Day 43: Today's Pick — Cold Pierogi for Breakfast

I am writing this at 7:30am with a cold pierogi in my hand. It is filled with potato and cheese. It was made yesterday by a woman named Krystyna in a small Greenpoint shop. It is, no joke, one of my favorite breakfasts.

This post is about pierogi but it's also about the genre of "leftover ethnic dumplings as next-day breakfast" — a deeply underrated genre.

What pierogi are

Polish dumplings, half-moon shaped, filled with savory or sweet fillings. The dough is similar to a pasta dough but slightly softer; the fillings traditionally include potato-and-cheese (the most common), sauerkraut-and-mushroom, ground meat, or sweet cottage cheese. Boiled and then sometimes pan-fried in butter.

The frozen supermarket versions (Mrs. T's, etc.) are not the topic of this post. Real pierogi from a real Polish shop are a different category of food. The dough is more delicate, the fillings are not over-seasoned, the ratio of filling to dough is correct (not the tiny dab of filling in a thick wrapper that the frozen versions give you).

Why cold

Hot pierogi is, of course, the canonical preparation. Boiled, then pan-fried in butter, served with sour cream and chopped dill. This is correct. This is delicious.

Cold pierogi the next morning, eaten straight from the fridge, is its own thing. The dough firms up overnight into a softer, denser texture. The filling cools and the flavors integrate. The whole thing eats like a savory hand pie. You can pick it up, you can eat it standing in the kitchen with a cup of coffee, you can take one in your bag for a commute.

I am told this is not a traditional way to eat pierogi. I am told the right answer is to reheat them in butter. I do reheat them sometimes. But cold-from-the-fridge pierogi is its own dish.

What I'd buy

The classic potato-and-cheese is the gateway. The sauerkraut-and-mushroom is the sleeper hit. The sweet cottage cheese with cinnamon is for people who like savory-sweet breakfast. Most Polish shops sell them by the dozen, $14–18 for 12 pierogi. They freeze beautifully.

How to actually buy

In Greenpoint (Brooklyn), Polish shops on Manhattan Avenue and Nassau Avenue are universally great. My favorite is a tiny place where Krystyna and her sister make 200 pierogi a day by hand.

In Chicago, Polish neighborhoods on the northwest side have multiple options.

In other U.S. cities, search "Polish deli" or "European market" — most cities have at least one. The chain Polish-style frozen products are not the same.

Outside the U.S.: every Polish town has a milk bar (bar mleczny) or pierogi shop. Eat them everywhere.

On the broader genre

Other dumplings that are great cold the next morning:

• Chinese pork-and-chive jiaozi (crispy on the bottom from the previous night's pan-fry)
• Korean kimchi mandu
• Tibetan momo (especially the beef ones)
• Italian ravioli with ricotta filling

The principle is: small dumpling, savory filling, robust dough. They survive overnight refrigeration and become a different but equally good food the next morning.

Try this. Save the leftovers. Eat them cold standing up. Let me know if you agree.

Tomorrow: a stretching device I bought on a whim that has, somehow, fixed my back.