Food in Ukraine

Food in Ukraine

I have only been in 3 different regions of Ukraine but I have seen some similar trends with the food and what you can plan on for meals. Here is my take on what we have experienced.

Fruits and Vegetable group.

We are here in May and June. There are little outdoor markets in most areas where you can buy fresh carrots, potatoes, cucumbers, beets, onions, radishes, apples, and other things that are in season. They are fresh and taste like they are right from the garden. They still have dirt on them (even in the grocery store) but Ukrainian dirt is one of it's greatest assets.

The apples however are not good. They look like the ones that are thrown out in the US because no one willl buy the bruised, wormy ones. If you find one that looks good, I hope it tastes better than the one I had. It tasted like a wet paper towel. Flavored toilet paper would have been better than that apple.

Don't expect a good variety of produce in the stores. If they had to ship it in, it is not usually very well preserved. I reluctanty bought some celery because I needed something for chicken salad and it was so pale and sickly looking with mildew on the ends. I cut off most of the celery and prayed that it would be OK to eat. Even in the good stores there is not a head of cauliflower that does not have black spots. It feels like you are buying reject food. " When it won't sell in the rest of Europe, import it to Ukraine." You will be safe with the open market vegetables but beware of the open market meat (that sit in the hot sun all day) and the milk (often sold in used plastic soda pop bottles.)

Meats

The eggs are sold in cartons and individually. They are not usually refridgerated and when you crack them they are more orange than we are used to and seem runnier. We have not died from eating them yet.

There is plenty of fish for sale. Sonya told me that the picture I am posting gives her the creeps. You can buy all kinds of fish but we were warned not to eat them due to the unclean water in rivers here. I have not seen tuna in a can.

The national meat has to be chicken. There is all kinds of chicken available but I did not see any beef for sale until we had been here for a month. There is a little pork but most of it is made into the many varieties of sausage that is everywhere. Not italian sausage or the kind we cook for breakfast at home but hard coated big log looking sausage with plenty of white spots (fat) in it. The kids like all these processed meats (hot dogs etc ) and so if you are fan of nitrites, you will have a great time in Ukraine. I have had a hard time finding ham and certainly not shaved ham or turkey or anything much that is sliced, grated or prepared to make life easier. You see people with a sausage log and loaf of bread and some cheese for a picnic.

Breads

There is good bread here and some jam and Nutella but peanut butter is rare. The honey is grainy and sugary and there are not many loafs of light white bread like wonder bread and not many multigrain varieties. The friends we visited here sent home a large bottle of honey and so you are welcome to come over and have a bite. It is good!

You can fnd rice, pasta, and oatmeal here but you had better bring your own spices. I cannot find brown sugar, spaghetti or italian seasoning, even oregano is obsolete here. They have a seasoning for shish-k-bobs and some kind of pepper dish that I mixed and tried to make spaghetti. It tastes like sloppy joes. I thnik that a spice rack would be an awesome gift for someone here. They are really missing out on the flavors of the world. This is definately not a society of variety like the United States.

Dairy

This is the group that many people seem to favor over our foods at home. People love the yogurt which is mostly served in bags and is a drink more than a custard. The sour cream is good, the cheese is good and the ice cream is so good. I have been here long enough to be sick of it but it was a hit for the first month. Don't look for a carton or a bucket of ice cream, it is sold in a tube or in individual novelties. They really like the cake cones like we have at home with icecream in it barely to the top and frozen like that and sold in it's soggy condition. I prefer the sugar cones but there is a great variety of ice cream (mor o sma) available to keep you going here.

Treats

Don't waste your time on the cakes and pastries. They are repeatedly disappointing especially when they are SOOOO good in Italy and other places in Europe. These are not the same and I promise you will be wishing that you hadn't wasted the money and calories.

The Chocolate (especially the brand Roshen) IS really good. It is creamy and compares to the chocolates of Switzerland and Austria. Dave took some home and I am exporting hot chocolate in my suitcase. It is really good and the creaminess makes it better than what I use at home I would invite everyone over for chocolate but I don't expect it to last long.

The main candy bars here are Snickers, milky way , mars, twix and one called bounty that is a milk chocolate version of mounds. There are chocolate M&Ms and some made with acorns that are Nasty. I can pass up all the cookies from here and crackers are rarely what you are used to. There are some chips like Lays potato chips but if you need tortilla chips or fritos or Sun chips or Doritos forget about it.

One thing that surprised us is the delicious looking desserts that are sold in resturants in tall glasses. They are jello and whipped cream, nicely decorated treats that are also disappointing. The first day we got one and they said it was plum. Turns out it is prunes in stiff whipped toppin g that is not as good as it looks. They also put prunes in some of the mayo salads and so if you taste something sweet and it is dark brown, don't worry, they are keeping things moving right along for you.

Processed foods.

The isles and isles that are usually found in the center of our grocery stores at home are filled with alcohol in Ukraine. I will give a prize to anyone who can find me a cake mix, brownie mix, cream of mushroom soup or corn syrup. There are pickles and ramen noodles but if you are into hamburger helper and koolaid you had better make room in your suitcase. If you like tuna bring your own. There is plenty of mayonaisse here. It is in all kinds of salads and put on many things that I would never have thought of at home. One thing that I really like here is the green fanta. It is like a cross between sprite and squirt. Tonight at dinner I got some ice cream that had strawberry syrup on it. I got kind of sick of it and so I poured little of my lemon lime fanta into the ice cream to make an old fashioned soda. The boys we are adopting thought it was the grossest thing. I wanted to say "what are you talking about. You eat ketchup in chicken soup and bread with chicken seasoning AND nutella on it and prunes and stiff cream, and you think this is gross." HA!

Condiments

You can find plenty of mayonaise with varying fat content listed on the front and also ketchup. I have not seen relish or mustard and so you may want to go to Subway and beg for some mustard packets before you come to Ukraine. Most things are sold in bags similar to the ones we buy craisons or some trail mixes in in the US. Even the milk is in these bags and they line up nicely in the door of the fridge.

Out to Eat

There are Ukrainian resturants that are quite good. Most serve borsct and a couple other kinds of soup like dill pickle soup (a sour meat soup) and green borcht. Most soups are served with sour cream which makes the soup cloudy and almost a cream soup. There are pizza resturants and most of the toppings might surprise you. We saw mostly the following: Salami, chicken, mushrooms,and corn.

The resturants that are sit down resturants are safer than the little stands in the train stations and in the subways. If you are in Kiev or a big city you can find a McDonalds and TGIfridays. I have been wanting a steak for a few weeks now. I did order one at a local cafe but it turned out to be pork wrapped in bacon.

There are plenty of things for sale that look tasty but be prepared for them to be filled with something. The breads are filled with cabbage, potatoes and meat and sometimes a fruit filling The pasta like foods are all filled with a variety of things. Even the cookies are filled with something. It probably makes it more fun to live here when you find a little surprise in your dinner. I wouldn't be entirely surprised to buy a cucumber and find it filled with something when I cut it open. I am a little worried when we get the boys home and have Sunday dinner and there isn't something hiding inside of the rolls for them that they will be disappointed. I can hear them thinking "oh shucks,there's nothing in it."

I am proud of the way that Ukrainians eat because their diet is actually healthier than the average American diet (if you don't count the vodka.) They use fresh ingredients and to great effort to cook a meal. The home we visited last night didn't have running water. They had a couple of buckets in the kitchen that they would dip water out of to wash the dishes etc. My new son, Oleg, wanted a drink and so he took a cup and walked up and dipped himself some water from the bucket. Maybe I wil just put a bucket of water in his bedroom so he can get his own drink whenever he wants :) It may save on the "I vant vater" requests JK .....kind of.