Want to taste the real Kraków? Give tourist trails a miss and take a look at the city’s myriad market squares. It’s there – among the parsley and the tomatoes, local delicacies and exotic flavours – that you’ll meet the best of the best: people who love to eat.
Aga Kozak
Kraków’s market squares teem with life, especially on Saturdays. They are the beating hearts of individual districts and meeting spots for locals festooned with shopping bags, stopping to say hi and pausing over coffee (or wine) at nearby cafés and bars. They are no vanity fairs but centres of gossip, news from the city and local support. More importantly, they haven’t reached the levels of gentrification afflicting similar spaces in Spain: in Kraków you’ll still find highlanders selling smoked ewe’s milk cheese and locals peddling home-grown potatoes, although fans of unusual varieties of squash and artisanal cheese from an Italian mountain village also won’t be disappointed.
Here’s my quick guide to alternative, delicious marketplaces in Kraków.
Old Kleparz
Kraków’s icon, jewel in the crown, modelled on Sèvres is not so much a marketplace but a declaration “I’m from Kraków”. Saturday mornings at Kleparz, carrying a beautiful bag made by Have a Bite and bearing the inscription “KLEPARZING”, sipping coffee or prosecco, nibbling tramezzini and sampling oysters at Baqaro and plenty of local gossip, all in a historic setting – after all it is Kraków oldest market, even though the statue of a merchant woman marks the original site of Kleparz at Szczepański Square, beautifully described by Maryla Szymiczkowa in one of her thrillers. Some regulars are addicted to produce from Jacek Szklarek from Winniczek, others to Hungarian delicacies from Paweł Tabor. There are devotees of Polish wines from Dzikie Wino, of perfect preserved lemons, of Lithuanian bread. After all, Kleparz has everything!
Na Stawach Square
For me, the best part of this square in Zwierzyniec is “little Jubilat” – a branch of this legendary (in all aspects) department store, complete with huge wooden tubs full of pickles and ferments straight from the socialist era – and that’s a compliment!, and the checkout ladies are a balm for the soul. In any case, Na Stawach has everything a good market should: stalls bearing all kinds of vegetables from humble carrots to exotic salsify, and women selling eggs laid by hens scratching in their back gardens. I only wish there was a café on the square – but you can always nip over to Consonni for cappuccino and panettone.
Pietruszkowy Market
This eco pop-up event held on Saturdays at Niepodległości Square in Podgórze isn’t strictly speaking a market: a collective of enthusiasts decided it would be the perfect spot for buying local food directly from producers. It’s the only spot in town to buy delicious Sweets by Bary and exceptional vegetables from Daria from JeDynie. If you want to sample hop shoots or garlic mustard, that’s the place to be! There’s also ghee, homemade mustards and lavender lemonade. Recently, Pietruszkowy Market was named the 68th member of the Slow Food Earth Market foundation – how’s that for an accolade! And when you’re there, make you sure you pop into Miejska for bread!
What else?
…Hala Targowa, Nowy Square, Nowowiejski Square, Targ Degustacji, Kiermash, Najedzeni Fest, Art & Food Bazaar… I haven’t got enough space to write about them all, although I am particularly fond of Hala Targowa with its blue van selling mouth-watering sausages and the flea market held on Sundays. Nowy Square in Kazimierz has shifted focus from being a simple meat and veg market to a gastronomic haven ahead of a night on the tiles. The beautiful Nowowiejski Square is a rising star on the Kraków market scene, in particular the “Pod Czerwonym Kogutem” deli specialising in cheese. And let’s not forget other, more ephemeral events where you’ll sample some of the most unusual dishes produced by loving hands.
So grab your totes, make sure you’ve got a good supply of cash (you’re not going to a supermarket, after all!) and catch the next tram. Be ready for plenty of gossip and even more delicious food, as you watch the world around you and time slow down – as it is wont to do in Kraków…
