Kwasnica

Kwasnica is the Podhale sauerkraut soup and it differs from the more familiar kapusniak in being made largely from the brine rather than the cabbage: the sour liquid from the barrel is used as the base, with smoked pork ribs, bacon or sausage cooked in it and potatoes added, producing something thin, very sour, smoky and salty rather than the thicker cabbage stew of the lowlands. It is winter food, the sort made when the cellar had cabbage, potatoes and cured pork and nothing else, and it is now on the menu of every karczma in the mountains, often served in a hollowed loaf. The sourness is the point and it can be startling on a first spoonful. It is usually eaten with rye bread and, in the tourist version, with a shot of something. The mountain inns that serve it are wooden, dark, loud with live highlander music, and busy.

What you actually see

• Brine as the base - the sour liquid from the barrel, not just the cabbage.
• Smoked pork in it - ribs, bacon or sausage cooked in the soup.
• Served in bread - often in a hollowed loaf in the mountain inns.
• Winter food - what the cellar held when there was nothing fresh.

When to go

October to April. An hour.

Honest expectations

It is genuinely very sour and salty, and not to everyone's taste. Karczma versions vary widely, and the tourist ones on the main roads are usually the weakest. Portions are large.

Nearby

Zakopane and the Podhale villages; the Beskid inns serve their own versions.