So I was shocked when I discovered that the Spanish, and consequently the Filipinos, and I suppose the Latin Americans too, had something similar called empanadas. The Nepalis have momo, the Indians have samosa, the Japanese have gyoza, the Chinese have wonton. I guess every culture in the world has their own version of fried dumplings. In Eastern and Central Europe, their dumpling is called pierogi. It is, in fact, Poland's national dish. And that was what I was set to try on my first visit to Krakow.
I was walking around the Old Town when I found this food market selling traditional Polish cuisine. There were at least 2 stalls selling pierogi. I went to the one that sold pierogi exclusively. They had four huge pans filled with them. Unlike karipap that only has two different choices of fillings (either potato or sardine), the pierogi has many. I chose the two cheapest ones: one meat, and the other veggies.
They were not the prettiest pierogi I had ever seen. The white one was slightly undercooked, and they were overpriced too. But it was still cheaper than going to a restaurant where I would need to order a minimum of 10 dumplings and on top of that pay additional taxes and charges.
My favorite was of course the one with meat. It was bigger, crispier and more flavorful than the vegetarian one, which was rather bland, and did I mention undercooked? Half of the dough was quite raw. I liked the meat pierogi so much that I thought it was better than karipap. I wish I had gone to a proper restaurant and ordered 10.
