Last weekend, I went to the Toronto Ukrainian
Festival, the largest Ukrainian festival in North America. It was a great time
that I spent speaking in Ukrainian, watching some interesting art crafts, listening
to Ukrainian music and tasting Ukrainian food.
Ukrainian food, although very similar to the
food that we can find in Eastern Europe in general, it has its particular
taste.
The most
popular Ukrainian dish in Canada is the “Pierogi”. This dish is known
as “Vareniky” (вареники) in
Ukraine. These are the famous Ukrainian dumplings, usually filled with cheese,
potato, cabbage and/ or pumpkin. Other fillings can be used, like meat or
fruits. If not eaten when they are fresh, they can be fried. It is usually accompanied
with onions, cabbage or Smetana (sour cream). Vareniky is considered the
Ukrainian National dish.
Varenyky (Вареники) with a Sausage (Ковбаса)
Another typical dish is what we know as “Cabbage
Rolls”, in Ukrainian they are known as “Holubtsi” [ Ukr: “Голубці”,
Russian: “Голубцы”,
Polish: “Gołąbki”, Bulgarian: “Сарми”, Yiddish: “Holishkes” ]. In Ukraine,
they are filled with Buckwheat grains, mixed with fried onions and Meat or
Pork, but outside Ukraine its filling usually has rice. They are stewed in tomato
sauce.
Cabbage Rolls (Голубці) and Deruny (Деруни)
Potato
pancakes are also common. They are made with Potatoes, flour and eggs. They are
fried and eat with Sour cream. In Ukraine they are known as “Deruny” [
Ukr: “Деруни”, Polish: “Placki”, Yiddish: “Latkes” ].
Another
dish I had the opportunity to taste is “Patychky” (Патички), this
is the Ukrainian meat on a stick. This is usually prepared with marinated veal
or pork. They can be fried covered with bread crumbs and eggs.
Cabbage Rolls with Patychky
