www.kyivpost.com: Food http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/ Food Food Critic: Help me, I’m your customer http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/120863/ Food Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:46:11 +0200
While the city’s offerings have improved greatly since the first time I was in Kyiv 16 years ago, service is still stuck in the slow lane in too many places.]]>
Greet me when I come in: Too busy? Smile and wave. Give me some acknowledgement that you know I’m here. What, you say, you’re not a waiter or waitress, but have some other job in the place? Tell a waitress that a customer has arrived. No matter how crowded, I give a place two minutes maximum to at least acknowledge my presence before I walk out; it should take only two seconds. If you’re not noticed right away, this is a place that doesn’t want your business.

Ask me if I want to order something right away: I’m here because I’m hungry or thirsty or both and, chances are, it’s not my first time here so I might already know what I want. Ask please.

Menu for everyone and leave it, please: I have never understood where this menu-deficit mentality came from. Is it a Soviet holdover? One menu is not enough for two diners – one for each person at the table, please. And don’t be so quick to snatch it away from me; ask me first. Let me get to know it, caress it, memorize it. Maybe I’ll want something else or dessert later on, or maybe I just want to know the offerings better for a future visit. You’ll make more money! If I wanted to take it home with me, what does it matter to you? Granted, owners may be behind this stinginess and, if so, it’s a very short-sighted strategy.

Give me some advice: Be ready to recommend something. C’mon, you work here, eat here and probably know the kitchen chefs. I appreciate it when a waitress says: “This dish is really good today.” Or: “This is what I order when I eat here.”

Don’t serve this slop: The one thing I miss about American restaurants is the customary practice of the waitress coming back to a table she served a few minutes earlier and asking: “Is everything all right with your food?” This has never happened to me here – after hundreds and possibly thousands of restaurant meals. And when something is wrong, rarely are there apologies. If I’ve ordered something and not eaten it, ask what’s wrong, don’t just take it away and give me the check. Yes, in America I would send it back or complain right away. Here, I’ve done it as a foreigner, but I’m a lot less likely to go through the hassle.

Loitering and laughing: Some things stick with you for life. When my co-workers and I would stand around talking and having fun at my first job in a restaurant at age 16, the boss would say: “Break it up, if lightning strikes, you’ll all be hit.” A very lame joke, but it’s annoying when a gaggle of wait staff have nothing better to do than stand around talking and laughing. O.K., you enjoy each other’s company, but do it after work. I need another drink or the check please. Pay attention!



This famous photo protesting bad service appears to have been taken in a classic American diner, but inattentive or rude waiters and waitresses still dominate the restaurant scene in Kyiv, unfortunately. (Courtesy)

Disappearing act I:O.K., you’ve taken the order and 20 or 30 minutes have passed and … no food, no explanation. You should warn customers ahead of time if the wait will be long. This is inexcusable.

Disappearing act II:O.K., done with the meal. Where are you? Why must I hunt you down to get the check? Why does it take so long to bring it here?

Disappearing act III:O.K., here’s my money, bring back the change. Where did you go? What is taking you so long? I once waited 15 minutes for a waiter to bring the change before I decided to track him down.
Turns out, he had decided to go to the kitchen, chat with his colleagues … and bring out other orders first before settling my bill. I told him I was on my lunch break and in a hurry to get back to work. His indignant and snotty reply: “Hey, I’m working too.” No apology, no contrition, nothing – and no tip either.

Don’t argue with me: My Russian is a tragicomedy, especially when I’m angry, so I often don’t take my complaints to the manager or boss or owner, which is common practice in America if subordinates give you trouble. But the waiter in the “Don’t Disappear III” story above cost his boss my business and doesn’t even know it. I’ve never been back there, nor will I go back for a long time, even though it’s a trendy place close to home. He’s probably adopted this attitude with other customers. “The customer is always right” doesn’t translate well here yet, sadly.

Bathrooms and cleanliness: There is a connection. If I’m in your restrooms and they’re dirty and there’s no soap and no hand towels, I’m already wondering about the sanitary practices of your cooks and wait staff.

Making change: This applies to many types of businesses. But it seems to me if you are in business that involves cash transactions, you should start the day well-supplied with small bills and change. I once made a small purchase – a couple of Hr 4 pirozhkis for breakfast – with Hr 200 note. The place had no change. It took 15 minutes for enough customers to give them the money they needed to make change for my purchase. Never, never again.

Don’t ask for kopecks: The simplest money transactions take the longest time here for some strange reason. Please don’t ask me for kopecks – I never keep them and I never take them for change. I know it doesn’t seem frugal as a penny saved is a penny earned. But let’s face it. You can’t buy much with kopecks anyway – even with a pocketful.

Moral of the story: O.K., I know I should be less Type A American – many of us are too easily irritated and complain about the littlest things in life. Nobody died here. I should be more Type B Ukrainian when I go out. It’s still a treat, after all, to be waited on and have someone else cook for you and wash the dishes.

A few close Ukrainian friends who I dine with frequently and who know my antics have taken to warning me ahead of meals: “Now, don’t yell at this waitress, no matter what she does.” And much of the blame for bad service belongs to the owner for tolerating it. Frequently, the best restaurants in America are the ones where the owner is always there, making sure everything is working properly.

I also know waitresses and they work hard for little money – making as little as $300 a month, with tips, for four 12-hour shifts a week. It would make me tired and grouchy as well, but they shouldn’t take it out on their customers.

Most of this advice amounts to simply good business practices and common sense. I really don’t think I’m asking for too much here.

Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner can be reached at bonner@kyivpost.com]]> Food Critic: Nikolai’s Pie House knows its dough http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/117579/ Food Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:06:46 +0200
Coming in for lunch at 1:30 p.m. one day, we learned that pies are snatched off the shelves by hungry customers as soon as they arrive from the bakery.

There were only two sour and two sweet pies left before the 2 p.m. truck was scheduled to bring in the fresh load of 19 different types.

We could not wait and ordered everything they had left along with Nikolai’s homemade cranberry juice.

It was an overwhelming experience, especially with the dough. Just like your grandma didn’t favor the treacherously thin flaky pastry, nor do Nikolai chefs, rolling mealy pie crusts instead.

Thicker than Danish pastry, they don’t absorb moisture as much, prevent soggy bottoms and let each part of the pie shine with its own unique flavor.

I ordered a piece from a meat and vegetable pie, dug out the filling (I don’t eat minced meat) and savored the dough instead. I loved the vegetarian and fish options though.

Since then, we have tried pies with chicken and mushroom, brynza (feta cheese), tomatoes and red peppers, spinach and feta – all in the range of Hr 14 – 30 a slice or Hr 120 – 200 per kilo.

Newcomers, be careful, these are not your regular British meat patties, Italian calzone or Georgian chebureki. Nikolai’s pies represent a distinctly Slavic recipe of pastry cooking that many babushkas still keep alive.

Who is Nikolai by the way? He was a musician born in Moscow in 1930, according to the company’s website, who played bass in Yuriy Silantyev Symphonic Orchestra for more than 50 years.

He traveled the world with his bass and loved hearty Russian meals coming back home. It looks like his family has opened the chain of pie houses in Nikolai Peregudov’s, the People’s Artist of Russia, memory.

This sweet story goes well with apple and cinnamon, raspberry, cherry, pumpkin and lemon pies all for Hr 144 per kilo. If you don’t want to go out, you can order these pies online.

Next time we are celebrating a birthday party in the office or a new contract, we’ll make a break from sushi and pizza and go for pies.

On that first afternoon at Nikolai we paid Hr 110 for four slices of pies and two glasses of juice, which is considered pricey for a business lunch in Kyiv, but the pies were well worth it. If your friend or a partner is not into mealy dough, treat them with exquisite salads and homemade cutlets.

Fresh pie delivery at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. daily.

Nikolai's bar buffet
The corner of 26 Horkogo St. and 26 Saksahanskogo St.
tel. 353-9996
http://bar-bufet.ru


Antonina Radzihovska is a marketing director at Mark Tapley Ltd., a consultancy in Kyiv. A culinary devotee, Radzihovska blogs about fine dining and cooking at www.edok.in.ua.]]> Food Critic: Sensational Latin cuisine and late night dancing in Buena Vista http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/116716/ Food Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:46:25 +0200
Restaurant Buena Vista, however, is not just about Cuba, although its menu with Cuban rice and Cuban veal, among other things, may trick you into thinking about Castro’s land.

Luckily, the eatery also stands for all other positive cliches associated with Spanish fiesta and Latin salsa.

Opened half a year ago or so, Buena Vista took over the premises of what had been Etno Tapas Bar, which never really lived up to its name.

To rebrand, the new owners positioned a black piano in front of a large glass pane, introduced salsa nights and cooked up a cozy little menu to woo patrons.

If you order stuffed squid (Hr 78), you will know why it didn’t take them long to find a loyal following.

Ham and cheese make home in a large well-cooked squid in tomato sauce sided by Cuban black bean rice with slices of bacon.

Cuban rice (Hr 53) is another winner in the mains section. It’s a full meal with chicken, bacon, eggs, green peas, chick peas and a shrimp on top.

With a very short menu and its very distinct items, it’s nearly impossible to go wrong. Picadillo a la Cubana, a traditional Cuban dish, is a feast of ground veal, potatoes, onions, garlic, Bulgarian pepper and olives on the side for Hr 57.

I could swear I tasted chick peas – a rare ingredient in Kyiv – but the description of Picadillo did not mention them.

All of this can be enjoyed either upstairs – in a five-table snug lounge with a bar – or downstairs, a spacious dark-wood, pub-like room.

Live music heats up the floor every Wednesday through Sunday. Happy-looking couples and singles flood every inch of the space.

Sadly, heavy smoking may prevent some from joining the dancing crowds. The smog quickly rises into the upstairs lounge (also smoking).

Opening doors to let the fresh air in doesn’t help, so prepare your coat for the dry cleaner’s as soon as you leave the premises.

To help you sacrifice both your coat and the lungs, Cuba Libre, Mojito and other sensational drinks are on offer.

I wouldn’t recommend trying the wines as their tastes don’t seem to match what’s offered on the menu.

Sauvignon blanc once arrived tasting suspiciously sweet; other wines on the list didn’t live up to expectations either.

Desserts are a chapter for you to fill in, because only pancakes with jam and fruit were available until recently, which I never felt compelled to try.

Buena Vista’s Facebook profile tells me now that Lemon Curd tart (Hr 32), looking every bit fabulous, has been added to the menu. Another solution for a sugar craving would be milk, chocolate and coconut flans (Hr 29).

Don’t forget to bring cash to pay for the meals, as they don’t take credit cards.

And prepare for a long wait for service on a Friday night, because it seems like the whole city wants to squeeze in for that elusive feeling of fiesta and sexy salsa rhythms.

Buena Vista

8/14 Velyka Zhytomyrska St.
Tel. 279-5127
www.facebook.com/buenavista.kyiv

Kyiv Post lifestyle editor Yuliya Popova can be reached at popova@kyivpost.com]]> Food Critic: Tasty Soviet nostalgia at Spotykach restaurant http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/115175/ Food Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:21:34 +0300
The name of the eatery comes from homemade wine liquor – spotykach, which tastes like a light version of moonshine with a tinge of sweetness to it. Every visitor is welcomed to knock down a shot at the doorway along with a small salo sandwich, traditional Ukrainian pork fat believed to match strong alcohol.

After this hearty welcome, our party of five proceeded inside, now to indulge in the 1960s interior. Fancy glassware, red carpets on the walls and the floors, massive wooden furniture and an old-fashioned gramophone left an impression of a wealthy party leader’s apartment. Some of these items were apparently brought here by clients who did not know what to do with these Soviet leftovers.

My three-year-old niece loved the collection of telephones, some of which had buttons with letters instead of numbers. To a child of the digital age it was practically impossible to explain how they were used.
It was much easier, of course, to win her over with Soviet food than technology. Most of the dishes offered that evening were based on “The Book About Tasty and Healthy Food,” the 1939 cooking bible, which every household had to have.

I must admit the food tasted very differently from what I was served in canteens, cafes and restaurants in my Soviet childhood. Back then it was awful, but in Spotykach it was delicious.
I would particularly recommend Pozharskaya cutlet (Hr 78) – finely minced tender chicken, fried in butter and coated with crunchy bread crumbs.

The name apparently comes from the Pozharsky family who owned an inn back in czarist times. Legend says that one Russian czar once spent a night at the inn and ordered veal for breakfast. The innkeepers were in despair as they didn’t have this type of meat, but were afraid to disobey.

So, they risked by serving a chicken cutlet masking it in bread crumbs, which the czar apparently loved. The cooks then decided to reveal that it wasn’t veal, but the royal guest didn’t seem to mind. The story goes that he rewarded them for their honesty by adding this cutlet to his family menu.

Inspired by history, we opted for another chicken masterpiece – Chicken Kiev (Hr 89), which left a soothing impression with a tender fillet soaked in butter.

My little niece ordered a large plate of meat dumplings (Hr 79), which she finished, so I bet it was also good. Mushrooms in a sour cream sauce for a starter were perhaps the only savory disappointment of the night. It left a greasy and acidy aftertaste.

Unwilling to stay nostalgic all night long, I opted for a rocket salad with salmon (Hr 114), which was delightful. Grilled tiger shrimps (Hr 138) also looked enticing in the modern part of the menu, but I already whetted my appetite with chicken cutlets.


Quite pleased by the mains, we were disappointed by desserts. Half of the items on the menu were unavailable – another Soviet hiccup from 20 years ago.

But the service was good as opposed to what it was like in the Soviet eateries – infamous for rudeness and arrogance.

Spotykatch fit well with my stepfather’s (who is an American) idea of Soviet cuisine. It reminded him of the ‘70s when he visited a number of restaurants designed mainly for foreigners in Moscow. They were pretty good, he said; designed for propaganda purposes, those restaurants had extensive menus and delicious food.

His only problem, which still rings true for us today, was with the waiters – polite, but not particularly friendly and social, as an American would expect them to be.

Those thoughts, however, were quickly drowned by a live music concert. From 8 p.m. on Thursdays through Saturdays, two bands play double bass, accordion, guitar and violin and sing Russian and Ukrainian folk songs, as well as Soviet-era hits.


Spotykach restaurant
16 Vladimirskaya St.
Tel. 586-4095
http://www.2k.ua/restaurants/catalog/spotykach/

Kyiv Post staff writer Kateryna Panova can be reached at panova@kyivpost.com.
]]> Food Critic: Fun Dragee lures young, unpretentious clients with Italian menu, amazing music http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/114304/ Food Fri, 07 Oct 2011 01:50:32 +0300
It’s very easy to find. Only a short walk away from the Golden Gate, Dragee attracts its unpretentious clientele with a simple European-style menu attached to a key ring and a drawing of a big woman eating spaghetti on the yellow-painted kitchen wall.

You can sit either at the outside patio or inside the capsule-shaped restaurant. If you manage to catch a few more sunny days this autumn, grab a wicker chair and go for a tangy gazpacho with gorgonzola cheese (Hr 45) and tuna tar-tar with sun-drenched tomatoes (Hr 70).

The main course, escolar (Hr 65), also known as a snake mackerel, is good whatever the weather.

Grilled ever so slightly on a bed of green beans, it leaves a fresh lemon aftertaste despite its fame of being an oily fish. The serving is large enough to skip the garnish but you may as well try couscous with grilled zucchinis, tomatoes and egg-plant (Hr 39).

I wouldn’t mark the restaurant with a Michelin star for the food, but it’s been consistently pleasant each time I visited. Pasta, sandwiches, meatballs and fish – this food joint is versatile enough to make a Ukrainian happy.

After hundreds of unremarkable meals in Kyiv, I learned to lower my standards and was back at Dragee the next morning.


For breakfasts, one can choose between a large omelet with a variety of fillings and Ukrainian traditional syrniki, Ukrainian cottage cheese cakes. I once gladly parted with fried eggs, abandoning the portion half way.

The yolks were dry and crisp as the weather that day but the cappuccino with a snow-white thick froth was perfect enough to forget about the eggs.

After hundreds of unremarkable meals in Kyiv, I learned to lower my standards and was back at Dragee the next morning for delicious syrniki with jam and sour cream (Hr 35).

Service is a variable in Dragee’s formula of success. There is one waitress who can serve 10 tables at the same time with a winning smile and positive attitude, and another one whose sole mission is to stand still and watch her busy colleague do all the work.

But despite these shortcomings, which are viral in Kyiv restaurants anyways, I love Dragee.

Located in the park, just off the road along Artema Street, the restaurant serves as a perfect watch station. There are two dogs living underneath the tree in the center of this little green patch. I once made a mistake of attracting their attention with leftovers of my food.


Capsule-shaped Dragee has a cool bar that changes colors when the lights fall. (Courtesy)


They got overly excited and I got a little scared. Next time, I will just leave food for them in the bushes nearby.

If not dogs, then a couple of homeless people will pick it up. They also like the red-painted benches next to the restaurant and sometimes sit or sleep there listening to Dragee’s lovely music selection, which is pretty amazing.

One morning, I was greeted by cheerful Mozart and Beethoven sonatas. And another evening, it was inspiring French tunes from Zaz.

What worries people the most about Dragee whenever I recommend it is its proximity to the road. It was never a problem in summer when the tree tops and bushes worked as an insulator.

It’s not an obstacle now when you most likely will opt for a table inside the glass-walled restaurant.

All in all, Dragee is like that sweet candy it is called after – you want to snack on it again and again.

Dragee Restaurant

Lvivska Square
Tel. 093-603-2445
www.dragee.com.ua

Kyiv Post lifestyle editor Yuliya Popova can be reached at popova@kyivpost.com]]> Food Critic: Vietnamese Imperatur gets a pass http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/112475/ Food Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:08:13 +0300
But on the recommendation of a high-profile Vietnamese diplomat, I dined at the Imperatur Vietnamese Restaurant and took these doubting Thomases with me.

What you first realize about Imperatur is that it fails the realtor’s “location, location, location” test. It sits deep in Kyiv’s southern bowels, nestled between two cemeteries.

You need strong motivation for Vietnamese food to go and an even better sense of direction; even the taxi driver lost his way and we only arrived after much backtracking and map reading.

First impressions are, however, immediately endearing. A granite lion by the door confirms you’re set for a night without varenyky and borsch.

The restaurant interior is predictably red and crammed with elephants, dancing deities and reclining Buddhas.

An unobtrusive mural of Vietnam’s famously picturesque Ha Long Bay, nondescript ambient music and Ukrainian reality television accompanied us throughout the meal.
The restaurant interior is predictably red and crammed with elephants, dancing deities and reclining Buddhas.

No visit to a Vietnamese restaurant is complete without testing the Land of the Blue Dragon’s more famous dishes.

I ordered nems, fried rice noodle paper rolls, and beef pho, Vietnam’s famous noodle soup. The pho was delicious, screaming fresh lemongrass and coriander.

The nems, while solid, lacked the traditional accoutrements of basil and lettuce in which to wrap them.

Six of the oily things become quickly overwhelming. One friend ordered sweet and sour chicken, which was tasty without being particularly flavorsome.

I also had deep-fried prawns followed by deep fried banana for dessert; both good but both oily.

Everything was correct but nothing apart from the pho stood out. We paid slightly less than Hr 500.

Given its location, this restaurant needs more to attract the crowds. As one of my friends said as he contemplated the long journey back to the city center, “it’s good but it’s not that good.”

We were the only customers for the whole evening (to be fair it was Tuesday), which didn’t reassure my companions.

It did, however, give the friendly Vietnamese owner-cum-chef the time to chat with us.

Despite his bonhomie, no sooner had we exited the front door than the porch lights were switched off and we and the granite lion were plunged into darkness.

12 Andriya Golovko St.
tel. 502-3146, 502-3147
www.imperator.kiev.ua]]> Food Critic: Pagan recipes alive in Kult Ra on St. Andrew’s ancient descent http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/109636/ Food Thu, 28 Jul 2011 22:31:06 +0300
Keeping true to its name, Kult Ra focuses on Ukrainian food, but not of the generic kind. A cabbage and mushroom varenyk (dumpling) is an experience, while a mushroom dish conjures up the feel of smoky Carpathian Mountains and a more distant era when nature was celebrated for its bountiful gifts.

For this review, I was accompanied by family that had traveled to Ukraine from Canada. My cousin in particular is a fierce culinary critic. Several nights before, we had dined at a Polish restaurant in Krakow and she had given the waitress a gentle earful for serving frozen pyrogies, rather than freshly made.

First looking at Kult Ra’s uniquely-designed menu – it is adorned by pagan symbols and script reminiscent of Kyivan Rus – I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Personally, I have never been a fan of Ukrainian food in Ukrainian restaurants; few have been able to live up to the tasteful standards of the many women from my childhood who labored for hours making varenyky and holubtsi for church functions in my hometown of Denver, Colorado.

Yet the name of the dishes beckoned: Black Sea Salad, Ruskiy Borscht, Ragu from Summer Vegetables. After savoring the menu for many minutes, my cousin chose a mlynets (pancake) with chicken and mushrooms (Hr 26.50) and another with mushrooms and cabbage (Hr 21.50).

My aunt had varenyky with cabbage and mushrooms (Hr 57), while my mother decided on a mlynets with berries (Hr 43). I ordered a Carpathian mushroom soup with noodles (Hr 47), fried mushrooms (Hr 67) and beef in herbs (Hr 95).

Because there was so much food – the portions were generous – we shared our dishes. Simply put, all were delicious. I particularly liked the berry mlynets. Served with a berry sauce, it was not too heavy and just as easily could have been a desert.

The mushroom soup was truly one of the best I have had in Ukraine. The fried mushroom dish was a medley of porcini, champions, oyster and chanterelles with a smokey taste. It was that dish that reminded me of the woody Carpathians.

As for the beef in herbs, let’s put it this way: With this particular dish, Sam’s Steakhouse now has a true competitor. And I don’t say that lightly since, for years, Sam’s has been a favorite place for beef.

Our meal was washed down with water (Hr 20), which the restaurant brings in from the village of Staike, Kyiv Oblast. It is unique in taste, and while it is not a water I would drink every day, it enhanced the taste of the dishes.

While it is admirable that Kult Ra is trying to remain true to the Ukrainianess of its dishes and menu, there is one suggestion I would make: Add to the wine list.

The restaurant offers two exceptionally good beers, Mukolynets (Hr 20) and Tern (Hr 30), but its wines leave something to be desired.

The menu is heavy in Massandra products, which, with the exception of its desert wines, are not good.

I went to Kult Ra with long-time friends the day after my first visit – the beef dish was even better and the cherry varenyky (Hr 57) were awesome – but the Massandra Aligote (Hr 180) was a disappointment.

Ukraine just can’t compete with Italy, France, Chile or even Georgia when it comes to wine.

Give customers a wider variety because a bad wine can spoil a really great meal.

A word must be said about the presentation of dishes and interior. The culture of the pagan Trypillian civilization that inhabited Ukraine some 7,000 years ago is making a comeback, and Kult Ra has certainly understood that.

The restaurant offers some of the most interesting tableware I have ever seen in Ukraine. Dishes are presented on tableware featuring Trypillian designs, as well as mugs and bowls that mimic the culture’s traditional shapes.

The interior is adorned by the pagan god, Dazhboh, as well as pagan goddesses, which were painted by hand.

Kult Ra also has a book store, tableware, jewelry, organic products and other knickknacks. All of these components come together organically, creating an environment where one can spend hours with the hopes of returning again.

Kult RA
Volodymyrs’ka 4
tel. 044 331 59 48
Open 10 a.m. - 11 p.m.
www.kultra.org

Metro station:
Zoloti Vorota
Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/109636/#ixzz1VkiaYGYl

Staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at feduschak@kyivpost.com.]]> Food Critic: Discovering restaurant Prague after two decades in oblivion http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/107350/ Food Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:49:47 +0300
I was five or six at the time and most restaurants were hard to get in to, but Prague – sitting in a luscious green park in the southern end of the capital – was an exception.

The place is housed in a two-story white building with pompous columns strangely reminiscent of colonial style houses.

It survived the Soviet decay just like the large exhibition center next door built to show off the achievements of socialist economy.

Getting a table back then didn’t involve waiting for hours in line or bribing a doorman.

All this had turned Prague into the number one neighborhood restaurant for local residents.

It may sound impossible, but I do recall looking on a beetroot salad as a starter in the menu.

Being the cheapest dish, it cost less than one Soviet ruble (between a quarter to one U.S. dollar, depending on whether an official or a black market exchange rate was used).


Two people watch swans gliding on the Prague’s lake. (Alexey Furman)

I was puzzled as to why restaurant cooks decided to cook something that you could eat at home.

Yet, the darn cheap beetroot salad, swathed with mayonnaise and seasoned with chopped garlic, was also the Prague’s most popular dish and one of the house specialties.

It still escapes me why this salad was so popular. It might have been due to the sliced prunes, a delicacy hard to find in Soviet grocery stores.

Nearly three decades on, the restaurant has reopened.

Its building, which a couple of years ago seemed on the verge of collapse, underwent a fancy restoration that must have cost a fortune.

A pond nearby that had dried out and overgrown with grass now has water and a couple of white swans graciously gliding in front of the guests.

Ever since the place reopened in April, I wanted to compare the new Prague, which promotes itself as “legendary,” to the place I remember from childhood.

More importantly, I wanted to see if its food matches the location, the money invested and the new status.

And so I ended up with a group of friends at a table on the winter terrace – overlooking a nice park and a children’s playground – as it was too cold to eat on the lake terrace.

Despite being very friendly with a waiter, we only got one menu per table. It turned selecting our meals into a team-building exercise with three of us nearly bumping our heads impatiently turning the pages.


Restaurateur Viola Kim (C) (Alexey Furman)

What happened next was a bit more unpleasant, as the restaurant seemed to have run out of anything we tried to order.

Even though the Prague menu is far from extensive and, excluding the Japanese dishes we decided to skip, has only five pages, gone were most of the fish dishes and nearly half of the desserts.

Feeling embarrassed, the waiter said that we came at the end of a busy weekend; hence they were short of supplies.

Yet it seems a little strange and unprofessional that after investing so much into Prague’s state-of-the-art renovation that the managers would not bother to fill up stocks to last the whole weekend, including Sunday.

Finally, after an annoying trial-and-error selection process, we ended up with salmon fillet with spinach (Hr 125), trout with almond sauce (Hr 114), a Porterhouse steak (Hr 380) and a salad with melted cheese and cedar pine nuts (Hr 110).

When it came to the fish, my friends thought that it was too plain for its price and the “legendary” status, but it still tasted as good as a simply grilled fish does.

Ordering the pricey steak, my friends seemed a little surprised that the waiter never asked how it should be done – well, medium or rare. Yet, the meat turned out pretty good, if just a little dry.

Munching away, we noticed the room getting busier. The most amazing thing was seeing many families with small children despite the fact that there’s no smoke-free zone.


‘Swan Lake’ ballet in restaurant Prague under the open sky (Alexey Furman)

Diners in casual wear, with some sporting shorts and flip-flops, looked too relaxed to care about anything.

When it came to desserts, four of the nine menu items were missing.

Yet the waiter, who seemed more knowledgeable about the sweet section than any other, quickly talked us out of ordering the most expensive item – Tollegio and Gorgonzola cheeses with pumpkin jam and nuts for Hr 125. Instead, he recommended that we try the carrot and ginger pie (Hr 57).

The pie was arguably the best (and also the cheapest) dish we ate at Prague that evening, which distantly reminded me of the story of the garlic beetroot salad from when I was a child.

Polishing our dinner off with cold white house wine (Hr 99 for a half liter), we stayed there for some five hours.

Exploring the restaurant’s classy and smart interiors with its own library full of old books, I even thought that I recognized a posh reincarnation of the table that my family always took back then.

All in all, it was refreshing to discover that even age-old maxims can be wrong: I don’t regret coming back to Prague and will do it again.

Prague Restaurant,
1 Akademika Hlushkova Prospekt,
tel. 526-9990, praha-restaurant.com

Kyiv Post staff writer Vlad Lavrov can be reached at lavrov@kyivpost.com

×èòàéòå öþ ñòàòòþ óêðà¿íñüêîþ íà kyivpost.ua]]> Food Critic: It's hard to beat Georgian-style shashlyk and nature http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/106418/ Food Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:29:43 +0300
Kyivans love to escape to the surrounding woods or villages during this season, when all of Ukraine seems to be in a perpetual state of siesta.

Grilling the Caucasus way (where Georgia is located and kebab-making is a cherished pastime) usually means cooking skewered, marbled mutton over wooden embers or a charcoal-fired barbecue after marinating it in spices for several hours.

But since this was central Ukraine, the Georgian team chose to cook with mostly locally produced meat.

Master chef Tomaz Todashvili, who hails from Georgia’s Kakheti winemaking region, chose to make pork, chicken, minced veal and salmon shashlyk.

Juicy hunks of boneless pork cut from the neck, a tender area with fatty meat, were marinated in dry white wine for several hours with red onions, bay leaves, salt and black pepper.

Todashvili then got an even-layered bed of charcoal heated in a square barbecue pit. This part should never be underestimated.

The charcoal needs to be kept at a consistent temperature as much as possible.

Otherwise, the meat will have to be rotated to different areas of the barbecue to keep them from overcooking or being roasted for too long. You can always fan the charcoals to keep them burning.

The next step is to thread the meat onto heavy metal skewers and roast them over the smoking coals as the fire dies.

Todashvili kept a bottle of water handy with several tiny holes punched through the cap to sprinkle on any flames that flared up during the process.

“Cook for about 20 to 30 minutes at this stage of the dying fire and let the juices settle into the meat,” Todashvili said.

Done right, the outcome is a mouthful of succulently tender meat that doesn’t require any condiments that would take away the smoked flavor and mixture of ingredients.

Next came the lulya-kebabs. Usually made out of minced mutton, the master chef used minced veal with white onions, salt, black pepper, red pepper, garlic and coriander.

The trick, Todashvili said, is to mince the ingredients twice through the grinder for a finer consistency.

Then form a roll and slice it into three-inch pieces and thread them onto the skewers. They cook faster since the ingredients are broken down and are spicier than their shashlyk counterparts.

Todashvili used the same marinade for the fillet of chicken breast and salmon: salt and black pepper, mayonnaise, and the kicker, tomato juice.

Given that the meat is tenderer than pork or veal, soak the ingredients for no longer than 30 minutes. Cut them into chunks and repeat the skewering process.

Make sure to place them over a dying fire that isn’t too hot, otherwise the meat will sear and you’ll end up with a burnt outer edge and raw meat in the center. If properly cooked, the meat should melt in your mouth.

The other team members made Georgian flat bread and thin lavash, which had the consistency of a Mexican tortilla.

Side dishes included tomato walnut salad, lobio – pureed kidney beans with nuts and coriander, freshly cut green onions and bell peppers, dalma –grapeleaf rolls stuffed with ground meat -- as well as a sour plum sauce or tangy vinaigrette for the meat dishes.

The dishes were, of course, washed down with chilled Georgian red and white wines.

Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at rachkevych@kyivpost.com ]]> Food Critic: Fine dining in French cafe Gorchitsa http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/104846/ Food Fri, 20 May 2011 00:38:09 +0300
The cafe – sitting in the high-profile Lypky district, next to a court and the Interior Ministry offices – provides good food in polished, spacious surroundings at a reasonable price.

With two high-ceilinged rooms and an eight-table terrace, it maintains an air of elegance. The decor behind a grand, white-and-gold front door is simple, yet stylish. Besides a couple of large, vintage posters and a book case, there is nothing else but food to relish in Gorchitsa. And so it should be in a restaurant.

A two-page menu has 10 to 15 entries for each course. A basket of complementary crispy bread was served along with French Bordeaux (Hr 45 per glass) before our starters arrived. Apart from Caprese for Hr 68, in which even the tomatoes were skinned for a smooth combination with mozzarella, we had cream of broccoli soup for Hr 52.

For gourmands, there are Burgundy snails in mustard sauce and pan-fried foie gras in balsamic sauce, each for under Hr 140.

The main section of the menu is divided into pasta, meat and fish. On our first visit, we tried cat fish in Dijon mustard and a grilled Dorado with grilled vegetables on the side.

The catfish (Hr 86) was served over a bed of finely-chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, which together with the grainy mustard dominated the fish’s unique flavor. The dorado, on the other hand, didn’t have enough flavoring for my taste but my partner enjoyed it as it was.

Laid out like sun rays, grilled peppers, eggplants and carrots were a garnish we ordered again on our next trip to Gorchitsa for meat.

Osso bucco – a cross-cut veal shank – was generously stewed for hours to bring out the best of flavorful beef and savory marrow. Soft like a pear, it was swathed in gravy with a couple of mange tout, among other vegetables on the side.

A bone-in pork loin with small chunks of fat, like love handles, added to the juicy feast.

The meat orders – each for under Hr 100 – were generous enough to skip dessert, which we sadly did. The overall food experience accentuated by the quiet splendor of the 19th century homes surrounding the cafe makes this establishment a place to return and invite your friends over.

Don’t confuse it with Mon Ami restaurant in the same vicinity though – Gorchitsa started out in its spot, on Shovkovychna Street, a couple of years ago but then moved a few blocks away.

Gorchitsa Cafe, 6 Pylypa Orlyka St., tel. 253-7358


Kyiv Post editor Yuliya Popova can be reached at popova@kyivpost.com]]> Food Critic: Podil’s piano cafe worth trip for music, food http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/104268/ Food Fri, 13 May 2011 00:20:01 +0300
Not quite a restaurant, it is more of an intimate bistro, where small lamps cast light on pleasant white table cloths, where piano provides a soothing backdrop (although it might be too loud in the smoking section) and one can whittle away the hours, seeped in conversation.

The cuisine is international: pasta, meat dishes, salads, and an entire Ukrainian menu, beginning with borscht and up.

My dinner companion was a long-time friend who was in town. We both had the Caesar Salad (Hr 58), which could have been a meal in itself.

Filled with chicken and bacon bits, it was a weighty portion, topped by a generous amount of parmesan cheese, a spicy sauce and cayenne pepper.

I have never been a big fan of cayenne. But in this case, it added an unexpected punch to the salad.

My company had bass with sauce (Hr 68) and rice with vegetables on the side for Hr 39. He said the bass was “delicious.”

I’ve never been a fish lover – four decades later, I’m still traumatized by the fact that the one fish I ever caught, my father refused to throw back into the river and cooked it up in a frying pan instead.

I had the spaghetti with mushrooms and broccoli in a white cream sauce (Hr 58). The waiter was honest; he said the café didn’t make its own noodles.

I’ve been to other places both in Ukraine and abroad where staff says the spaghetti is homemade, when clearly it is not. In this case, it made no difference; the dish was very good.

The sauce wasn’t too heavy and boasted just the right amount of vegetables. If there was one criticism, it was that the waiter didn’t bring parmesan with the dish. For me, frankly it didn’t matter.

The Caesar salad had so much of it, I just sprinkled the spaghetti from that dish.

We polished off the meal with two – yes, two – bottles of champagne. The Krym Brut ran for Hr 120 and arrived cold, as should be.

The second bottle, which I admit I urged, was Novy Svit, Extra Brut for Hr 139. The café had run out of the first type and this bottle was a bit warm, but our waiter did bring a bucket of ice and two fresh glasses, as requested. To my taste, Krym is the better brand.

This time, there was no desert or coffee, although the bar hosts a generous menu of desserts. And not only.

The café lists its entire menu on its website. There one can find a generous listing of meals running from breakfast to dinner.
Our total bill, bubbly included, came to Hr 542.

Dining out in Ukraine, particularly in Kyiv, is often a trying experience. Most places are overpriced, staff is uninterested and for the most part, once you get there, you just want to leave.

But not here. The smoke-free environment for me was a huge plus.

The non-smoking room is divided from the smoking with a wall, and the ventilation was good. Nobody hurried us out. We arrived a little past 7 p.m. and were the last to leave – at 11 p.m.

During those hours, customers came and went, while a group of women sat around a table almost as long as we did. They didn’t eat much, mostly drank red wine, and that was okay.

There was another plus. There is a large hook in the bathroom where one can hang a bag or a jacket.

Piano Café Music Bar,
4 Kontractova Ploscha,
425-2474, www.piano-cafe.com.ua.

Kyiv Post staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at feduschak@kyivpost.com.]]> Food Critic: Pizza as Italians know it in new restaurant Il Molino http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/98914/ Food Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:49:42 +0200
It’s made from stone extracted in Italy’s Vesuvius Hills and is certified by the Pizza Bakers Association in Naples, the birthplace of pizza as we know it today.

And true to Naples tradition, the pizza crust is thin, crisp and flaky, is topped with generous portions of cheese, and is layered with an unimposing secret pizza sauce, light on Italian herbs and sprinkled with olive oil before it goes into the oven.

While debatable, the pizza crust is what makes the pizza – others argue it’s the sauce."

While debatable, the pizza crust is what makes the pizza – others argue it’s the sauce. The dough here is hand kneaded and spun-tossed; they don’t use any plungers to roll the dough out. And to underscore authenticity, 00 Pizzeria grade flour from Italy is used. The stove handles the rest, baking it evenly from the core to the edge besting the precision of any modern day electric or gas stove oven.

As expected the handcrafted Boscaiola pizza (Hr 85) we ordered was delicious. It had a faint smoked flavor from the wood burning oven and was topped with spicy salami, mushrooms, and a mixture of mozzarella and parmesan.

There are 24 pizzas to choose from including calzones, a desert pizza and the option of adding up to 10 additional ingredients to please any finical palate at an extra cost (Hr 10-35 depending on the ingredient).

We also had baked egg plant salad (Hr 55) and a plate of veal carpaccio (Hr 69) while the pizza baked.


True to Naples tradition, the pizza crust is thin, crispy and flaky at Il Molino's Pizzeria near metro Arsenalna. (Joseph Sywenkyj)


The salad came on a bed of Boston lettuce and was seasoned with Italian herbs and marinara sauce, a meatless, zesty sauce that is still hard to find in Kyiv’s Italian eateries. A major disappointment was the egg plant. It was chilled and tasted like it came out of a Chumak jar but, thank goodness, the oregano in the marinara took away some of the bland taste.

The carpaccio was a relief as it slipped off the olive-oiled plate into our mouths. It was topped with the usual parmesan and garnished with tomatoes, rucola and capers.

We opted for juice refreshments in lieu of anything stronger. I took the Ukrainian route with a glass of tomato concentrated juice (Hr 12) while my partner had the more nutritious freshly squeezed carrot juice (Hr 29).

Il Molino’s kitchen is supervised by Franco Pisciottano, a native of New Haven, Connecticut who spent more than 25 years in southern Italy perfecting the art of pizza making.

Customers can supervise him as well. There’s a horizontal mirror above the pizza station reflecting every hand tossing movement of the pizza makers including the toppings, flour and dough.

The place is relatively family friendly boasting a large non-smoking section, two high chairs for children and, according to my dining partner, has purse hooks in the bathroom – apparently a rare find in many Kyiv eateries.

They don’t take reservations – it’s a pizzeria, not a Michelin star restaurant – and have a takeout menu so you could watch your pizza being made as you salivate.

But leave your Mirovaya discount card at home, this place is a part of its own chain separate from the mid-scale restaurant group’s eateries.

il Molino Pizzeria
17 Moskovska Street
(044) 280 77 22
Open: 11:00 – 23:00
Metro: Arsenalna

English speaking staff: yes
www.ilmolino.com.ua


Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at rachkevych@kyivpost.com.]]> Food Critic: Why are family-run restaurants hard to find in Kyiv? http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/97449/ Food Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:15:10 +0200
So why is this type of eatery such a rare find in Kyiv?

First, there’s a lack of a “family dining out” culture. Everybody that I know stateside has their favorite family restaurant – where everybody goes for birthdays, Barmitzvas or Sunday brunches. Not so in Ukraine. If we speak about our population in general, then the tradition is to celebrate holidays and anniversaries at home. Restaurants are usually a big affair either for a wedding or for a 50th birthday. Of course, the younger and wealthier generation is changing this, but slowly. That elusive middle class suddenly appeared when banks started lending money for cars and flats. But then it went belly-up when the recession hit, and now it seems as elusive as ever in Ukraine.


Oliva chain of restaurants is a rare gem in Kyiv's shallow selection of cozy, family-like eateries. (Joseph Sywenkyj)

Second, there’s no glamour for Ukraine’s “elite” in going to a family restaurant. Now let’s think about those whose regular evening entertainment includes oysters and running people over in their Maybachs. Would they go to a small family restaurant? Highly unlikely. There is no glamour in that. The Maybach owner will be depressed over the fact that he can order neither a salad for Hr 3,200 (it actually exists in one Kyiv restaurant) nor a wine for the cost of a small car.

Third, there’s no support for small business. OK, so we all know that life for an entrepreneur has always been hard here, but now it’s getting ridiculous. I should know, as I am a small business owner. It’s as if the government is having a large-scale experiment on when small- and mid-sized businesses will start dropping dead like flies in winter – after the new tax code or before the new labor code?

Restaurants, with their relatively low margins, high entry barriers (find premises, get lease permit, create architectural, engineering and technical projects approved by city, get to know fire department, electricians and gas inspectors really well, apply for trade patent, get license for production and selling of food and don’t forget the permits for alcohol and tobacco sale, and then start working on ventilation, kitchen planning and so on), high employee turnover, seasonality and theft issues, are definitely not a good option.

Fourth, there’s no glamour in it for the owner and employees. Somehow, this culture thinks of people who are in the service business as serfs. Unlike other countries where there is a mindset of pride and consideration for the industry, brewing a cup of coffee and serving it to a guest here is considered a low-level job. Most waiters have no respect for their profession, and most owners wouldn’t be caught dead in the dining room talking to patrons.

Fifth, there’s a lack of managerial skills. A lot of small restaurants that opened last year have bankrupted due to simple mismanagement. The majority of cafe owners have no clue about basic human resources principles or marketing strategy or cash flow forecasting.

So is there no hope? Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Let’s just pray for that ethereal middle class that will drive both ownership and clientele for family restaurants.

Antonina Armashula is a marketing director at Mark Tapley Ltd., a consultancy in Kyiv. A culinary devotee, Armashula blogs about fine dining and cooking at www.edok.in.ua.]]> Food Critic: Thai chef cooks up authentic, tasty cuisine in Kyiv's Sakurakai http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/96865/ Food Thu, 10 Feb 2011 23:46:44 +0200 Editor’s note: Eating out in Ukraine is a gamble. To bring you honest food reviews, Kyiv Post writers go to restaurants unannounced, pay for their own meals and never accept favors from restaurateurs.]]>
Traditional Thai ingredients like lemongrass, coconut milk, bean sprouts, red chilis, soy noodles and curry, among others ,cost a fortune and are sold only in a handful of markets in Kyiv.

In this regard, the Kyiv Post was pleased to discover Sakurakai and its Thai chef-managed kitchen, which served two delightfully tasty meals.

My dining mate and I bypassed the soup menu, which curiously lacked the traditional, yet simple, hot and sour chicken soup, a must for any serious Thai restaurant. Instead we went straight for the appetizers. I was craving spring rolls (Hr 58), whose soybean noodle crust was crisped to perfection. Most likely deep fried in a wok, they were filled with shitake mushrooms, sweet pepper, sesame seeds, coriander root and ginger and fiery red spicy and sweet dipping sauce. It was aromatic and packed full of flavor without any ingredient superseding the other.


The Thai fare served in Podil’s Sakurakai restaurant doesn’t disappoint either in taste or with its simplistic Asian interior. (Joseph Sywenkyj)


Mix Sate (Hr 79) was the second starter of thinly sliced pieces of chicken and pork on two wooden sticks garnished with soy sauce and sesame seeds. It came with a pasty crushed peanut and curry dipping sauce. The aftertaste of the curry had a nice kick.

We washed this down with Staropramen draft beer (Hr 20).

Still on the lookout for traditional food in our selections for the main course, we were again shocked. This time lemongrass was missing in the dishes and coconut milk was rarely used. Lemongrass, however, is easy to grow indoors, just like parsley.

But there was plenty of Thai curry and Phad Thai, stir fried noodles with various condiments, from which to choose.

I opted for Phad Sam Siam (Hr 158) from the wok menu, a type of dish the Thai mainly borrowed from the Chinese. The difference is in the amount of grease that goes with frying – the Thai cook it light. It’s a wok tossed dish of sauted shrimps and scallops, shitake mushrooms, and vegetables in a soy-oyster sauce. The latter is labor intensive to prepare from scratch.

I asked for it to be prepared “suicide” hot knowing that the kitchen creates mild dishes to suit the spicy-averse palate of Ukrainian food goers. The bland steamed rice was a nice counterbalance to the spicy dish.

My partner’s Kvai Teo Kya Hai (Hr 79), basically a chicken Phad Thai dish, had the similar taste that I’m accustomed to in U.S. Thai restaurants. The chicken was tender, had plenty of cute bean sprouts, green onions, rice noodles, soy and eggs. Again, it was light and not saucy or overloaded with any specific herbs.

I enjoyed the experience. Sakurakai has a simple Asian interior with bamboo stalks partitioning tables for privacy yet allow for freedom of movement. It’s intimately lit as screens with depictions of dragons and elephants drape over the windows.

I understand many ethnic restaurants are limited in the range they could offer given the availability of ingredients in Ukraine, but this place has enough to choose from and is creative with the Thai ingredients it uses.

As usual, the service wasn’t something to write home about. Although English speaking, our waitress didn’t give herself the chance to practice it as often as we’d have liked – she could’ve been more attentive to put it mildly.
54/23 Verkhniy Val Street, Kontraktova Ploscha metro

Reservations: 428-70-99; 428-70-98

Hall for smokers – 35
Hall for non smokers – 50


Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at rachkevych@kyivpost.com.]]> Food Critic: Roll House offers great sushi for delivery via its friendly website http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/96293/ Food Thu, 03 Feb 2011 23:39:49 +0200
After numerous epic failures in sushi bars – whether over price or quality, I have migrated online. Keeping my expectations low, I came across the Roll House website and was pleasantly surprised.

In the ocean of sushi pages, I stopped by the Roll House thanks to their user-friendly design. Decidedly one of the company’s stronger points, it grabs your attention from the first click. When you point at any picture, it automatically expands giving you a better view of your future meal.


Salmon rolls with tofu and cucumber for Hr 60 at Roll House.

If you forget what you’ve already added to your basket, there’s no need to reload the page. Just point at your shopping bag with a mouse, and the image pops up immediately. They promise to call you back in half an hour to confirm the order, but my phone beeped in three minutes after I logged out. The lady on the other end of the line sounded polite and got my order right. The only downside was that she asked me, in a truly Ukrainian fashion, to prepare cash that wouldn’t require change.

The Roll House has a wide selection of moderately priced rolls, sushi, soups, hot Asian dishes, as well as desserts and drinks. You can also order customized sushi by mixing and matching different ingredients, sauces and pastes.

California rolls with shrimp (Hr 54.95) had tiger shrimp, avocado, and tobico caviar in generous supply. Our second choice was triangle maki, or rolls, with tuna fish and cucumber, covered with sesame seeds and Japanese mayonnaise – lighter in flavor compared to its traditional version (Hr 31.95).

We also chose individual sushi, made with smoked eel, cucumber, avocado and tofu, which came up to Hr 43 for eight pieces. Everything arrived fresh and delicious. I was very impressed and happy to order again.

The fact that delivery was faster than expected – in just 45 minutes, was perhaps due to a slow road traffic on a Saturday afternoon, but nevertheless a pleasant surprise. This was the third time I ordered but the first time when the courier was polite and attentive. Other times delivery men acted like vending machines – money in, order delivered, job done.

Apart from sushi, we also had desserts. Besides regular Ukrainian cakes, there are three Japanese sweet entries on the menu: chocolate and cashew or fresh fruit rolled inside a thin crepe, and hurumaki – a banana wrapped inside a thin rice dough. Soaking in honey and sugar, the banana dessert only had two small pieces, which wasn’t probably the best deal for the money (Hr 32.95), but still nice.

The drinks on offer have no trace of Japanese beverage industry in them and include soda, mineral water, juice and beer for the price just a little more expensive than in a supermarket.

For free delivery, place an order above Hr 80. Mind the working hours: 10 a.m. – 10 p.m. Good news for the English-speakers: the website has an English language version: www.rollhouse.com.ua. If you don’t have a computer handy, the order can be placed by phone: 222-5151.



Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Horban can be reached at horban@kyivpost.com]]> Food Critic: Before you binge eat this holiday, think of Ukrainian pensioners http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/93451/ Food Thu, 23 Dec 2010 23:41:39 +0200
It is, indeed, a jolly time, but it never ceases to amaze me how most of our festive occasions revolve around food.

Parties to go to, family dinners to attend, and afternoon tea and cake with friends are high up on the holiday agenda.

I and my food-loving friends have to buy new trousers with elastic bands hoping we won’t gain too much weight, yet we're preparing for the worst.

Binge eating makes me think about people less fortunate than us. Some Ukrainians have to save several months in advance for a Christmas dinner or they won’t have one at all.

The international poverty line now stands at $1.25, which is roughly the equivalent of Hr 10 per day. Can you come up with a daily one-dollar food plan?

I tried my best and spent about two hours carefully planning it.

Millions of people in Ukraine linger on a meager budget: pensioners, families with many children and the homeless."

- Antonina Armashula.

So, for breakfast I can feast on two Artek waffles for Hr 1.79 and a cup of tea for Hr 0.47.

For lunch, I’d have an omelet made of two eggs (Hr 2.38), some sunflower oil (Hr 0.20) to sprinkle the pan and a glass of milk (Hr 0.35).

Meat balls for Hr 3, mashed potatoes for Hr 1.33 and a cabbage salad for Hr 0.26 will make my dinner plate.

I won’t bore you with serving sizes but rest assured they are not large. My bill came up to Hr 9.78 with a few kopeks left for salt and pepper.

Millions of people in Ukraine linger on a similarly meager budget: pensioners, families with many children and the homeless.

What’s poignant though is that many of them are engineers, doctors, and teachers who earn very little working for the state.

In the holiday spirit of giving and sharing, I urge you to think of them. Any contribution, however large or small, is welcome.

Bake a cake for student interns in your office.

Donate $10 to a charity fund, drop a hryvnia into a beggar’s hand, and cook more with less.

I have a simple tradition of giving away all the food left over from the New Year’s Eve party to the homeless at the nearest metro station on Jan. 1

There is a popular saying in Ukrainian that teaches one how to maintain a healthy diet: eat breakfast by yourself, share lunch with a friend and give dinner to an enemy.

I suggest we paraphrase the last part of it and take our dinner to those in need.


Antonina Armashula is a marketing director at Mark Tapley Ltd., a consultancy in Kyiv. A culinary devotee, Armashula blogs about fine dining and cooking at www.edok.in.ua.]]> Food Critic: Chinatown missing in Kyiv, but Jiu Long is here http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/92495/ Food Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:25:20 +0200
Another, more ancient, proverb rings especially true for an economically depressed and politically challenged Ukraine: “To the ruler, the people are heaven; to the people, food is heaven.”

I offer these truisms because they seem an appropriate way to begin a critique of Kyiv’s Jiu Long Chinese restaurant.

To write “I liked the atmosphere and the food” appeared pedestrian, although true.

So I opted for an approach that would provide some intellectual fare to go along with the physical for those who decide on a meal at the truly Chinese Jiu Long.

It offers a generous menu of Chinese foods to suit different tastes.

Traditional chicken, beef, fish, vegetables and rice are all on the menu, which is written in English, Ukrainian and Chinese.


Jiu Long Chinese restaurant offers a rare treat in Kyiv, where ethnic Asian food is hard to find. (Oleksiy Boyko)


The restaurant even has several dishes geared toward vegetarians, which include tofu in a clay pot (Hr 50 for 400 grams), spicy tofu (Hr 33 for 250 grams) and potatoes with ginger (Hr 18.20 for 150 grams). Special homemade Chinese dishes include frog paws with mushrooms and bamboo in a clay pot (Hr 128 for 400 grams).

It took a while to read through the menu and decide what to order.

My father-in-law, who accompanied me, is a light eater and picked as his meal an appetizer of cooked beef with spices (Hr 40 for 150 grams) and a juice.

My menu consisted of a spring roll (Hr 10 for one), a dumpling soup (Hr 21 for 150 grams), curried chicken (Hr 62 for 150 grams) and a portion of rice, which we shared.

We also split a dessert of banana in glazed caramel (Hr 34). It had to be ordered at the beginning of the meal to ensure enough preparation time. I had 200 grams of Georgian wine for Hr 22.20.

The spicy beef and curried chicken arrived first. A huge curry fan, I had been intrigued when I saw it, but wasn’t sure what to expect since it was the first time I had seen that particular item on a Chinese menu.

The dish was delicious. The bits of chicken were fantastically tender and I could have ended the meal then and walked away happy.
To be truly happy and contented, you must let go of what it means to be happy or content.”

- Confucius.

The rice was stickier than I prefer, but it did not take away from the overall dish. I had a bite of the beef and was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn’t too fatty or salty.

The taste of beef was complemented by juicy bits of cucumber.

The egg roll was huge and a bit greasy, although that did not stop me from eating it. I didn’t finish the soup because it had a fish base to it, which I don’t care for, although the dumplings themselves were tasty.

The dessert was a real surprise and a treat. Very sweet, we each had a bite and then my father-in-law took the rest to be enjoyed by family at home.

For those who worry about monosodium glutamate, the food additive that is known as MSG and so prevalent in the U.S., I was not left with its aftertaste.

The restaurant caters to smaller and larger groups. Consequently, many of its dishes are offered in small and large sizes.

Soups, for instance, come in 150 gram and 1,000 gram portions for one person or several.

Groups of 10 people can enjoy a Chinese feast by picking from three of the restaurant’s complex menus that range in price from Hr 1,046 to Hr 1,722. The restaurant has minimum person counts for several of its tables.

A particular mention about service and atmosphere is warranted. The presentation of the meal was a bit odd, until I learned it was our hard-working waitress’ second day on the job.

My overall impression, however, was highly positive. It began with the woman who pleasantly answered the phone when I called to make a reservation, immediately switched to Ukrainian when she heard my diaspora accent, and then, without prompting, asked if I preferred the smoking or non-smoking section.

Both may seem trivial, but they are not. Recognizing that not everyone fancies being addressed in Russian is a sign of respect.

Providing a smoke-free environment is more obvious.

Smokers may enjoy being enveloped by noxious fumes as they dine, but non-smokers do not.

Jiu Long’s non-smoking section is one floor above the one for smokers, thus, unlike too many other establishments in Ukraine that tout smoke-free rooms, cigarette smoke is virtually undetectable, allowing for a truly enjoyable meal.

After finishing the meal, I remembered another Chinese wisdom by Confucius: “To be truly happy and contented, you must let go of what it means to be happy or content.”

On this note, I felt like I could let go of my preconceptions about a Chinese meal in the city, which doesn’t even have its own Chinatown.

The restaurant, by the way, is easy to find. Just look for the two big red lamps on the street, duck into a courtyard and there it is – right in front of you.

46V, Shevchenko Blvd
Hours: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.
Reservations:331-0710

Kyiv Post staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at feduschak@kyivpost.com.]]> Cooking Hanukkah doughnuts is easy http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/92493/ Food Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:19:38 +0200
One of the most popular treats is sufganiyot, a ball-shaped doughnut sprinkled with sugar powder.



The Jewish restaurant “Cimes” in Podil shared this recipe with the Kyiv Post.

To serve 20 doughnuts, you’ll need 600 grams of flour, 500 grams of milk, 200 grams of sugar, 70 grams of butter, and a small pack (some 11 grams) of dry yeast.

To fry them up, get a liter of sunflower oil.

First, warm up the milk, stirring in yeast, sugar and a quarter (150 grams) of the flour.



Let the dough sit on the side for 20 minutes until it rises.

Melt the butter separately and then add it to the mixture along with remaining flour.

Mix the dough well and form balls by rolling them in between your palms.



Heat up the oil, preferably in the deep-fryer, and dip the doughnuts into it.



As they turn golden brown, take them out and sprinkle with some sugar powder.

Happy Hanukkah!]]> Food Critic: Big difference between dining abroad vs. in Ukraine http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/91981/ Food Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:34:46 +0200
This little observation got me thinking of the subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle differences between Ukrainian and foreign restaurants. Here’s my short list.

Apart from the aperitif, what else can raise an eyebrow if you are more used to spending your hard-earned euro on the streets of Tokyo rather than near metro Politekhnik Institute? Try asking for a green salad to go with your main. “What do you mean: green salad? Do you want grilled vegetables? Or we can serve rice,” is the most typical answer from almost any waiting staff I’ve met in Kyiv.

How about a glass of tap water? Well, cross that one off too. If you are asking for tap water in Kyiv, it means you’ve just landed in Boryspil and haven’t read your Lonely Planet yet.


Ukraine’s restaurants have many surprises in store. Slow service is one of its many sins that could make you walk out vacating a seat to the birds outside as seen in this September photo. (Yaroslav Debelyi)

Next come cheese platters, which should be a relatively safe dish to order. Some camembert and blue go really well with port and crackers and perhaps a silly we-will-rule-the-world-one-day discussion, which usually matures towards the end of your meal. In Kyiv, however, your cheese platter will come as a starter most of the times, when you are still too sober to be taking over the country’s leadership.

Another grudge that I hold against the eateries on this side of the Danube River is the violation of my choice to skip the main course. Why can’t a girl have her starter and then go directly to desert? Do waiters always have to reinstate for the whole room to hear it.

“So, you will only have a carpaccio and then tiramisu? Can I still convince you to try our chicken or a potato puree? No? Oh, ok then,” she would say, rolling her eyes and giving me a sigh. Somehow I always feel that I am this annoying small redhead who orders the cheapest items on the menu and occupies the seat of a big Ukrainian man who would have paid for five steaks and a bottle of vodka by now.

But that’s all peanuts compared to the waiting time for your order here. Anywhere from Auckland to Austin, you will be served your dish within 20 minutes maximum. Having visited a couple of kitchens abroad, I assume they manage it by hiring the right number of chefs and waiters. They also efficiently organize and write menus with fewer pages than any of Fedor Dostoyevskiy’s novels.

If I am served in the matter of 10 minutes in Kyiv, I never eat it. Mostly likely, it was somebody else’s order that’s been sitting on the kitchen top for the last two hours. Call me paranoid, but I can sometimes hear an evil laugh coming from between the doors along with the leftover.

I recently had a meeting with a friend in a pizzeria over lunch. Everything arrived after a whopping hour of waiting and in a pretty strange order. When drinks and bread were served last during this gastronomic ordeal, we seriously considered rolling up our sleeves and helping out those poor souls in the kitchen.

As much as I wanted to keep this story void of criticism of Ukrainian restaurants, I have not succeeded yet. But I am sure there are some positives to explore! Vodka and cocktails are usually cheaper here than in Oslo or London, for example. If you are a smoker, enjoy the best seats in our restaurants. My condolences to non-smokers who are usually forced to squat in the basement or at the table marked as non-smoking in the room full of nicotine poison.

Another benefit, although as a woman I should not be mentioning it, is that it won’t take you much time getting a beautiful girl in Ukraine for a date and a bite of a filet mignon together. But it’s so obvious and widespread here that I simply can’t deny it.

Don’t forget about dirty dancing, live music, karaoke, drunken fights and improvised catwalks. Where else would you get so much entertainment in one place?! It would have been perfect if not for the slow waiters, kitchens and amateur restaurant managers.


Antonina Armashula is a co-founder and marketing director of Mark Tapley Ltd., consulting company in Kyiv. Armashula is a culinary devotee who turned her passion for food and wine into a mission to spread love for cooking and dining among young Kyivans. You can read her blog in Russian at www.edok.in.ua.]]> Food Critic: Spanish cafe is a rare treat in heart of capital city http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/90466/ Food Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:14:05 +0200
When I first saw it, I had to pinch myself. An airy, sage terrace framed by a stone banister welcomes you to a small Mediterranean world inside the 1950s Stalin apartment house. A black chalk board announcing specialties of the day and wicker chairs with blankets mark the entry to what could easily be a dining room in a Spanish home.

A large counter has a drooling selection of cheeses, olives, ham, and deserts. Spanish pig legs hangs succulently from the ceiling. Friendly service, non-smoking policy and a rare-for-Kyiv menu send positive vibes that this cafe’s owners know their craft very well. They brand it as an eco-eatery with an emphasis on organic, fresh and healthy foods.


Seasonal flowers and food in Arbequina restaurant seen on Nov. 16. (Yaroslav Debelyi)

Choosing a table for two by the window, we struggled with an order because we wanted it all. Homemade pies that looked like quiches with very thin pastry crust finally beat other entries. What I would call a quiche Lorraine is a heartfelt creamy bake with ham, eggs and cheese. A mushroom pie was filled with seasonal forest mushrooms of well-defined fleshy texture and taste.

Those were not your regular cultivated champignons but much sought after by mushroom hunters, boletes. The third option is four cheeses. A generous slice costs Hr 35, but you may want a side salad to go with it.

In the appetizers department, tapas are a treat. Goat’s cheese with beetroot (Hr 64), warm mushroom salad (Hr 62), anchovies with a tomato salad (Hr 38) and chicken liver pate (Hr 45) all sounded tantalizing. I opted for a cucumber and Pekinese cabbage salad with ham (Hr 54). It was a very light side order sprinkled with olive oil from arbequina olives, which gave name to this restaurant. For the party of four, think of ordering seafood paella for Hr 390.

A pretty simple decor in fading sage and yellow, wooden furniture, tile floors and a wall painted in the likes of a village stove – all retain the simple charms of Mediterranean eating philosophy.

Arbequina’s ham selection is one of the highlights. It has two most popular types: Serrano and Iberico. Jamon Serrano comes from the so-called white pigs, whereas Iberico meat grows on special black pigs, also known as pata negra, or a black foot. Ages ago, in the mountains of Spain, farmers have rolled fresh hams in sea salt and hung them from their rafters to cure. After a year – sometimes years, of curing, they were ready to be carved in paper-thin slices to enjoy as a snack or a proper meal with wine and cheese.

In Arbequina, ham comes in a variety of options from Hr 52. Two toasted sandwiches with a heap of Serrano slices on the bed of tomato pure and olive oil are a treat for two (Hr 70.)

Arbequina also likes its fish, which, as owners say, comes from fresh catches in Odesa. Grey mullets, plaice, anchovies and other Black Sea inhabitants come for under Hr 100. If you are used to ocean fish, beware that Ukraine's produce has a very distinct fishy taste that only large amounts of lemon can save.

A two-page menu, sadly available only in Russian right now, also has beef and turkey steaks, lamb dishes and all kinds of homemade breads with cheeses.
For deserts, we had a carrot cake and a pumpkin pie, both very generous portions for Hr 35 each. Although succulently fresh, the pumpkin bake lacked spices, whereas the carrot cake was sweeter than expected. Nuts-and-honey bars with a cappuccino for Hr 25, however, prompted nothing but delight.

Arbequina’s format of a city cafe is new for Kyiv where hunger can be lulled to sleep either in large-scale restaurants or fast food courts. Yet, its pricing scheme can be beyond your average worker’s budget.

There are special lunches during week days, which restaurateurs refuse to call “business” despite the industry habit. Ukrainians sometimes treat these meals as a mass cooked product from leftovers. Arbequina's on a mission to defy the trend changing menus daily with seasonal produce and charging Hr 79 for the offer.
In addition to its daily breakfasts, Arbequina is about to add brunches. For cheeses and olives from Spain, head to Arbequina’s grocery located in the Besarabka market.

ARBEQUINA RESTAURANT
Hours: 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.
4 Borysa Grynchenka St., metro Maidan Nezalezhnosti, tel. 223-9618


Editor’s note: Eating out in Ukraine is a gamble. To bring you honest food reviews, Kyiv Post writers go to restaurants unannounced, pay for their own meals and never accept favors from restaurateurs.


Kyiv Post Lifestyle Editor Yuliya Popova can be reached at popova@kyivpost.com]]> Time for a Thanksgiving turkey http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/90455/ Food Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:28:35 +0200
History tells us that wild fowls were a part of an impressive three-day feast organized by European colonizers of North America with native Indians to celebrate the first harvest in 1621. Thanksgiving did not have a set date for more than two centuries, an oversight corrected by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. He proclaimed that November is a good time to eat turkey, and history proved him correct.

Eating venison is another option. But in the modern world, deer are difficult to stuff – even if you manage the feat of hunting one down first. So, turkey remains the top choice giving thanks.

Ukrainian turkeys are slightly different from what you encounter in the United States or other fowl-loving nations. Unlike the typical roundish shape of American turkeys, Ukrainian birds are longer, slimmer and kind of stretched out - rather like models, actually.


Cooking turkey

If you’re a novice in handling fowls, here’s a way to do it. A turkey is ridiculously easy to cook. You can almost never spoil it. I have cooked dozens of turkeys, weighing from three to 12 kilos, and only mucked it up once.

First, you need to know the weight of your turkey to figure out the cooking time. You need to cook the turkey for at least 20 minutes per kilo of weight. Give it 30 minutes per kilo if you cook it with stuffing inside.

If the bird comes from a supermarket, the weight will be indicated on the label. If you’re buying it at the market, your babushka will weigh it for you. An alternative place to buy is the shop at an actual turkey farm, Indelika, a short drive out of Kyiv to Brovary. Their website address is http://www.indelika.com/wheretobuy/. Their price is Hr 26.5 per kilo at the moment.


Huge round-shaped American turkeys are a rare find in Ukraine. (flickr.com)

Apart from the turkey, you will need salt and pepper, plenty of thick foil, and some butter and bacon. Begin by warming the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (That’s 350 degrees Fahrenheit). Place the fowl on a roasting tray, season really well and rub in some butter. You can use olive oil, if you prefer.

I like to wrap the wings and legs in foil to make sure they don’t burn. This is done for the sake of appearance more than anything else. Next, cover the breast with plenty of bacon and wrap everything in foil. Don’t make it too snug; the foil might stick to the skin.

Cook the turkey for the calculated time, checking that juices run clear from the leg at the end of the cooking time. Use a long knife or a skewer to check.

Also, remember to peel the foil and bacon off for the last 30 or 40 minutes of cooking time to give the bird that suntan you see on the Internet pictures.


Other essential bits

If you place some carrots, parsnips and onions around the turkey before putting it into the oven, you will get roast vegetables on the side in one go. But if you turkey is a giant one, add the vegetables about an hour before the end of the cooking time.

When you lift everything out of the baking tray, the remaining juices and goodness can be used to make gravy. For that, you simply need to add some water and flour and boil it the lot on the stove until it thickens. It won’t take more than just a few minutes. Make sure you scrape every little bit from the bottom of the tray – that lovely stuff is what makes the gravy.

You can add some bits of turkey for a lumpy gravy, as well as stock and spices such as rosemary and orange peel for flavor.

If you want to make stuffing, you will need white bread, onions, sage and rosemary, dried apricots and raisins. Additional ingredients like walnuts, celery, apple, orange peel or actual bits of oranges are optional. You can add chopped up sausages and bits of liver to make a non-vegetarian option.

To make the stuffing, chop everything up, sautee the onions and liver (if using) in a frying pan. Then mix all the ingredients up, add some water or stock to bind it, but don’t make it too wet. Season well, and then stuff the birds or cook separately in the oven spread out on a baking tray. You will know the stuffing’s ready when it starts to brown on top.

Cranberry sauce can be cooked way in advance. All you really need is cranberries and sugar. But I also add cinnamon, orange peels and cloves to give the sauce a little twist. Wash your cranberries, put them in a pan and add enough water to cover them. Then boil slowly, adding one spoonful of sugar at a time, until the sauce is as sweet as you want it.

If you happen to find fat, American football-shaped cranberries, it will be easy to figure out when the sauce is cooked. They will disintegrate after about 10 minutes of boiling. But the smaller, round Ukrainian cranberries are a tough lot, they will not fall apart. You can keep them whole or puree in a blender to make a smooth sauce. I prefer to keep the spices in when I blend the sauce.

There is no evidence, of course, that the original Thanksgiving table had any of these lovely foods on it. But that really should not stop us from cooking a juicy turkey and all the lovely bits on the side and giving thanks for what we’ve got.


Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at gorchinskaya@kyivpost.com]]> Food Critic: Yellow Sea stands out in sea of sushi restaurants http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/87909/ Food Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:56:57 +0300 Editor’s note: Eating out in Ukraine is a gamble. To bring you honest food reviews, Kyiv Post writers go to restaurants unannounced, pay for their own meals and never accept favors from restaurateurs.]]>
With hundreds of them spread out across the city, Ukrainians have developed a taste for Japanese food.

Yellow Sea restaurant stands out from the rest with its quality service and attention to detail.

There are two restaurants in the family: one in a nice residential neighborhood (Obolon) and the other not far from the Bessarabsky market in the center of town.

Both serve Japanese, Chinese and Korean dishes.

The Kyiv Post craved sushi both times we visited the restaurants, so we won’t mention spring rolls, even though they were on the menu.

The Obolon venue one Sunday afternoon was busy with families. Children felt pretty comfortable roaming the second floor studying bamboo plants.

It was nice to see a large non-smoking hall with big windows used by families for a change.

There were still plenty of child-free seats on the first floor that we occupied, eating bowls of Miso soup for Hr 18.



Natural interiors in the Yellow Sea restaurants make for a good break from often opulent decors in many Kyiv joints. (Olexiy Boyko)


Ambience in the central Yellow Sea was good in a different way.

Catering to business people at lunch and after work, the waiters’ knowledgeable and non-intrusive service is impressive.

We started with salmon Carpaccio for Hr 52 and seaweed salad for Hr 45. Fresh salmon was still served with a bit of icy frost on it, but in five minutes it was ready to eat.

The menu description of the seaweed mentioned a celery stick served on the side.

Allergic to even the slightest smell of celery, I begged a waitress to leave it out but was sure she would forget.

After all bad experiences with Ukrainian restaurants which often refuse tailoring orders, I was surprised to find a plate with not a hint of that pungent vegetable.

The main course was just as delightful. Golden Dragon roll with smoked eel, omelet, tobiko (flying fish roe) and cucumber for Hr 60 contained a generous serving of eel.

With eight pieces, it’s probably enough for a light dinner. But we opted for the house specialty as well – the Yellow Sea roll with salmon and cucumber.

The menu description claimed it was an ancient Japanese recipe. Unexpectedly, the five-piece roll for Hr 68 had parsley lurking inside.

I forked it all out as I think it works better with Ukrainian dishes than Japanese.

For a bit of summer on a chilly Friday evening, we ordered green tea with apple flavor.

Those who like their hot drinks straight, beware that a teapot comes already sweetened with honey.

Overall, the food was incredibly fresh and served promptly. The restaurant is proud of its Hong Kong and London-trained chef, Aleksey Arbuzov.

The decor’s emphasis on earthy colors with plenty of green plants, wooden ceilings and stone-like floors helps to relax and unwind.

Given the usual standard of Kyiv’s restaurant bathrooms, it’s important to mention that in Yellow Sea they are spotless clean and play sounds of nature as background music.

The restaurant clearly takes its details pretty seriously.

For details:www.zheltoemore.com

8 Geroyiv Stalingrada Pr-kt., 224-5820
22A Shota Rustaveli St., 235-6101



Kyiv Post Lifestyle Editor Yuliya Popova can be reached at popova@kyivpost.com.]]> Tasty, not scary, recipes http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/87908/ Food Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:45:08 +0300
The bright and succulent flesh of a pumpkin is amazingly versatile, dead easy to cook, and is packed with autumn colors and goodness.

The simplest lovely recipe made out of pumpkin has got to be the Honey baked pumpkin.


Honey baked pumpkin

All you need is to take as many pumpkin pieces as you like and of any shapes you like, and arrange them on a baking tray.

Sprinkle each piece with a mixture of, or one of the following spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground allspice. Then top up each piece with half a teaspoon of honey (or more, if you have a sweet tooth).

Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Then pop the baking tray into the oven and bake for about half an hour, or until tender, in the middle of the oven, uncovered.

Serve it hot or cold, with ice cream or on its own. It goes well with roasted nuts sprinkled all over. The main thing is that it’s tasty and easy.



Pumpkin and roast corn soup

Ingredients:
3 ¼ cups pumpkin flesh

2 ½ cups corn kernels, fresh or canned

1 onion, chopped small

1 cup of milk

3 cups of vegetable stock or water

Salt, pepper to taste

Butter to saute the vegetables


Melt a spoonful of butter in a thick pot, then add pumpkin bits. Stir for some 5 -10 minutes, toss in half of the corn.

After another 10 minutes of stirring, pour in the milk and stock or water. Cover with a lid, leaving a gap and simmer for 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to your soup closer to the end.

In the meantime, roast the rest of the corn. You can over-roast it after buttering the kernels, or pan-roast, if you prefer.

If you’re using the first option, heat the grill in your oven until sizzling hot (220 degrees Celsius), butter the corn kernels and roast for 10 minutes at the most, remembering to shake them about half-way through.

The pan-roasting is probably slightly quicker, but you need to watch the corn closely.

When the soup is ready, puree it in a blender or food processor. Some prefer it slightly lumpy, but I like to make it totally smooth, as it provides a greater contrast of flavors and textures with roasted corn.

Spoon a little roasted corn onto each plate right before serving. This recipe yields enough for about six portions.

All muffins are made in the same way, and the pumpkin ones are no exception. First, the oven needs to be heated to 200 degrees Celsius.


Spiced pumpkin muffins:

Dry ingredients:
1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder


Wet ingredients:
1 egg
¾ cups milk
¾ cup cooked pumpkin
¼ cup melted butter



Then, in two separate bowls wet and dry ingredients are measured out and mixed. In step three, the dry ingredients are poured into the wet ones, and the mixture is quickly combined.

It’s important to leave the dough lumpy, because over-stirring it will affect the texture of the muffins. The basic guidelines are to count to 20 when you’re stirring, and stop at that.

The easiest way to cook pumpkin flesh is to microwave it for a couple of minutes. I am a lazy cook, so I do it in the very cup that I use for measuring.

Then I melt butter in the same microwave and the same cup, and at the end I wash it out with milk. All of those ingredients are mixed in the same bowl.

The alternative way to cook pumpkin is to boil it in some water, but it loses a bit of flavor that way.

Once the pumpkin is cooked, and all the ingredients are measured out and mixed, you can spoon the dough into muffin cups, about 2/3 full.

This recipe yields about 12 regular size muffins, or about 20-22 mini-muffins – which I prefer. Bake your muffins for 20 minutes, or until they’re springy in the middle.

This recipe produces amazing flavorful muffins where spices really come out prominently.

Over years I have tried to experiment with the amount of spices, sweetness and variation of ingredients, but discovered that nothing beats the original recipe.

Amazingly, they can be served with butter, jams or marmalade, as well as with savory accompaniments.


Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at gorchinskaya@kyivpost.com.]]> Food Critic: Meat nirvana at BarBQ Bar Grill offers wide choices http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/87145/ Food Thu, 21 Oct 2010 23:55:30 +0300
Located on Gorodetskogo Street, just steps away from the Khreshchatyk metro station, BarBQ offers a wide selection of foods for every palate.


Carnivores should add this restaurant to the list of places they frequent. (Oleksiy Boyko)

Its main courses include chicken wings with two sauces, calamari with homemade aioli and tomato tartar, and salmon with estragon sauce. It is its steak, however, grilled to near perfection, which is likely to win the eatery a solid reputation and woo customers back again and again.

BarBQ offers rib-eye, New York and tenderloin steaks, all for Hr 347 for 400, 350, and 250 gram servings, respectively.

I opted for the less expensive burger, which was really a 350 -gram steak in a bun that runs for Hr 97, fries included. When I asked for the meat to be cooked medium rare, the waitress smiled knowingly, and finished my sentence for me.

When the burger arrived, it took only one bite to realize nirvana. The meat was cooked medium rare as ordered and melted in my mouth. Served with tomatoes, green lettuce and a creamy sauce, it was one of the most unusual burgers I’ve ever tried in my life. Not a huge bread eater, I had initially toyed with the idea of scrapping the bun altogether, but that one bite convinced me otherwise.

If there was one criticism, it was that there were two tiny bites in the middle of the burger that were a tad undercooked. Otherwise, this burger, which comes with the restaurant’s home-made and absolutely delicious french fries, was perfect. The meal was washed down with the restaurant’s least expensive red wine – french for Hr 130 a bottle.

BarBQ’s burger menu isn’t only about beef. The restaurant offers a vegetarian burger, burgers with tuna and turkey and a royal burger that includes foie gras, a detail that immediately grabbed my dinner-mate’s attention. The burgers range from Hr 67 to 187. There are also a wide variety of soups, appetizers and salads that run from Hr 37 to 127, and breakfast, which is served until noon.

Dessert was flan, covered in raspberry sauce and the right amount of powdered sugar for Hr 57. Rich and creamy, the portion was large enough for two people. Staff had no problem in bringing another plate and spoon for a desert to be shared.

In terms of service, BarBQ stands ahead above other establishments I’ve visited in Kyiv over the years. Three people – a waitress, a waiter and a manager – all came up to ask about the food and if other help was needed. The food itself arrived at the right intervals and was hot. Needs, whether they were another bottle of water or a shot of vodka for an accompanying friend, were immediately met. Maybe this is because the restaurant – which way back in the early years of Ukrainian independence was a pool hall – is still new, and personnel are trying extra hard to impress.

I hope the great service will continue because I plan to return in the very near future to try the restaurant’s new Grill All Inclusive, which is essentially an all-you-can eat grill fest for Hr 160.

BarBQ, 10/1 Horodetskogo St.,
tel. 279-3355


Kyiv Post staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at feduschak@kyivpost.com]]> Food Critic: Verona Pizza beats out its competitors http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/86374/ Food Thu, 14 Oct 2010 23:35:56 +0300
But on the edge of the city’s Podil district, where the cafe culture of main street Sahaydachnoho barely sheds light to the proletarian wasteland of Taras Shevchenko metro station, lies an oasis of service, affordability and damn good pizza.

Verona started out as more of a pizza delivery point, with just two or three tables and a service counter.



But since the first day that I entered the place in late 2009, despite normal staff turnovers, the service has always been customer-oriented and friendly – a watershed in my 12 years of eating out in this city.

At the risk of creating a pun, the place isn’t cheesy. The menu is pretty basic, including salads and desserts, in addition to nice variety of pizzas that cost around Hr 60 on average.

There are up to 15 types on the menu to choose from. My personal favorite at Verona is their Greek Pizza, which features dicedblack and green olives, onion, bell pepper and generous cubes of feta cheese that topple from the crust.

The Greek, or Gretska in Ukrainian, is a vegetarian pizza, but packed full of the flavors one would normally encounter in a salad of the same name.

I remember once being told by a staff member that the owners are Greeks, and judging by some of the faces in the place, Verona has something genuinely warm, relaxed and non-commercial about it.

You can’t miss the place from the street, which is lined with Verona’s trademark fleet of red pizza delivery scooters and the pony-express looking kids who negotiateobstacles along sidewalk and street alike.

To be honest, I never ordered a pizza from Verona, but I was almost hit by one of their boys hurrying on his way to make the half-hour deadline for delivery.

Instead, I go inside – quite regularly, but not regularly enough to have cut a deal for a free advertising with the owners, if that’s what you’re thinking.

Now, following some modest refurbishing, Verona on Podil has several tables, not including the front-street terrace in summer.

The crowd is youngish but also couples and people with kids – a real contrast to the unsavory type that can be seen wolfing down a greasy shwarma (or doner kebabs) near the metro station just two blocks away.

Besides the pizza, which is made from a thin and crispy crust – not dry, and golden brown when warm – Verona offers lots of little things such as a clean, pleasant atmosphere and discounts.

If you just walk in off the street cold, it will take no more than 10 minutes to get your pizza. Or you can buy a slice from the counter display for Hr 12. The staff will also make up a half pizza for you fresh with no fuss.

This year, it also opened another venue near Lva Tolstogo metro. With U.S. based pizza chain Dominoes also recently appearing on the horizon, it’s great to have a nice choice.

Verona Pizza
71E Kostyantynivska,
1A Lva Tolstogo, tel. 379 1000

Open daily 10 a.m. – 11 p.m.,

www.veronapizza.ua

×èòàéòå ñòàòüþ íà ðóññêîì ÿçûêå

Kyiv Post staff writer John Marone can be reached at marone@kyivpost.com.]]> Food Critic: Searching all over Kyiv for best lattes http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/85460/ Food Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:38:48 +0300
A perfect latte has to have three layers: Hot milk is poured into a glass first, then a shot of espresso is dropped inside before a creamy froth seals the drink. The milk has to be whipped in a special stainless steel container to a precise 65-70 degrees Celsius. This is a latte macchiato, to be absolutely accurate.

Lattes don't tolerate any shortcuts. If there is a brown hole in the froth, it means that the milk was steamed in a glass with the espresso dropped in at the last minute. Froth has not been added either.

The milk must be at least 3.5 percent fat – otherwise the texture of the froth will be too loose. The newly open coffee place on 26 Yaroslaviv Val called Coffee Life whips its milk just to that consistency, I found recently. But it falls short on other factors, such as temperature and taste.

A latte should be neither too hot, nor too cold, meaning that you must be able to start sipping as soon as it arrives at the table without burning your mouth. It also means that you can hold a glass between your palms comfortably rather than try to squeeze your fingers through that ridiculous dinky handle at the side of an Irish coffee glass that seems to be awkward for anyone. I don’t like cappuccino cups either, but many places use them to serve latte.

Ambiance, strictly speaking, is not an ingredient in a latte, but would you really like to sip your coffee in a stinky, dingy, rat-infested basement? Of course not. Also, I try to avoid large international chains, the McDonalds’ of the coffee world. You can quench your caffeine thirst there, but somehow get little satisfaction from the process.

Some connoisseurs would say that lattes are one of those Kantian “things-in-itself” that requires nothing or no one for its qualities to manifest themselves.

However, if that was entirely true, would I really travel across the whole city to Kaffa Coffee Theatre (Teatr Kavy) at Podil just to get those almond meringue cookies with chocolate filling served with my latte (which is, in itself, not perfect)? So, snacks can be a factor in choosing where to drink. The ambience of Kaffa, especially its summer terrace, on a warm autumn afternoon, is also a plus.

Coffee on wheels (little coffee vans scattered around the city), although giving you a latte at a bargain price (Hr 8), fails on many other accounts. It has no frothy top, is a little too hot, and is a little too strong for my taste. Perhaps it’s the bitterness that gives the impression of strength. Coffee on wheels stores use an Italian blend of Arabic and Robusta beans, and the latter tends to add bitterness to the mix. The coffee is predictably served in a paper cup, which is not exactly an affection-building factor either.

Coffee Life clearly wants to be a Ukraine’s Starbucks. Advertised as a “new format,” it offers “something else” for Kyiv but not the rest of the world. But, like any copy, it lacks the depth of the original.

Dim Kavy (House of Coffee) is not really a coffee shop. It’s a chain of shops that mostly sell coffee machines and supply coffee beans for them. The shops are more like tasting rooms and that means no particular atmosphere to speak of. But the chain offers a very decent latte.

There is a wide variety of coffee blends available. My personal favorite is Amadeus, a blend of seven types of Arabica from across the globe. It starts off unimaginatively and possibly a little on the bitter side. But as the drink cools down, various subtle and surprising after-tastes come out. I sometimes ask for a sprinkle of chocolate on top to add an extra twist to the taste.

Sometimes you find a good latte in an unexpected place, such as the Sunduk chain of pubs. For Hr 19 you get a very decent latte there, lacking somewhat in presentation but with a balanced flavor.

Specialized venues, naturally, try to fully satisfy your expectations. Shokoladnitsa, for example, gives you a very balanced neutral latte, but you pay Hr 25 for a standard one there, higher than Kyiv average. You even get a little flower pattern on your latte, which is still a rarity anywhere but coffee chains. Coffee culture has only just started to catch on in Kyiv in the last few years, so a balanced, perfectly presented latte at a reasonable price, in nice surroundings and with an option of a tiny mouth-watering macaroon to chase it is yet to be found here.

Or am I just being too fussy?


Kaffa Coffee Theatre
2 Skovorody Street
Panama Boutique Latte Hr 21.70
Almond meringue cookies Hr 11.90 for 2
www.kaffa.ua

Coffee on wheels
Vans scattered around the city
Latte: Hr 8 for small, Hr 10 for large
www.coffeeshop.com.ua

Coffee Life
26 Yaroslaviv Val
40 Urytskoho
Latte: Hr 18 for small, Hr 21 medium, and Hr 23 large
http://coffeelife.com.ua

Dim Kavy (House of Coffee)
Multiple locations
Amadeus-based latte Hr 15
www.domkofe.kiev.ua

Sunduk
16 Mykhailivska Street
7 Leontovycha Street
22A Prorozna Street
Latte Hr 19

Shokoladnitsa
53/80 Saksahanskoho Street
48 Chervonoarmiyska (Velyka Vasylkivska) Street
1/2A Baseyna Street
See website for five more locations
Latte Hr 25 small and Hr 29 large
www.shoko.com.ua


Kyiv Post editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at gorchinskaya@kyivpost.com ]]> Food Critic: Caviar and buckwheat in new posh restaurant http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/84559/ Food Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:03:00 +0300 Editor’s note: Eating out in Ukraine is a gamble. To bring you honest food reviews, Kyiv Post writers go to restaurants unannounced, pay for their own meals and never accept favors from restauranteurs.]]>
The restaurant named "Sad," translated as garden, is a convenient two-minute walk from the Presidential Administration on Bankova. The backyard of the classy Union of Writers building has leveraged its rich history to the new food joint. But let’s get to the food first.

Greeted at the door by friendly staff, we were first offered a table in the spacious garden, which looked like a homely, well-manicured dacha. But since it was already a chilly September evening, we chose to sit inside.

Albeit slim, the menu was all over the place. Sturgeon’s caviar at Hr 1,200 per 40 gram serving was in uncomfortable proximity to Ukrainian borscht for about Hr 50. Asparagus, a rare find in Ukraine’s supermarkets, for Hr 80, was on the same page with buckwheat, Hr 30, the staple food in every pensioner’s home.

With some difficulty, we ordered an Italian-themed dinner of four courses. Another surprise came with the wine. If you didn’t want to order a bottle, there was only a choice between one type of red and white. Chilean Cabernet for Hr 60, however, was of proper room temperature and was served quickly with a complimentary bread basket and dill-flavored butter.



Writer’s House on Bankova street hosts new restaurant Sad in its backgarden. Managers of the food venue did not allow the eatery itself to be photographed. (Oleksiy Boyko)


The indoor lounge where we sat felt like an upscale marquee with slanted ceilings, white shades draping the white walls and naked lamp bulbs hanging down the walls like clusters of grape. Relaxing lounge music, was unobtrusive and felt natural, just like the service itself.

Caprese salad for Hr 90 was a great combination of sweet cherry-tomatoes and moist mozzarella balls. It was enough to share. It took about 25 minutes for the main course to arrive but the company and general ambiance made the time fly by. Grilled sea bass for Hr 110 was a good value for the quality offered.

The fish’s mild flavor needed no more than a touch of some freshly squeezed lemon juice. It was grilled perfectly (could be steamed if you like) until it could flake easily. The waiter undressed it fancily on a separate little table in front of us and served it with asparagus (Hr 80) on the side. This veggie also appears on the hors d’oeuvre page with a special mustard sauce for Hr 100. The restaurant owners must have taken a special liking to it as it appears on the venue’s logo.

My company opted for vitello tonnato, Hr 90, an Italian dish made of braised veal and tuna-flavored sauce.

The chef offered it as a starter, but in Italy it works as a main as well. To avoid the veal getting dry, generous amounts of thick sauce – a mix of tuna, egg yolks, cream, lemon juice and some condiments, are highly advisable. Sadly, our vitello was not swimming in it but that seemed like the only error with it. Risotto for Hr 60 ordered as a side was a plain dish of boiled rice with no thick cream to hold it together.

We were also bothered by the smoke from nearby tables, but had no choice since the non-smoking lounges were still in the works. My company expressed doubts about coming back, but I would give this place the benefit of the doubt.
The restaurant has got what it takes to become an elegant wine and dine joint. The terrace would be especially alluring in summer and perhaps even on the few warm evenings left in October.

Housed next to The Union of Writers building, it’s got heavy history strings attached. In the late 19th century, it belonged to Jewish sugar magnate Simkha Liberman. Then, it was used by the Communist Party as a propaganda-writing center before World War II, and also as a hospital and a kindergarten. Writers moved in the 1950s and keep musing there to this day.

Despite this illustrious heritage, the venue still looks like a teenager with a closet full of cool outfits but no idea how to wear them.

On the one hand, airy white draperies and comfy couches call for bohemian coffee breaks in the afternoon and fashionable pre-party in the after-hours. But on the other, its proximity to the president’s workplace and porridges on the menu hint at Soviet-themed kitsch, which Kyiv has already got in abundance. Fixing a phone line and a website could help as well, since neither seems to function properly at this stage.

The Kyiv Post hopes the restaurant finds its waters and dives into its bohemian past without any Soviet inkling.

Restaurant "Sad"
Bankova 2, tel. 599-0808


Kyiv Post Lifestyle Editor Yuliya Popova can be reached at popova@kyivpost.com.]]> Vodka Production 2.8% down to 3.8 million decaliters http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/73183/ Food Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:17:51 +0300
In January-June 2010, compared with January-June 2009, production of vodka and strong alcoholic beverages decreased by 17.1% or 4.016 million decaliters to 19.467 million decaliters.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, production of vodka and strong alcoholic beverages rose by 4.9% or 0.182 million decaliters to 3.922 million decaliters in May against April.

In 2009, vodka output went up by 5.2% or 2.160 million decaliters to 43.371 million decaliters year-on-year.

According to the specified data, production of vodka in 2008 totaled 41.211 million decaliters.]]> Carlsberg Group becomes Official Distributor of Cold Tea TopTea http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/73154/ Food Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:40:00 +0300
"The launch of the cold tea TopTea will expand our line of non-alcoholic brands of our company," said Yaroslav Koval, vice president of the company for marketing, according to the statement.

The Slavutych Company and the EkoProdukt Company updated the packaging and the receipt of the product.

The cold tea TopTea is produced in bottles of 0.5 liter. The retail price is UAH 5/bottle.

The line of the updated TopTea is presented by two flavors - black tea with lemon and black tea with peach.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the brewery group also includes the Slavutych beer and nonalcoholic beverage plant (Zaporizhia), the Slavutych brewery (Kyiv), and the Lviv Pyvovarnia brewery (Lviv).

In 2008, the Kyiv-based Carlsberg Group in Ukraine Company boosted sales by 19.5% or by 13.3 million decaliters over 2007, to 81.6 million decaliters.]]> Learning the art of Thai cooking http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/food/detail/63474/ Food Thu, 08 Apr 2010 23:33:36 +0300


Step by step: students of the culinary course learned to masterfully prepare four different Thai dishes. (Yaroslav Debelyi)


Paul Miazga from Canada started Ukey Thai Cooking Course in his own abode for those missing comfort of Asian take-out or just willing to test their stomachs before traveling to Indonesia. He devotes his first lessons to Thailand – where he mastered the craft himself – before exploring other exotic destinations.

A few years back, Miazga picked up his towel from the Koh Phangang sandy beach and headed for the kitchen -- partly out of hunger, but mainly because he wanted to learn how to conjure a paradise meal from the forest of spices and greens.

Back in Kyiv, sifting through traditional dill and cabbage, he dug out kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass and diligently recorded coordinates of their whereabouts. He also tested his signature Thai style dishes on his wife and friends before spreading the word in search of students.

Courses are currently held on the weekends in a small group of four. Miazga turns his one bedroom apartment into a cooking zone with two working tables and his elegant spider leg table in between. An unusual, somewhat bohemian room with green plants, jazz on the stereo and lazy couches makes it all the more different, friendly and exciting.

Professionally as he would, Miazga asked to bring aprons. But we, being students, carelessly forgot them. It turned out we really didn’t need them at the end.

The chef started with the coconut milk soup with chicken or Tom Kha Kai. On the chopping board, there were a dozen veggies and greens staring at us. Step by step, Miazga explained how to peel or cut ginger, lemongrass, coriander leaves, and other ingredients – some very strange to Ukrainian climates. Then, in pairs, we headed for the kitchen to mix tender chicken file with our finely chopped green oasis in the coconut milk. It took only a few minutes before we trotted back to the living room with bowls of delicious Thai soup. It was as authentic as you can get.

To sample another starter, Miazga suggested we cook the Ukey Thai salad. Bean sprouts, yellow and red sweet peppers, chilies, onions, sugar snap peas and Napa cabbage were bathed in the dressing we blended ourselves. It was a feast of different condiments: peanut, olive, sesame oil, soy sauce, lime juice, fresh ginger, basil, and garlic. The salad turned out zesty, fragrant and incredibly light.

Green curry with chicken and eggplants or Gang Kaiw Waan Kai took a little bit longer to cook than appetizers because of jasmine rice but still under 15 minutes. One of the students, a real estate businessman from Manchester where curries are as popular as potatoes in Ukraine, approved the dish.

I chose to add more than one chili and needed water to stop the heat. Miazga advised to have something dairy instead – turns out milk or sour cream quenches fire more effectively. The curry was no different to what I had in Asia before.

Portions were handsome and what we could not finish, we packed away. The last entry, stir fried chicken with cashew, went straight into Tupperware as it was removed from the heat. My family – usually skeptical of new cuisine – cleared the box without even reheating the meal.

Lasting up to three hours, the course made for a splendid Saturday afternoon. Don’t forget to come hungry and bring boxes for leftovers. Miazga provides the cooking booklets and a shopping guide. He also tips on effective ways of treating utensils and beautifying your food. His greasy towel wrapped around the waist testifies to the long hours of practicing you may want to check out.


Kyiv Post staff writer Yuliya Popova can be reached at popova@kyivpost.com.


Price: Hr 390

To attend, email Paul Miazga: ukeythai@gmail.com.]]>