Toronto Ukrainian Festival

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