Stella’s Hideaway Fills County Niche for Polish Cuisine

A history of Polish cuisine says that, in the 19th Century, peasants and miners were so poor that meals often consisted of nothing more than boiled or mashed potatoes.

Even something as basic as salt apparently was beyond the means of many, but an ingenious substitute was sometimes offered: a single salted herring hung by a string above the dinner table. Whenever a diner felt the need to season his meal, he licked the herring, which evidently was able to withstand such attentions for several months.

Such hardships did not preclude the development of a basic meat-and-potatoes style of cooking that should seem reasonably familiar to Americans. At times, it even offers a delicacy that the uninitiated would not expect of a cuisine that pays such homage to cabbage, sausage and potatoes.

Room for One at a Time

The San Diego restaurant community, which not so long ago offered monotonous fare itself in the unending salad bars, steaks and baked potatoes, has managed to make room for one Polish entry at a time. For quite a while, the slot was held by The Three Mermaids on Adams Avenue, which several years ago yielded to Stella’s Hideaway in Rancho Penasquitos.

Stella’s is out of sight in the far recesses of a neighborhood shopping center not far from Interstate 15. A hexagonal structure has been remodeled inside to suggest a Polish farmhouse or mountain cabin.

The bright lights and long tables, set with red cloths laid over white, recall the large neighborhood restaurants in Buffalo and Chicago. Canned music plays constantly, but, in place of the polkas one might expect, there are disco versions of Tchaikovsky alternating, believe it or not, with Polish-language versions of such pop classics as “Rock ‘n’ Roll Will Never Die.”

The menu is an easy read. There are no appetizers, but entrees include both soup and dessert. More familiar dishes among the 17 entrees would be the Polish sausage, the cheese blintzes and the breaded pork chops; less familiar would be the hunter’s stew, the pierogi and the beef roll-ups, a Polish cousin to the German rouladen .

The server exclaimed that “the soups here are really delicious.” The praise was deserved, although, at first hearing, the dill pickle soup sounded rather alarming. It proved to be a lovely, mildly piquant but delicate blend of slivered carrots and potatoes, cream and stock, the flavor picked up by bits of pickle and minced dill.

A white borscht was equally delicate and creamy, the flavor supplied by slices of mild sausage and a mixture of savory herbs. It did not include beets. (It is an American conceit that presupposes beets in borscht.)

The entree list opens with pierogi , which might be described as Polish ravioli. The rounded pasta pockets variously are filled with a mild chopped meat mixture, a blend of sauerkraut and chopped mushrooms or a potato-cheese combination. No sauce moistens these pillow-shaped mouthfuls, but they are sprinkled with crumbled bacon. If meat dumplings are excluded from the order, this makes a good choice for a vegetarian meal.

Several Meatless Options

The menu offers several meatless options, including a casserole of macaroni, mushrooms, onions and five cheeses similar to the dishes American housewives invented in the days of large families. A more austere but more elegant choice is a serving of potato pancakes, crisp ovals flavored with a bit of onion and lavished with both sour cream and applesauce. Stella’s does them well.

A perfunctory pan-fried trout is the sole seafood offering. Mixed chopped meats form the savory centers of the stuffed cabbage rolls, which arrive hidden under a sour cream-enriched tomato sauce. Shredded beef and sausage combine with a spicy sauerkraut base in the robust hunter’s stew.

Stella’s beef Stroganoff seemed more a stew than a saute and was far too reliant on paprika--it had little to do with the Russian-French dish that once was a mainstay of American restaurant cooking. On the other hand, heavy use of paprika was the whole point of a succulent beef paprikash, a creamy stew that, in the nicest of gestures, was served blanketed by a potato pancake. With the paprikash, a crisp, tangy salad of sauerkraut and shredded carrots served as an excellent counterpoint.

The service, although cheerful and polite, follows the homey theme a little too closely. Dishes arrive too rapidly and diners have no opportunity to relax.

Meals include a choice of homemade desserts. Both pistachio and chocolate cream pies were, as one guest summed up, “merely OK,” but a chocolate rum ball was wildly rich and likable, and the simplicity of the fried pastry “bow ties” was satisfying.