Buckwheat noodles (makaron gryczany): pasta review

Buckwheat noodles, uncooked.

I’ve been remiss about posting lately— dealing with tax forms in Polish will do that!— and to relax, I’ve fallen on two good standbys: grocery shopping and trying a new kind of pasta.

Buckwheat, a grain that gets quite fluffy when cooked, is a lot more popular in Poland than in the U.S. I’ve been trying to choose it over rice or potatoes when I go out to eat. And despite its name, buckwheat isn’t related to wheat at all. Ah, English…

I found these noodles at a small basement grocery store near the train station, Wrocław, by the tram tracks. Usually when I think of buckwheat noodles, I think of soba noodles. However, these weren’t the long, thin noodles of Japanese cooking, but spirals.

I just love the color— they stay brown after they’re cooked, and contrast nicely with whatever veggies you pair them with. They have the best parts of the earthy, slightly nutty flavor of buckwheat without the tinny aftertaste that buckwheat sometimes has.

Cooked buckwheat spirals with the package.