With all of our gallivanting around New York City eating food from around the world (22 nationalities covered to date on this blog), it seems surprising that we were only just recently sent for the first time to Brooklyn. While at a Polish Consulate reception a few months ago, Murray asked a Polish diplomat for a recommendation of the most authentic Polish restaurant in New York. The response: The most authentic Polish restaurants are in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, and Karczma is the very best.
For some reason, the four of us were quite hungry that night, so we tore into the menu and made selections of soups, appetizers, and main dishes. This is what we ordered:
- White Borscht in Bread, which intrigued us. Doesn’t borscht contain beets? How then would this soup be white? Well, we discovered that this very traditional Polish dish contains no beets at all. Here’s a recipe for a reasonable facsimile of what we had at Karczma. It was delicious.
- Tripe Soup, mostly because, as you’ll learn, we were a bit shy about trying some of the other items on the menu, and one of our group claims to love tripe. This was also quite good, the strips of tripe surprisingly tender.
- Mushroom Soup, a special soup of the day and my personal favorite of the soups.
We skipped the Peasant Lard, which is probably just a sort of paté, but honestly I couldn’t get beyond the name. Still, we were a little adventurous with:
- Steak Tartar, raw diced beef served with raw egg, capers, cucumber, onion and mushrooms.
- Grilled Asparagus Wrapped in Polish Ham, which I’d be happy eating every day for the rest of my life.
- Grilled Plate for Two, which was supposed to include Polish Kielbasa, Blood Sausage, Chicken Breast, Salmon and Bacon, but we asked for no Blood Sausage and more of the rest … and our waitress cheerfully agreed. This plate was accompanied by three dipping sausages and a large pile of roasted potatoes.
- Plate of Polish Specialties (we ordered two of these), which included pierogis, potato pancakes, kielbasa, Hunter’s Stew, and stuffed cabbage.
- Spicy Beef Goulash, served with potato pancakes.
This is not a spot for a vegetarian, and anyone thinking much about their weight may find, as I did, that they want to focus on much lighter food for a few days after a meal here. Still, the food was delicious and relatively inexpensive ($140, including drinks and tip for four people). I’ll definitely go there again.
136 Greenpoint Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222
718-349-1744
Subway: G Train to Greenpoint Avenue
Monday-Thursday
12:00 noon – 10:30 pm
Friday-Saturday
12:00 noon – 11:30 pm
Sunday
12:00 noon – 10:00 pm
Recent Comments