Polish Deli & Eatery
Cheese blintzes are among the Polish specialties made at Polish Deli & Eatery in Commack. Credit: Newsday / Erica Marcus
Do you think "kielbasa" refers to one type of sausage? Think again. Commack's Polish Deli & Eatery, which opened Feb. 1, stocks 15 to 20 varieties of the great Polish sausage, depending on the day of the week. Owners (and cousins) Jake Horbas and Tomasz Lesniak used to work in a Polish pork store in Copiague; they opened this market to serve Commack's growing Polish community.
The store's No. 1 seller, Horbas said, is wisniowa, a ready-to-eat pork sausage smoked over cherry wood. No. 2 is biala kielbasa, fresh, uncooked "white sausage," boiled and then grilled. The rest of the kielbasas vary according to their meat blends, seasonings, diameter, how long and over which wood they have been smoked.
Not that Polish cured meat stops at kielbasa. There are hams and bacon and loins, kizka, a fat blood-and-rice sausage and cyganska, smoked shoulder. Salceson wie (the Polish sounds better than the English "head cheese") is particularly good here, a savory aspic studded with pork. Most cured items range from $3.99 to $7.99 a pound.
At the end of the store's long meat counter is a steam table featuring hot Polish specialties such as stuffed cabbage, hunters stew, pierogi and cheese blintzes that are made throughout the day in the kitchen. One of the cousins (or an associate) makes daily trips to Brooklyn and Queens to pick up baked goods such as babka, paczki (doughnuts) and moist, dense rye bread from Greenpoint's Northside Bakery.
Imported Polish pickles, sauerkraut, soda, juices, butter and jams, smoked fish and snack foods: Check them out.
Polish Deli & Eatery
195 Commack Rd., Commack
631-486-4544
