LTH North Lunch Group - Ewa's Pierogi - 8/28 - 12:30 PM

We're heading back south into Cook County for August and (not going) commando.
Ewa's Pierogi now has some LTH presence. An recent article about this spot in a local newspaper has me intrigued.

Please join us on the 28th for pierogis, borscht, and whatever else looks good on the menu. As always, bring a friend.

Ewa’s Pierogi
976 Harlem Ave.
Glenview, IL 60025
(224) 616-3430

Dave148 - Esteemed Coordinator - LTH North Lunch Group
diversedancer
jimd
JoelF
Cathy2
GAF
EddieK
Sylvia
Sharon

I'm in.

Pictures on their facebook page shows the menu.

Not aware of how “going commando” will enhance the LTH experience, but it’s worth a shot.

Is this the first time a dress code has been required and how will it be enforced?

Cannot make it this time, sorry. And the commando prospect is simultaneously intriguing and revolting.

J

I'm game

I plan to be there!

Should work for me.

-Will

I will join you.

I brought Pierogi and Pelmeni from Ewa's to the Tarte Tatin picnic, and I think that we all enjoyed them (at least none were left). I was impressed enough with the range of East European cuisine that I look forward to returning and trying dishes that were less mobile and sharable. It is a cute little spot. It took them about 20 minutes to prepare my order. The restaurant is in the same shopping center as Cho Jung and across the street from the Glenview Library.

So, no need to go commando as this is my BRIEF contribution.

I'll be there if you promise I won't have to eat out of doors. I'll be plus one. My friend, Sylvia, who lived and taught in Poland for a few years will join us. Although she's French, she would like to find places in the northern burbs with good Polish food.

I am going to be too busy. Have to cancel. See y'all in September.

-Will

There's a reservation under Dave for tomorrow. See y'all then!

Sorry for the late notice but I hope it's OK that Sylvia and I have invited a mutual friend, Sharon, to join us. Sharon can take Will's place.

Hi,

Mom advised she will come for the Polish food. It is my Mom, which means there is a 50:50 chance she really will go.

Regards,
Cathy2

Sorry, should have thought about this before....probably too late now...

If you are ordering before we arrive, my vote is for more appetizers, salads, stuffed cabbage, borsht and less pierogi, which I thought were bland and uninteresting at the picnic. Guess I'm jaded by the exotic pierogi analogues in a myriad of oriental cuisines. Maybe at least one pelmeni just to see what the difference is.

You can order the Euro-combo plate. The rest of us will eat what we came for: dumplings.

i hear they have a great italian beef!

Our end of the table ordered:

• Potato Pancakes with smoked salmon, dill cream and red caviar - this was probably the best thing we ate. Nice crisp potato pancake, beautiful presentation (perhaps a little stingy on the salmon, as you can get 3 pancakes without the fish for $7, this was $15)
• Herring Tartare - another gorgeous presentation with cornichons and capers, a nice swirled cocktail sauce on top. Too bad herring tastes like a chum bucket. If you like herring, it's probably great, but I did not enjoy.
• Zapiekanka - supposedly a new Polish cuisine bar food, it's basically a french bread pizza, again very pretty. Good mushrooms, I just wish they didn't swirl ketchup over the top
• Lamb Pelmeni - a little iron pot full of buttered dumplings, the least pretty presentation of the day. Tasty, but I can't say they're significantly different from the ones you can buy frozen at Shop 'n' Save.
• Combo Pierogis: Mac 'n' Cheese and Spinach with Mozzarella. Well prepared, displayed nicely. The Mac ones were unimpressive: rather flat, not a lot of cheese flavor. The spinach ones were better, plump and lots of filling. Served with sour cream.
• Side of Mushroom Sauce - helped add some spark to the pelmeni, and good sopped up with bread

We came for the pierogis, but 10 for $8-$10 doesn't seem like a great value. I'll go back though, it was fun, tasty stuff, and not too heavy for eastern European dining.

JoelF wrote:[*]Zapiekanka - supposedly a new Polish cuisine bar food, it's basically a french bread pizza, again very pretty. Good mushrooms, I just wish they didn't swirl ketchup over the top[/*]

Maybe it's new to bars (though I doubt that), but zapiekanka is one of the quintessential Polish street foods. (Wikipedia tells me it originated sometime in the 70s.) I have very fond memories of it from visiting the rynek (central square market) of Krakow throughout the 80s. I wasn't old enough at the time to check out the bars and report. Similar in Hungary is melegszendvics, and that certainly was served in bars in the late 90s/early 00s when I could drink, so I'm guessing in both cultures, the hot pizza-bread type sandwich goes back a bit in the bars. And, yes, ketchup on top is pretty standard in both cultures, and, well, kind of required for me.

There really are few street foods that I like better than a nice, long, narrow zapiekanka topped with cheese and sliced fresh button mushrooms, with a generous snake of ketchup across the top.

I agree with Joel's comments about the pierogis. Kind of lopsided in terms of size vs price.

Looking forward to working my way through the menu, including another round of Herring Tartare. Good stuff!

Everything you'd ever want to know about Zapiekanka and more, courtesy of laikom, 2014 . . .

Uncovering the little-known Polish bar scene. Zapiekanka!

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Everything you'd ever want to know about Zapiekanka and more, courtesy of laikom, 2014 . . .

Uncovering the little-known Polish bar scene. Zapiekanka!

=R=

At lunch yesterday, I did bring up Laikom's Zapiekanka research. It is contemporary Polish food.

Regards,
Cathy2

Yesterday's lunch was also educational. We also learned everything we need to know about Warren Harding!

Warren G. Harding