The $35 2009 SoOn Compo

[Nahkranoth]

If you are going to be dominated by Turks you'll be eating hummus I'd suppose :-)

As I don't know wtf is hummus I consulted the dictionary and... you just imagine what was the meaning

Hey Nahkranoth, what kind of foods are famous in your culture?

Umm, the most famous is borsch:

Vareniki:

Salo:

That's the food often associated with Ukraine, but we have much more, though there are some foods that often cooked for special days. Like for Christmas there is Kutya for example:

Sorry for such a lagre OT :oops:

Yep, Nahkranoth, do you have recipes with garbanzo beans in the Ukraine ?

I guess no, we have bread beans instead

[Louigi Verona]

In Russia it is all very similar, like borsch.

[Nahkranoth]

In Russia it is all very similar, like borsch.

Hey, we're all Slavic peoples!

[machinesmith]

That settles it! I'm learning how to make Borsch! I mean...just look at it! It looks like the perfect bowl of soup/stew! Is it generally considered a "hot" dish? I know you get cold borsch as well...but does it create heat or a cooling effect for the body? (yes I come from those places where the concept of `Heaty' and `Cooling Foods' are common)  

Btw - Im loving this thread! Domestic, Mundane and OT it may be ... but damn its fun to know how so many diverse ppl, around the world no less, bring their common and distinct cultures in one place, all of them bound by "the one tracker!"

Whoops! I actually thought I was in G's `Hows the weather?' thread,  I STILL think its cool to learn about other places this way!

[uncloned]

is salo a fish or cheese? hard to tell from the picture.

and Varenki look like perogi - love perogi.

The Borsch looks like some Polish Hunter's stew I've had. -Is it pork based?

Never heard of Kutya before - so I found a recipe:

To the Ukrainians Christmas is not Christmas without Kutya, a ritual dish and an integral part of the Holy Night Meal, is served only during the Christmas cycle of holidays which ends with the Feast of Jordan on January 19. The origin of this dish goes back to days immemorial when the early Ukrainian ancestors first cultivated wheat. A relic of customs practised three thousand years before the Christmas era. This dish should be prepared several days ahead of of time for flavour to develop. It keeps very well in the refrigerator for 2 weeks or so. Kutya is high in nutritional value and should be eaten any time.

SERVES 8 (change servings and units)
Change to: Servings US Metric Close


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Ingredients

    * 2 cups cleaned wheat berries
    * 3-4 quarts water
    * 1 cup cleaned poppy seed
    * 1/3 cup honey
    * 2/3 cup sugar
    * 1/2 cup hot water
    * 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

As an aside - at a place I worked at in the late 80's started to do random drug testing of all employees (thank you Ronald Regan) - and not just any testing - since they were a big company they could afford to do GC-MS which is very sensitive. Well they found what they were looking for... a 60 year old maintenance man was accused of smoking opium. It scared the bejeebers out of him since it would mean no retirement if he was fired and he kept on failing drug test after drug test. As it turned out he ate poppy seed coffee cake every morning for breakfast which was very popular in Chicago with its large Polish population.


Even though I live in the US both sides of my family were  eating the food and speaking at times the languages from their origins in Europe. So I eat large amount of Lithuanian and Polish food and still do eat some. I'm cutting back though because I'm sure it kill me early.  I don't do nearly enough of the physical work that goes along with the diet to render it healthy.

[Louigi Verona]

Borsch is soup which is based on beet (that's why it's red). You can have meet there, but not necessarily.

Nahkranoth: Didn't know you were from Ukraine! =))) I lived a long time in Ukraine. It is a pity our governments are now behaving themselves the way they do.

[Nahkranoth]

Is it generally considered a "hot" dish? I know you get cold borsch as well...but does it create heat or a cooling effect for the body? (yes I come from those places where the concept of `Heaty' and `Cooling Foods' are common)

It's a hot dish, but in hot summer days I used to eat cold borsch as well, but it is unlikely considered a cold dish, I'd call it perversion

is salo a fish or cheese? hard to tell from the picture.

Salo is salted unrendered pork fat. Quite tasty with garlic or onions.

and Varenki look like perogi - love perogi.

I guess it is the same. It can be stuffed with potato mash/cherries/mushrooms/cabbage, depends on imagination

The Borsch looks like some Polish Hunter's stew I've had. -Is it pork based?

It's more like soup but with red beet and preferably with a lot of meat (pork is the right thing), but there can be no meat at all (but then its nutritious qualities are kinda doubtful)

2LV: Didn't notice your post somehow [EDIT] No wonder, you posted right before mine [/EDIT] Yes, I'm from Ukraine, as you can see under my avatar :wink:
Not sure about Russian government, but ours is a herd of greedy dumbasses, which already robbed/sold everything they could. Поэтому наша страна сейчас в глубокой заднице, и это закончится только тогда, когда "секция пулевой стрельбы" будет "принимать заказы от населения", цитируя неизвестного классика :lol: Or we'll wait for 2012
Where did you live BTW?

[Louigi Verona]

I lived in a very small town called Снежное. It is a coal mining city, I think. Lived there when I was a kid for two years, went to kindergarden there. But then we moved back to Russia. My grandfather is Ukranian.

[Nahkranoth]

Somewhere near Donetsk then? Well, never even was that far :lol:

[Louigi Verona]

Mmmm.... dunno. Gotta look it up on the map to be sure.