Summer? Time for Shashlik

In the same way that Americans think of hamburgers and hotdogs as summertime, picnic food, Ukrainians think of shashlik.  Shashlik is what Americans call shish kebab,  marinated meat on a stick (I can hear Anthony Bourdain, who wasted his trip to Ukraine,  raving about meats on sticks in other places, but I believe he missed the Ukrainian version).  You can order in restaurants and in Simferopol,  we even found stands selling it in the big outdoor markets (below) but it's really picnic food--even in the rain as my friend Anatoly demonstrates above.

As Barb Wieser's post noted,  Ukrainians are serious about their outdoor food.   And shashlik is one of the most serious,  cooked, as in grilling in this country, most often by men. Of course, the recipes are as varied as the people who cook it.  Here's one, via the Everything About Ukraine website, supposedly from a famous Georgian singer:

The meat (he uses either beef or mutton) should be absolutely fresh. Cut it into medium sized pieces and mix with onion, salt and black pepper. Onto this, he pours "Adzhika" (a garlicy, hot pepper sauce). But never adzhika bought in a store, he insists, only the homemade kind sold in the bazaars. Add some freshly squeezed lemon juice to this (the more the better!) Then let it all sit for half an hour. The "secret" of this recipe is to use dried grape vines for the grill. That gives a unique, piquant flavor to the shashlik.

 It's not surprising that a Ukrainian website features recipes from Georgia, as shashlik is found all over the former Soviet Union and usually attributed to the cooks of the Caucausus region.  According to Glenn R. Mack and Asele Surina in Food Culture in Russia and Central Asia it is the national dish of not only Georgia (called mtsvadi),  Armenia (khorovats) and Azerbaijan (kebab) despite the fact that the words shasklik and kebabs are both of Turkic origin.

Whether it's along a riverbank over a campfire;  outside at your dacha,  or in the market at Simferopol,  shashlik symbolizes a relaxed,  yet important,  summer approach to a meal.  To accompany Anatoli's cooking in the top photo,  I remember new potatoes sliced in half with a piece of salo and plenty of salt,  wrapped in foil and cooked in the coals.  They were a delicious accompaniment to the meat from the grill, and together the  makings of a memorable meal with Anatoli and Anya,  and Anya's parents at their dacha on a warm May evening.