The best Soup Ever.

This Christmas and New Year has been incredibly relaxing. I feel like I left Berlin and fell into a permanent winter sleep in Sweden. After Christmas we went to the Polish coastline to celebrate the new year in an old hotel Villa.

And there I found a new favorite: the Zurek Soup.

Actually, I knew it existed. A month ago I rented out my apartment to the Polish Designer Wojciech Dziedzic. He shared my interest in food and we ended up in a long talk about local food and the best hidden food spots in Warsaw. He gave me his favorites and I curiously went straight to the computer to research about the dishes he had described so warmly that I felt like taking the next night train to Warsaw.

Over Christmas I met another food-lover-friend of mine, Linda. She works as Quality Manager for a larger food company. Since she often travels to Poland for business reasons, I asked her if there was any specific dish that stayed on her mind. She told me about a white soup with a sour undertone with eggs and sausage that was one of the best soups she ever had.

At this point you can imagine my excitement to go to Poland to try this very special soup.

Funny enough, one of the dishes both Linda and Wojciech had been mentioning to me, Zurek, is made out of sourdough. I could not really believe that such a dish existed. How do you possibly come up with the idea to cook a soup out of sourdough? Who comes up with the idea to “remove any mold that is floating in the sourdough and add it to the bullion”? Seriously, if you have a moldy sourdough jar standing around, I would never think of consuming it raw or serve it to my guests. But, luckily the world is not build up on my personal norms and therefore we were given the incredible soup Zurek.

Anne Applebaum, writer for Washington Post and  author of “From a Polish Country House Kitchen” describes the soup to have a “mystical link to Sushi”. I would agree with her. Just like Sushi, the first time I tried it, this soup, and the knowledge of how it is made, made me lightly uncomfortable.  Lets be honest; The first spoon is somehow disgusting. But the aftertaste is sublime. And after excitingly scooping myself through the bowl I saw myself ordering Zurek both for lunch, and for dinner.

Where do you get the best Zurek in Berlin? And where do I get the best Zurek in Warsaw? I will get back to you with a proper recipe when I tried this out myself at home.

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Ann Applebaum and Danielle Crittenden has been writing a very inspiring cookbook about the food revolution that has been going on in poland since the borders opened to the West. I can highly recommend it.

At Amazon: From a Polish Country House Kitchen

When I got back to Berlin I even had to email Chad from Tartine Bakery to ask him if he had tried it already. He  replied that he likes it too.

MalinThe best Soup Ever.

4 Comments on “The best Soup Ever.”

  1. Maria

    Hey Malin 🙂
    I’ve been reading your blog ever since the summer I think, and I’m still absolutely loving it!
    I hope the Bread Exchange keeps blossoming, and you have the most amazing New Year!
    Lots of love,
    From Estland

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