Warsaw in under 48 hours

Another last minute trip. At least this time, I was told the morning of the day before for next evening's flight, rather than a 10 hour notice. Where to this time? To Poland, Warsaw to be specific. Never been there and now I have the equivalent of $20 in zloty. Anyone going to Poland anytime soon?

Upon arriving, dinner was a sausage across from the hotel at a rowdy bar which is connected to a restaurant called U Kucharzy (its has a bib-gourmande recommendation from Michelin which is all I have to go on when I'm in Europe - no NYT reviews here).
 

We were supposed to eat there but then stuff happened and after they set this table for us for 10 people

We ended up leaving without ordering (I heard something about someone going back there to eat but the kitchen was closed so he just wanted some cake that they sell and they gave it to him for free because they felt bad...that's nice isn't it?)

I spent 90% of the day in the office from 8:30am to 10:30pm, going outside only for lunch and doing a 5 minute walk around the old town before being beaten by the heat and heading back into the air-conditioned office.

Weird sweet carrot salad and odd-tasting fries but the chicken breast was moist and spiced well (although I don't know what was up with the mayo on top which I gingerly wiped away with the side of my knife).

And then since it was so hot, I decided to have an ice cream break. It was somewhat awkward as I was exiting the building to get my ice cream my managing director was coming up the elevator and bumped into me, asking me where I was off too...to get ice cream? I didn't want him thinking I wasn't doing work (I was!)...but I wanted ice cream! And here it is.

So fricking tall. Its like icy frozen yogurt; wasn't very good but that doesn't mean I didn't eat it all. At least for dinner I got to have some Polish food, which is actually really similar to Russian food. The highlight? MEAT PLATTER (err...as you can tell I had lighting issues...)

I love cold and hot smoked meats and this totally hit the spot. My venison with chanterelle cream sauce (mmm, like I said before, me gusta chanterelles), potatoes and beets was MEH (again, lighting issues)

I ate the potatoes and the mushrooms and left the venison (too tough and gamey...maybe I don't like venison?) and most of the beets (they were a weird texture and I'm usually a beet FIEND). But darn that meat platter was good. Can't wait to get some kabanosy when I get back to mama's house...

And a history lesson for you - this is a big building that I could see from the office I was sitting in. What is it? Well apparently Stalin offered Warsaw either a metro system or a big building. They picked the building and now its some culture palace or something. I would've gone with the metro system...