You’re about to read a tale with a tragic ending, but a very delicious beginning.

It happened two Fridays ago.  For Christmas, I had given Jeremy tickets to Beer Advocate’s Night of the Barrels, a sampling of wood-aged beers in Boston.

Trips to Boston are always a good excuse to explore a slightly different culinary landscape.  Rhode Island is lacking in European restaurants (except, of course, Italian), and cold weather is the perfect time for potatoes and sausages.  So Cafe Polonia seemed like a great dinner choice and was even convenient for travel (right off the Andrew T stop).

We planned to get enough food in our system that the beer wouldn’t go to our heads – what we didn’t expect was eating such delicious and plentiful food that we’d hardly have room for beer.  That, my friends, was the tragedy.

Tripe soup, the Polish Plate, and a Gypsy Pancake at Cafe Polonia

When we saw the menu, we couldn’t help ourselves. There were so many choices I’ve never seen on a US menu, even in Polish restaurants.  We started with soup – tripe (me) and forest mushroom (Jeremy), and had to share the blood sausage appetizer,  and of course it was impossible not to get two entrees.  Jeremy got the Polish Plate, a good sampler with kielbasa, stuffed cabbage, hunter’s stew and pierogies.  I was intriuged by the Gypsy pancake, described as a potato pancake stuffed with goulash. The menu did say “giant”, but I didn’t expect the two dinner-plate sized potato pancakes with goulash.  It was so delicious I finished half (which is probably twice a normal dinner portion), and was pained that I didn’t live close enough to take home a doggy bag.

You can imagine how full we were when we got to the beer tasting.  But would you have been able to resist?

Cafe Polonia
611 Dorcester Ave.
South Boston, MA
http://www.cafepolonia.com/