There’s a fabulous pop-up chef series in Chicago called Monday Night Foodball, organized by food writer Mike Sula. I don’t often get to go (because it conflicts with my Monday night D&D group, where I play a middle aged deep gnome rogue who’s a private detective based on Jessica Fletcher), but I’ve been to a few of them and they’re always incredible. The last one we made it to was the Zapiekanka XXL night by Justyna Haluch, who runs a food truck called “I Love Grill & Lemonade”.

Zapiekanki are a Polish street food invented sometime in the 1970s. It resembles a French bread pizza, but it feels like its own animal to me. The mushrooms are key: typically white button, sauteed and seasoned with salt and pepper. The cheese is also crucial: a smoked Polish sheep’s milk cheese is ideal, but any good melty cheese like Gouda or Edam seem to work really well, too. It’s often topped with a generous drizzle of ketchup. Niles was not a fan of that touch, but I didn’t find it offensive.

Outside of that, people get really creative! You can add meat - ham and bacon seem to be especially popular. You can add chives, scallions, parsley or even crushed red pepper on top. You can get crazy and add hot sauce, pickles, barbecue sauce, feta, or whatever sounds good!

According to Wikipedia, The Polish word zapiekanka comes from the verb zapiekać, which means "to bake a dish so that its ingredients combine, and a crispy, browned crust forms on top”. I am delighted that Polish has a whole verb for this, but I’m also a little astonished that American Midwestern English does NOT have a whole verb for this, considering our long and resplendent history of hotdish and other glorious casseroles.

Anyway, if you live in a place with a history of immigration from Poland, you can probably find a few restaurants that will serve you a piping hot zapiekanka. If not, they’re pretty easy to make at home! :)

Shameless Self Promotion:

There’s a big holiday sale going on at Threadless if you’d like some tees or stickers or tote bags or anything with my silly drawings on them!

You can also always order books from me directly here (I sign and doodle in every book I ship out) as well as prints and holiday cards. NOTE: I deep-cleaned my studio just after Thanksgiving, and discovered a stack of Stockholm is Sauceome minicomics that I didn’t realize I had! Totally thought that one was sold out, but you can grab yours now. If you want anything to arrive before 12/25, try to get your orders in by 12/15 at the latest!

Upcoming Things:

NOTHING!! HAHAHA! I don’t have any events planned until the spring!! I’m gonna wrap myself in a quilt and crochet some things and maybe even take several naps.

What I’m into lately:

I just started the audiobook for Bitter is the Heart by Mina Hardy, a creepy story about a middle aged woman taking in her elderly abusive mother, and the spooky things that happen because of it. I’m only a handful of chapters in, but I really like it so far.

What Toki’s into lately:

Modeling the No Gods, No Masters tote bag I got from my own Threadless shop! >_< It’s sturdy, fun, and Toki-approved!