Pierogi: a Polish comfort food

By Imogen White

In Melbourne, where I grew up, my experience of dumplings was limited to the cheap, deep-fried “dimmies” you could buy from the local fish-and-chip shop, the student-on-a-budget special of pre-packaged ravioli from the supermarket, and shared plates of steaming vegetarian dim-sum at an insalubrious restaurant in Chinatown, where rumours of failed health-and-safety inspections added a frisson to the dining experience.

In my 20s I spent some time in Toronto and started dating a Polish-Canadian man. One day he cooked me a plate of dumplings, their beigeness offset by a carrot and apple salad. They were called pierogi, and my date was aghast when I confessed I’d never heard of them, let alone eaten them. Pierogi turned out to be salty, stodgy and delicious – the best kind of comfort food. They were fluffier but also crispier than the dumplings I’d eaten before. The filling was a moreish mixture of mushrooms and onions with the slightest hint of marjoram. I had a vision of a future life with a dangerously high cholesterol count.