensile strength to carry this off, and the whole affair was doused in ketchup and mayo-mustard sauce.
Polish Food also offers a burger, a fruit-dressed waffle, and a kielbasa sandwich that looked mighty impressive. A much more iconic Polish street food on the menu, known as zapiekanka, had Food Chain eastern European adviser Patryk Piwinski OMG-ing in polsku when he heard about it. That's a sliced baguette layered with mushrooms and cheese or cheese and vegetables and yes, more mayo, ketchup, and corn. "Polish people like their corn," Piwinksi acknowledged.
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I'm torn over this review. On one hand, I'm excited that someone is actually acknowledging the large Polish population in Chicago and the businesses/restaurants they run. One the other hand, I'm totally turned off by the tone of this piece. Some of your quotes, such as "Polish people like their corn" or "...the tiny storefront prosaically named "Polish Food", come off, at best, as belittling.
I dined at both of these establishments & the food is absolutely amazing! I love it! The menus are small enough to allow the chef/cook to concentrate on QUALITY not quantity. Everything is FRESH & DELICIOUS! Also, it’s a nice change from the regular fast food joints. The fare at ROAYAL KEBAB is especially unique. I don’t think there is another restaurant like that in Chicago. It’s definitely worth a visit!...or two or three!
Mike, I stumbled upon Royal Kebab today without having seen this report, and while I'm upset not to have been the original discoverer, I was absolutely thrilled and amazed by the food here. The pork on "middle eastern" bread, with both hot sauce and garlic sauce, was just fantastic. And yes, I noticed the corn in there ... and I liked it! Next time I might go for the pork "platter," skipping the bread. Although the bread was very good, with a crisp crust and nice crumb, it tended to fall apart to the point where I wound up eating it with a fork, anyway.
Mike, you are my new hero. I've been looking for European-style doner kebab for years, and Royal Kebab hits it right on the head. You've saved me thousands in airfare that I can now spend on gas driving to the west side to get more doner.
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