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.
On Tuesday, on our way back to Donetsk from Sartana, the Greek village near Mariupol, we stopped at a highway-side market to see what was for sale. The vendors told us they were all from nearby villages. Here's what was for sale. Above, pickles and pickled peppers.
Zucchini and patty pan squash.
Hazelnuts (the first we've seen in a from-the-village kind of market)
These are Georgian, we think. They are an almond stuffed inside a grape surrounded by a sort of hard fruit jelly. Anyone know the name?
Red and black currants.
Smoked fish. And finally, two market vendors who were kind enough to pose for us at their work.
We haven't posted for a few weeks because we've been getting ready for our planning trip to Ukraine--and here we are! Many more posts to come from the road these next few weeks, but to start, some mouth-watering photos from two Kyiv markets this past week. Berries, stone fruits, herbs for canning, and young garlic, radishes, and greens were in full beautiful bloom. Enjoy!
Beautiful blueberries!
Raspberries displayed in hand-made splint baskets.
Gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries.
So many berries, including at center, tiny wild strawberries. And now for the greens...
Cucumbers, radishes, greens. Notice how the staples of cabbage and potatoes take a back seat in the summer months.
Young garlic.
Dill and grape leaves packaged together to make a pickling bouquet.
Chanterelle mushrooms, gathered about two hours away and brought to the market for sale.
Carrots and hot peppers.
We've arrived in Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, an entirely different landscape to explore. Stay tuned!
We're putting together this summer's planning trip, supported by a grant from the Trust for Mutual Understanding and our grand backers on Kickstarter. The map above shows our tour around Ukraine and the cities we'll stop at. We'll be traveling mostly by train which also allows for some opportunities to make a few stops along the way in towns and villages. In Kyiv, Donetsk, L'viv, and Odessa, we'll be meeting with organizations to plan our food conversations in the fall as well as learning a bit about their work and their communities.
But everywhere we go, we hope to talk about, eat, photograph, think about, share, and experience food. We're interested in small-scale, community and family food practices, including kitchen gardens, orchards, home food preparation, foraging, gathering and storage. We're interested in understanding more about how rural food practices are adapted within urban settings.We want to learn about what makes one region of Ukraine different from another, foodwise, and explore how Ukraine's many different ethnic groups continue their own distinct food traditions while melding them within a larger culture.
If you're in Ukraine or have friends or family in Ukraine that you think we should visit with, please just respond in the comments or email us (see at right). And of course there will be posts and photos all along the way.
It is in these dwindling days of summer (or the very first days of autumn) that we really appreciate the luxury and succulence of the season’s produce. And, for me, the melon, bright and invigorating, is the pinnacle. When melons enter the bazaar, a sweet and distinctive aroma fills your nose, long before your eyes lay upon them. Fresh from the vine, watermelons (кавун) and muskmelons (dynya) are the delight of Ukraine’s late summer markets.
Native to tropical Africa, watermelons have crisp, red (or yellow) flesh while muskmelons, with soft orange or pale green flesh, originate in central Asia. Watermelons and muskmelons are both members of the Cucurbitaceae family, which also includes squashes, pumpkins and cucumbers. Melons, both watermelons and muskmelons, are rather fickle fruits, sensitive to frosts and cold, windy or cloudy conditions. They thrive in warm, sunny weather and humus-rich, well-drained, if slightly acidic, soils. The greater southern Dnieper valley regions of Zaporizhzhya, Mykolayiv and Kherson, as well as portions of the Crimean peninsula afford ideal conditions for these delicate beauties.And, thus, Ukrainians have developed a particular fondness for the fruits and adeptness in their cultivation. Indeed, melons have been cultivated in Ukraine for some 15 centuries. According to a USDA report, fossilized melon seeds found during excavations of sites near Sevastopol dated to the 2nd century BC! In addition, genetic research suggests that Ukraine is also significant hub of genetic melon diversity. It seems Ukrainians (and Russians) carried some of the seeds of these diverse strains with them as they immigrated to North America, notably to Central Canada, home to famous varieties such as the buttery yellow “Cream of Saskatchewan.”
As with most fruits, melons are sweetest and most delicious when ripened on the vine. As for choosing a watermelon at the perfect stage of ripeness, it can be tricky because the outer skin, often green and zebra-striped, remains so regardless of fruit readiness. At my regular market haunts, growers, sellers and fellow patrons are usually glad to provide advice for spotting, slapping, squeezing or sniffing out the ideal specimen.
If selection assistance is not a service provided by your melon merchant, as may occasionally be the case, you may choose to defer to the advice of American writer, Mark Twain, who, I gather, was something of a watermelon aficionado and, according to my treasured 17th edition of Rodale’s Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening (1971), is said to opined: an unripe melon says “pink” or “pank” when rapped with the knuckles, while a ripe one replies “punk.”
Muskmelons, of course, provide an unmistakable perfume, smelling delicious when they are delicious. They also tend to soften after being picked and may give a bit under the thumb. I have been informed that they may also rattle when lightly shaken, as the seeds move about in the hollow center.
In addition to the fleeting joys of fresh melons, there is also the magic of pickled watermelon! Sometimes sweet, sometimes salty and savory, sometimes spicy and sweet, both the flesh and the rinds of the watermelon are pickled and make a wonderful appetizer or relish for warm, mid-winter meals.
The drying of muskmelons, both flesh and rinds, is a preservation technique that apparently originates in the Caucus region and is popular in some Ukrainian communities, particularly in Crimea. While I heard much about this practice third-hand, I do not know anyone that does this! If you have experience drying muskmelons, drop us a line!
For information about growing watermelons, muskmelons and cantaloupe, I recommend Rodale’s Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, any edition.
As always, Culinaria Russia: Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, edited by Marion Trutter, published by H. Fullmann, 2006 is a great resource on the food traditions of the Post-Soviet Space.
