Day 0 - the night of my arrival
Vodka, a very friendly drink :-)
Schnitzels, pork and fish.
Russian bread.
Ukraian bread.
Day 1 - Kiev downtown, street food
Kvass.
Crepe with cheese filling
mushroom and onion
garlic, carrot, and other vegie
Day 1 - Kiev downtown, Uzbek food
We were on the way to Sergei's parents place for dinner. When we passed by this Uzbek restaurant, we just had to try something there.
The setting seems nomadic. Here is the hungry Sergei.
Cheburek (turkish fried meat turnover)
khachapuri (georgian cheese pie)
Uzbek Samsa. A variant of Samosa from India, except it is meaty.
The food was good. The young man was kind enough to let me take a picture with him.
Day 1 - Kiev, Sergei's parents' home
- chicken noodle soup
- meet balls
- various jams, black berry, sour berry, and one other (thinking..)
- Uzvar (dried fruits compote)
traditionally made of dried pears, prunes, apricots, apples, and raisins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzvar#Uzvar
The uzvar was very tasty. It was fruity, very mildly sweet. We also had red wine to drink, and Sergei's sister made tea.
Day 2 - Georgian bakery and soda shop
Right next to Ivan's Ukrainian Center of Folk Culture, there is this small shop of Georgia food and soda.
Sergei is setting our table over there.
The Georgian soda is called Lagidze water
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagidze_water
The shop makes soda after order is made. Since there are a lot of syrup, there are plenty of bees hovering around.
The food is quite similar to the Uzbek food we tried the day before, just as good. They are very meat / cheese centric food. I have a feeling I won't starve living in Georgia or Uzbek.
Day 2 - authentic Ukrainian food, drinks, and friendship
Day 2 - authentic Ukrainian food, drinks, and friendship
Pickled herring (there right in the middle of the table, next to the colorful salad).
Pickled herring is very good. And I don't understand why yet again many Ukrainian friends were surprised I ate it. I definitely think it is delicacy. So is vodka. :-)
This is IT. It can't get any more Ukrainian than this, not even vodka. Salo (pork fat) on a piece of Ukrainian rye bread. I think I impressed a lot of Ukrainians telling them I ate pork fat. It really wasn't bad at all. Got admit, with help from vodka, nothing is impossible.
We also tried 3 different brands of vodka and some beer. But don't I tasted beer on this day though.
Also somewhere there among other plates and bottles are, pickled Opyata mushrooms, Shashlyk , Julienne beef with mushrooms and bechamel sauce.
Friends, right to left, Boris, Sergei, Svieta, Lesh, Julia, Tanya, and Alexey.
Since I don't have a better pic of Shashlyk, I had to use this one from wikipedia. It was soo yummy.
Day 3 - Piroshki on the way
A restaurant of traditional Ukrainian food.
She kindly let me take a picture of her beautiful self, with the restaurant in the background, and food and flowers too. Can't really make this picture any better, I would say.
Four different kinds of piroshki, with different fillings. The one kind I like the most was cabbage. The mushroom one was also very good. Then I kind of forgot what the other 2 kinds were.
Day 3 - BBQ at Gulia's place
Beers, of course. Ukrainian.
BBQ'ed sausages, French bread
Dried fruits.
Water melon.
And a lot of good time.
Day 4 - Lviv, brunch
While Sergei is studying the menu, let me take a few pictures of this stylish restaurant.
Silverware in a shoe. I hope it hasn't been worn.
Two types of dumplings, one sour cherry and one cheese; blood sausages; and fried dumplings (already finished, sorry), and honey drinks, and much needed espresso.
Day 4 - Lviv, afternoon snack
No idea what time it was, but the sausages and beer was good. Of course the beer is good, it is Ukraine.
Day 4 - Lviv, dinner
Day 5 - Ternopil, best breakfast
This is the fun part. Beer at a convenient beer shop (which is hardly any more than a stand), with dried fish.
Scales off. Ready to eat.
The beer was great, but wouldn't be THAT great without this fish. My next trip to Ukraine, among many other things, I will do that again. What's good with Ukraine is, it ain't hard to find these stands.
Day 5 - Ternopil, lunch at a cafe
This is a good casual restaurant. Food seem affordable to locals. For me, it was another good experience. Food was good, as always.
Our lunch. Among others, beets (in the cup), very common Ukrainian food ingredient; and meat jelly. What is interesting is, last time I had meat jelly was 20+ years ago when my beloved. grandma was the chef of my house.
We also had some dumplings here, sour cherry, Sergei's favorite, and ... (thinking)
Need to train myself to be a better tourist.
Day 5 - Ternopil, dinner at Natalia's parents' farm
This is Natalia's parents' house on the farm, where we had dinner.
I never realized that I had never had REAL apples. Those from grocery stores or even farmer's market don't even compare these. The ripe apples actually are very juicy, so much that after a stomachful of tasty apples, I found my t-shirt was full of drips on the chest. I am not trying to advertise my table manner, but dripping juice from eating apples was something I never experienced.
And the taste of these apple was indescribable.
Among other dishes, Natalia's mom made delicious meatballs. They are more like this, but still somewhat different. I should have taken my camera out. Regret. My stomach was quicker than my mind.
And cabbage rolls. This is a picture taken from here.
Day 6 - Lunch at Sergei's parents' place
I have no pictures. I only remember Sergei's mom cooked delicious roasted chicken. It was probably nothing specially Ukrainian, but it was very good. And in general, chicken is my least favorite bird, when it comes food, that is.
Day 6 - afternoon snack at Sergei's university, National Technical University of Ukraine
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