Many Kyiv restaurants have prepared a special fasting menu as Orthodox Lent, or the Great Fast, started on Feb. 23.
Those who are fasting have to avoid fish, meat and dairy products for until the Orthodox Easter on April 12. But it would be wrong to say that the Lenten fast is only about food choices.
Bishop Yevstratiy Zorya, a spokesperson of the Ukrainian Kyiv Parish Orthodox Church, says charity and expiation of sins are the most important things during the Lent.
“Everyone ought to pray more, do more good deeds and try to get rid of vices. Food is not as important as the spiritual side of fasting,” he said.
Mariya Lebedeva, a PR manager of Kyiv gourmet restaurant Under Wonder, one of the many venues that have introduced special menu for the time of the Lent, says some people have prejudices that Lenten meals lack flavor and nutriments.
“But that’s not true. Our visitors enjoy savory melas made of nuts, vegetables, and greens,” she says.
Even those with a sweet tooth won’t suffer during the Lent. Kyiv confectionery Volkonskiy offers a wide range of jams, marmalades, and fruit-paste candies. The fruit jelly for Hr 630 per kilo and candied fruits for Hr 850 per kilo are most popular with the cafe’s clientele. Another popular choice is dried apricots with almonds.
A big advantage of the fasting dishes is that they are mostly cheaper than the regular meat or fish courses. The most popular fasting meals in Under Wonder are the green peas cream soup (Hr 78), polenta with porcini and truffle paste (Hr 84) and cherry ravioli (Hr 80), according to Lebedeva.
Still not in all restaurants fasting dishes are on demand. Kyiv premium Concord restaurant has a special Lent menu yet its guests prefer mostly meat courses and don’t show much interest in the fasting meals.
Lebedeva of Under Wonder believes that fasting meals are delicious and good for body. Yet nutritionists are skeptical about fasting effect on health.
“In terms of medicine fasting does not improve health. Yet it might, if a person believes in it. This is a placebo effect,” says Vladyslav Slastin, deputy director of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Nutrition think tank.
He warns that those who plan to fast have to enter the fasting diet gradually. Otherwise they might harm the digestive system.
“The transition from meat and dairy to vegetarian courses and vice versa should last from two to four weeks,” Slastin says.
Yaroslav Artyukh, the chef of Kanapa Ukrainian cuisine restaurant, says that during Lent demand for vegetarian dishes increases significantly.
“Nowadays nearly 30 percent of our guests order only fasting courses,” he said, adding that a chestnut soup (Hr 98), a grilled cauliflower steak with grape sauce (Hr 89) and a mashed baked apple with chocolate, nuts and rhubarb marmalade (Hr 79) are the hits of Kanapa’s menu.
Restaurateurs say that fasting meals are popular all year round despite season or Orthodox calendar “as a light and tasty supplement for the meat courses,” in Artyukh’s words.
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected]
