Tatry is in an old house in a thoroughly middle class neighborhood, 'bout four or five miles from Bradley International Airport. It don't look like much from the outside ... but what is it they say about looks being deceiving?
The first thing my companions and I noticed upon settling into a booth was a sign that said all meals are made from scratch. The sign also warned that it can take up to two hours for patrons to get their meal, depending upon what they order. When we placed our order, the waiter/bartender told us that we may have to wait a bit for our meals, because "there's only one stove." I think we all were having visions of a matronly Polish woman busily stirring the contents of boiling pots in a cramped kitchen.
The first thing to arrive at our table were steaming bowls of cabbage soup. Thick and well-seasoned, with large chunks of carrots and onions, this, dear readers, was the best cabbage soup I've ever eaten:
I really wish I'd taken a picture of that bowl after I'd finished eating. I used the bread you see in the above picture to sop up the remaining soup that was clinging to the sides of the bowl. When I was done, the bowl was clean - and I mean clean - as a whistle. (If that ain't a testament to the the quality of Tatry's cabbage soup, I don't know what is.)
As much as I enjoyed my cabbage soup, I really enjoyed the homemade sauerkraut that accompanied my kielbasa dinner. Consisting of firm strips of cabbage with a peppery tanginess, Tatry's sauerkraut was so good that I could have eaten it alone and walked away from the table a happy feller.
I didn't just eat sauerkraut, however. I also had a juicy kielbasa link and an entire boiled potato, which'd been sprinkled with hot paprika. To wit:
When my friends and I left Tatry, I was absolutely stuffed. It wasn't a "Why did I eat so much?" stuffed, though. It was the kind of stuffed that made it easy for me to fall asleep that night -- with visions of cooked cabbage dancing in my head.
If I ever find myself in Hartford, Connecticut again, you can bet your bottom złoty that I'll be making a return visit.
Tatry Polish Restaurant
735 Wethersfield Avenue, # 1
Hartford, CT 06114
4 comments:
"visions of a matronly Polish woman busily stirring the contents of boiling pots in a cramped kitchen." <-- sounds like my grandma, God rest her soul
Sounds tasty, but I bet it laid up on your chest.
"I bet it laid up on your chest."
It could have laid on my chest, off my chest, above my chest, or below my chest ... I wouldn't have cared. If I hadn't been in mixed company whilst eating at Tatry, I might've borrowed Jerry's line from the frozen yogurt Seinfeld: This is so ****in' good!
I never had a boiled potato with hot paprika. Think it sounds like something I would like to try.
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