Also this issue:

Curtain Up
La Viola's a pleasant refuge -- especially after the theater crowds thin out.
-Maxine Keyser

January 30-February 5, 2003

food

foodpick

Teresa's Buffet

by Elisa Ludwig

An unusual thing has come to pass in the shopping plazas of the world. Like buttercups between slabs of sidewalk, authentic international restaurants have emerged between Pizza Huts and party goods stores.

In the Northeast, off of Aramingo Avenue, and on a strip of like commerce centers, is one of these shopping plaza delights. Teresa's Buffet is the old-world answer to Old Country. An unassuming storefront gives way to a good-sized dining room, dominated by two huge buffet tables, a glass-hooded salad bar and a beverage area.

While Teresa's food advertises itself as Polish-American, the food of choice is on the left side of the hyphen. The salad bar looked good enough, but when all the glorious starches of Polish cuisine are at your fingertips and your dollar stretches only as far as your stomach, it seems silly to fill up on iceberg.

Even with self-imposed limitations, the options were endless. Soups include any of a rotating cast of chicken, mushroom, borscht, split pea, barley and a pungent cream-based dill pickle. Sturdy pierogies are filled with finely ground meat, cheese or potato. The potato pierogies are echoed one table over in tiny potato dumplings (called "little hooves") that are white and lustrous as pearls.

Another permutation of the tuber, the potato pancake, was golden-fried, perfectly crisp and better than any latke I sampled over the last Hanukkah season. A hardy kielbasa appears alone in quarter slices, and again with beans and bacon drippings. Hunter's stew, or bigos, is sauerkraut usually cooked with beef; the night I visited, the meat was chicken and a tad dry.

A favorite was the golabki, or stuffed cabbage. Its delicate leafy shell was filled to bursting with finely chopped mushrooms, beef, pork and rice and doused in a sweet tomato sauce. I also enjoyed the sweet and sour meatballs that were more sweet than sour -- a needed respite from the sauerkraut and pickle flavors. Chicken giblets stewed with tomatoes and browned chicken livers and sautéed onions were both well-prepared innards.

On the dessert side, crispy apple "pancakes" looked more like bulbous fritters, dusted with powdered sugar. There were buttery cookies, sweet cheese-filled blintzes and poppyseed cake. You can bring your own wine or beer, and the latter would be the recommended choice. Tip back your lager and contemplate a future where the shopping plaza itself becomes a giant international buffet.

Teresa's Buffet2401 E. Venango St., 215-535-3511

Lunch, $6.50; dinner, $8.50-$9.50

Tue.-Fri., 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., noon-9 p.m.

Wheelchair accessible. Smoking is not permitted. All major credit cards.