shastik-meat on stick. same as kabobs in USA. Ukrainian food in general isnt very exciting but it is good when prepared right. Alla can cook really good but she enjoys me to make American and Mexican food for her
I was going to let this slide. But since I like oldies...
Russian wife hates American food. Problem is there is no real description of "American food". Think of anything my mom makes. I like most of her Russian recipes. But I have to admit my cholesterol count is climbing the charts. I recall while in Kiev I was going to cook bacon... she just picked up a piece and ate it 'raw'. I found it disgusting. She prefers Mexican food. Dislikes Chinese cuisine but loves Japanese. Absolutely hates the "PA Dutch" cooking. Loves Italian cooking and anything with seafood. I still owe her a date at the Thai restaurant I promised to take her to.
Last night I cooked four nice pieces of venison. She wanted to cut them up and mix into the salad - she won since it was her turn to make dinner and the deer steak was a bonus side. But think of perfectly marinated tender cuts lightly grilled and then dumped into a salad. :{
One thing she stresses - for instance a can of soup - NO F'ING WAY! IT HAS CHEMICALS!!!!! So that standby can of campbell's chicken noodle is a thing of the past. And forget about dry mixes for anything - all chemicals!
Almost all food must be prepared without the use of chemicals. She uses sour cream in a lot of things and mayonnaise. But prefers cottage cheese or yogurt as a substitute. She has made a lot of the dishes listed above and criticizes the way Americans try to make them at ethnic food fairs. I guess in some respects she is like my mother, nobody makes it the way she can - my mom is a lousy cook. ;) But my wife is an excellent cook. I got her a subscription to 'Food Network Mag' 6 months ago but only I read it. She just discovered the magazine "Cooking Light".
If you go to amazon.com and search in 'books' for 'recipe' then all sorts of recipe books are available and one can read the reviews of these books by previous purchasers before deciding.
The food was the first thing that made Ukraine my second country. Within an hour of my first landing in Kiev we went to a restaurant. A large scoop of what resembled mayonnaise and I knew I was wher I belonged. My cholesterol is 50 and I can eat whatever I like. Red meat, butter, whole milk and yellow cheese. I don't even have to trim the fat from a prime rib. Like Bill Murray in "Ground Hog Day", pastries and coffee from the urn. I do draw the line at raw bacon or the ham that is literally half pink and half pure white and eaten cold. In the markets a shop that sells only various forms of cream and the taff dressed in white, oh yea! There are just not enough varieties of spice and an actual fear that if it is hot and spicy, it will do harm to a person. I tune up the dolma and "Eastern Europe meets Pacific Southwest"
When we eat too much meat, even cooked, we are in danger of atherosclerosis. The fatty material collects among the walls of the arteries. Cook the bacon and you will see the fat coming out. Eating bacon raw puts all that fat in you and your arteries, many times as bad. That's what causes calamities.
I'd bet you would propose yourself to eat? Sorry it was too easy. :)=>
Fridays is junk food. It is a fast food restaurant in disguise. Bigger menu with steaks, chicken, pasta dishes and pictures on the menu. But over all - low quality food. Maybe there it is better quality. But it is much the same as Applebees and the like. Purely pub food or a fancy looking diner - with exception of a full bar and lousy beer on tap. And yes, I suppose it is American food since manyt Americans eat this crap. But overall it is a mix of some mexican styles and typical easy to make food. Tonight I had the most stupendous borscht. I didn't realize there were many ways to make it. But in southern Russia it is more spicy - or can be - than in the north. Yes, watching beets freshly picked being grated and simmered plus much more fresh stuff from our garden. I could eat it every day!!!
Oh! I forgot, hamburgers! They make a decent burger I think (hard to mess up) and that is definitely American food. A hamburger with a large side of fries - makes us all fat.
Fridays in Kiev isnt bad pretty much as Ralph describes but a lot better than the one I went to in Dubai. It is popular with forigners in Kiev as the waiters all speak good English. Personally I prefer Il Patio next door which is owned by the same group. Order a big meal and you can get discount at those two as well as Their Japanese Restaurants.
about borshch .... once i saw like a foreigner ordered borshch, she brought it to him and of course small plate with sour-cream. And he took it...and put all in the plate with borshch :-):-):-) hahahaa
So advice, put only 1 spoon of sour-cream. Otherwise you will spoil all taste of this dish.
About Friday's, i found their site, menu, reall there are like fast food , for me at least.
But a friend of mine who lives in Kiev, native kiev guy (ukrainian) said that this is restaurant with american food and not cheap. Now i am confused restaurant or no. He said it is situated in Arena place.
Maybe there is restaurant and fast food with this name?
About how many times we usually eat.
So some have breakfast, but usually only coffee, then lunch at 12-13 , when at home it is usually some hot food soup,borshch, can be smth else, and dinner 18-19 (not fixed even) also hot food pasta, potato, some meat dish, meat balls, chicken, can be sereal, fish, salads. Our salads are usually with mayonase and can contain mushrooms, egg, tomatoes, chicken, some marinated stuff. Mane made with layers.
Popular now is greek salad (no maynaze:-) ) tomatoes, cucumbers, pepper, black olives, cheeze feta (dont know in english) and olive oil.
Our women like to experiment, so they can make familiar salads with other ingredients.
Much cook for holidays, our New Year is more like your Christmas. Bcs our Christmas is on 6th of January, and less popular, no fireworks and with family. In my family on New Year we cook near 6 dishes, not all cooked, but i mean how many on the table. On Christmas is a tradition to cook 12 dishes , like for every month to be "with food", no bad days.
My 3 favourite dishes is
1.french meat - sliced meat salted peppered, put in layers, every on top with cheeze, onion, mayonaze and baked in oven to golden colour.
2. baked potato - cut potato like half round ( half moon shape) , fry to golden colour, add a cup of broth, sliced onion, garlic, spice and stew till all broth gone and potato is soft and has nice colour.
3. salad sweet corn from the can, cut 2 eggs, crab sticks (better some original sea product like shrimps), can be some rice and mayonaze. I know it sounds weird, but this is what most like :-)) We got used to such food.
Sorry that i wrote so much, but maybe for somebody it can be useful info
danny, they must really be moving if you can talk to them as they drive by >:|
America is a big place. watching cars going around in circles is not everyone's cup of tea. nor is professional basketball. racing is big business and caters more specifically to the redneck crowd - not all!!! the people who follow it are die hard race car fans. formula 1 is not popular but a better form of racing. the popularity of nascar is the brutality of it and the many crashes for most. it is the #1 spectator sport in america I think. I for one just don't get it.
And as soon as they outlaw racing I will drive an economical car. just think how much oil we would save if there was no car racing! why isn't green peace at the race track protesting every sunday? because they would get their asses kicked that's why.
behappy, fridays is not a "fast food restaurant" by the typical accepted definition of fast food. it is a place where they prepare prepackaged food for a prepackaged menu. hence in all accounts it is fast food to me. I'm sure danny would get a kick out of 'outback steakhouse'. much the same as the others advertised with a fake aussie accent. I'm sure 'down under' they just love a big batter dipped deep fried onion! Americans fall for this shit...
Kiev --- As I recall, if I had been dropped off by an alien craft not knowing where I was, I could have believed I was in Southern France as far as food served. There was a coffee/pastry shop near the river that was outstanding. Or perhaps America. Nothing stood out as far as restaurants were concerned to make the food any different than anywhere. Sure I didn't spend a lot of time in someone's home with mom's home cooking. But overall, I'd say the food was pretty good. One example I do recall was - yeah, I actually ate a mcdonald's breakfast sandwich one morning - that McDonald's food was much better in Kiev than in America. The sausage breakfast sandwich had tomatoes, MAYONNAISE, etc and was quite tasty.
The most diverse dining experience was being stuck at the airport in Moscow. There was a lot of food I had never seen before. I opted for what the majority of people picked. Some purple looking salad and another greenish looking dish -- it was all good! And of course the soups.
When I finally arrived at my woman's apt, she had the same stuff in her ice box. Russian food is good stuff mostly. I'm not into fish in brine but overall - I could put on wight eating in Russia.
Friday's and Il Patio are in center only blocks from Independence square. I do know they are the only place in all of Ukraine where one can find tortilla chips as they simply do not exist anywhere. Perhaps I should import them? could I make money on Nachos and tacos?
funny rick4girl, I actually hand carried a couple dozen taco shells with me to russia this year. I tried to make corn tortillas by picking a corn flour at one of the local markets. but it wasn't the right kind of flour and I failed miserably. but if given more time...
locals can make their own flour or corn tortillas. deep fry the corn tortillas to make chips. the most difficult part is finding the right corn flour. masa harina is a corn flour made by a process of slaking it with lime ... easy to find in mexican markets. Quaker Oats make one also. incredibly easy to make if you have the right ingredients.
I was like the iron chef the day I made a mexican feast. Tacos were a HUGE hit. Nachos were also a favorite. Perhaps you can go to one of the bigger markets and talk to their buyer. Take a list of masa suppliers and see if they can get some imported. Then open up your own little mexican cantina. It would be a popular place for sure. My wife keeps insisting I open a restaurant. She wants to run the business and wants me to do the cooking. Not the first time I was urged to open a restaurant. But most fail and it is a lot harder work than one can imagine. But if I was in Kiev... margaritas and fajitas for everyone! You can grow your own chilles!
ralph i read on the net that america deep fry a beer ! why is everything in america dripping with oil ?....
A few bars across this large country are deep frying beer and suddenly everything is dripping with oil.
By your logic, since Australia has kangaroos, they must be clogging every street making it impossible to drive anywhere. "Why is driving in Australia so dangerous?"
Went out with three beautiful women in Poltova after an event.
These young women ordered a liter of vodka which the four of us put away with no problem. (Okay - I had a slight problem and one of the women said she was under the weather later - but the other two drank just as much and seemed unaffected).
They ordered "traditional" Ukrainian sausage to eat with the vodka in several varieties. One of these was some sort of blood sausage. Now, my father is of German heritage (Swiss German really - but you get the point) and I remember eating some sort of blood sausage with him but nothing like this.
This stuff crubled in the mouth and tasted like pure old coagulated blood. It was disgusting. But the girls loved it. We NEEDED the vodka to kill the taste in my humble opinion.
Was the sausage cooked? One thing I remember when we were trying to catch the train. My gf bought liver to go. It don't think it was cooked. I think it was dried, Yes. I ate it. All of it.