Ukraine Food 101

We've had several people ask about how/what we cook here, and request recipes. Honestly, a lot of what we do is experimental. But now that we're in another "season of waiting", I thought I'd take the time to talk a little about eating in Ukraine (those of you who know the Doves well are not at all surprised by this post!).

Shopping

Most of our shopping is done at Obzhora grocery store (the word translates as glutton). This store is just about 2 blocks away, so it's an easy walk. We also go to Amstor on occasion - bigger selection but Obzhora is our favorite.

Pasta

We love pasta and have no problem finding it here. There is almost an entire aisle at Obzhora of different types of pasta.

Pasta Sauce

This is a little trickier. We found what we thought was pasta sauce. Turns out, it's a chunky, spicy tomato sauce, similar to salsa. But it's actually great on our pasta! We typically will cut up some smoked sausage, tomatoes, and maybe onion, and saute all of them, then add the sauce, warm, and serve over pasta. We also found a jar that we thought said "Pasta Tomato something". Well, it's basically tomato paste, so I have to add water to thin it out, but it's more William's speed because it's not at all spicy.

Cheese

Our favorite is Russian cheese. It's a soft white cheese, and it looks similar to an alpine lace swiss. It has a great mild flavor, and we like it for sandwiches, in pasta sauce, or melted over vareniky.

Vareniky

These are little dumplings that are available with a variety of fillings such as chicken, beef, cabbage, sweet cheese, potatoes, or cherries. We buy bags of them in the frozen foods section.

Savory: boil them just until they start floating, then drain. Then, melt some butter in a frying pan and add diced onions and the vareniky.

One night we cooked a few each of chicken, beef, and cabbage, then sauteed them with onions & a little tomato sauce, and melted cheese over the top. Another great variation!

Sweet: this was a little more trial & error. But the best way I've found is to boil them and then refrigerate overnight. When we're ready to eat them, I heat some oil in a frying pan and cook them until they're browned a bit on the outside. Then serve with vanilla ice cream.

Produce

We buy lots of tomatoes and cucumbers. The cukes are typically more like pickling cucumbers, but they're just the right size for making delicious salads. We like to cut up 2 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, and a bit of onion, and mix with a teaspoon or two of sour cream - yum!

We also buy lots of apples & bananas, and some cherries and strawberries.

We've started buying potatoes & onions, cutting them up, and sauteing them in oil. We'll add some sausage, ham, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, or whatever is on hand at the time. We were inspired by the Reed family on this dish, and it's become a favorite. Each time we make it, we create a different version.

Bread

The bread here is AMAZING! Obzhora has the best bread selection of all. Most of the time, you can find them wheeling out some carts of fresh, still-warm loaves, rolls, mini pizzas, cookies, or other treats. We had some awesome cream-filled croissants for breakfast this morning that we'd picked up last night.

Chips

William has been fascinated with the chip selection here - and it is interesting! We've tried chips flavored with bacon, ham, sausage, cheese, red pepper, and crab so far. We have not gotten brave enough to try the squid flavor yet! Lays makes a lot of these flavors, but we typically buy Lyukes or Top Chips.

Chocolate

We love Kinder and Milka chocolates. William gets to pick one Kinder egg each day if he has good behavior. They have a series of Justice League kinder eggs, so he's been in heaven!

Drinks

Zack & I like Jacob's coffee. Most coffee is instant here, but it's good. We also love Coke Light. William & Elvis drink lots of different fruit juices.

Where in the world is...

In the Fall of 2007, we had an appointment at the SDA and accepted the referral for a beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed 5 1/2 year old boy from the Donetsk region, in the city of Mariupol.

God works in amazing ways...

We wanted to return to Ukraine to adopt again so our children would have a common background in their country of birth. Little did we know, God was planning for more than that.

Just a couple of weeks ago, we had an appointment at the SDA and accepted the referral for a beautiful brown-haired, brown-eyed 5 1/2 year old boy from the Donetsk region, in the city of Mariupol.

The boys are from different orphanages. But same city, and brought into our family at almost exactly the same age.

If you've payed REALLY close attention, you might have noticed that many of the pictures we've posted in our apartment and in the city are almost identical to our last adoption.

Cooking in 2007...

Cooking in 2010...

That's right - we're also staying in the exact same apartment as our last adoption! It's nice to be in a familiar place, and to know where things are. It's been great to explore the city more this time around since the weather is so much nicer.

Stay tuned as we continue to update during the 10 day wait!

Two sons!!

It's official - we're now the parents of two boys!! William attended court with us this morning and was relieved when it was announced that Elvis is officially his little brother.

May we introduce to you....

Elvis (Yep, his new name will remain a secret until we get home - HA HA!!)

Born January 28, 2005

Declared our son June 29, 2010 at approximately 12:29 PM Ukraine time

We were in court for about an hour and a half. Everything was very official and by the books, but the judge was kind and smiled at us throughout the hearing. And by the time we walked out, we had been declared parents of another beautiful 5 1/2 year old boy.

The 10-day wait kicks off tomorrow. So he's ours, but we will have to wait until that's over to take custody of him.

Thanking God for this wonderful blessing!!

The day before court

It's been another good day!

We visited Graceland this morning. Elvis was wearing an interesting (girly) hat. Zack thinks he must have been in the bathroom when they were handing out the hats this morning.

He had this little beat-up broken telephone that he insisted on toting around today.

Since we've mentioned Graceland's gates so much, thought it would be good to give you all a glimpse of them. You can see our driver, Misha, waiting just outside.

While our trip to the beach last week was about a 30-minute drive, we knew our apartment was closer than that to some other beaches. So we went on a mission today to find the beach.

We walked. And walked. And walked some more.

You never know what you might see while walking around town. Please note: we did NOT go in this store :)

We found another market, and walked around. Notice the little fish hanging up. William thought it smelled great. I thought I was going to throw up.

We found a little toy shop there and bought several more boxes of "Bricks" (Lego knock-offs). So cheap, and just as good! William was thrilled.

We thought this statue looked like Poseidon. Zack figured that might mean we were getting close to the water. Wishful thinking?...

The Poseidon statue and this guy were in what looked to be an abandoned park.

Just beyond the park, we found this Turkish Islamic mosque.

This little 'hut' was outside the mosque gates.

About 20 minutes later, look what we found! We knew following people in bathing suits was a good sign.

The beach in this area is very narrow, and you have to walk across the train tracks to get to it.

Just after we walked back to the street side, a train came.

And apparently this guy thought it was a great way to travel!

A really cool restaurant just across the street from the beach

A beachside restaurant (The Santa Barbara Cafe & Bar)

We began walking back, and decided to go a different way from how we'd gotten there.

We walked. And walked. And walked. Almost all uphill this time.

We saw the Metalurg Sanitorium. A little scary.

Saw some cool buildings in this part of town, a part of the city we'd never seen before.

Had to get a picture of more Ukrainian fashion. Her heels were HUGE, and she was dressed very nicely. He was sporting a 'stylish' muscle shirt in neon yellow, and of course, a man purse.

This sign is about every 20 feet on the main street here, advertising a jewelry store.

Mr. Muscles (by the way, we've taught Elvis to flex his arms and say "Muscles!")

Please be in prayer about our court hearing on Tuesday morning at 11 AM local time (4 AM EDT). Pray that it will go smoothly and there won't be any issues.

Adia

No offense to our parents, but here's who we're missing the most...









We took these pics from Skype, while we were talking to her earlier today :)

Yum!

(There's a more interesting post below this one...)



Here's our dessert from last night. It was delicious!

Cherry Vareniky with vanilla ice cream


UPDATED: By the way, I don't eat ANYTHING cherry at home. I've NEVER liked cherries. But here, I'll eat fresh cherries as well as cherry pies. They are so good!!

These were frozen cherry vareniky we bought at the grocery store. I boiled them the night before, then kept them in the fridge and fried them in a little oil the next night. Boiled? Not so good - too dough-y. Fried? Yum!

What we did today... and please comment!!

Today was a day like many other days. We started out by getting our 'bag of tricks' (toys & snacks) ready and heading to the orphanage.

It's very warm today, so we fully expected the children to be in their underwear and hats. And we were right. When we arrived, we found our boy in his tighties. And he was FILTHY dirty from playing outside!










We've been avoiding the sandbox, but with him already so dirty, we let him play in it as much as he wanted today.

















He tried on William's UT hat - pretty cute!









It was a good visit, but honestly, we're all getting a little bored with the same thing every day. Can't wait until we get to exit Graceland's gates as a family of four!

After returning to our apartment, we set out to find at least one of the restaurants that Jonathan told us about.

Here's another restaurant we passed along the way:









And after walking for about an hour, we found one!!

We had a great lunch at Pasta Project. It is a really nice air conditioned restaurant. They have video touch-screens at the table where you order. And they have an English menu!! Bonus - one of the waiters spoke some English as well.

While it's a little more expensive than some of the other places we've been, it was a nice treat.

They also have Wi-Fi, but I accidentally left my iPod back at the apartment.


Here are some other pictures from today's outing.

One of the MANY snack kiosks found up & down the roads here. If you'll notice, this one offers an American favorite: hot dogs!









Pharaoh Night Club

A statue of Shevchenko

A cathedral in the distance

We walked around the Central Market for a few minutes. We arrived there just as many vendors were starting to pack up, so we'll try to visit again next weekend a bit earlier in the day.

Finally, Zack just had to get a shot of these guys, sporting what is totally in style for young men in Ukraine. Short pants for men (capri pants?) are all the rage here. Their look consisted of denim capris, flip flops, dark tight-fitted t-shirts, and satchels (man purses). Not a terrible look - but it was funny to see them dressed so similiarly to each other!

Please take a moment to comment and let us know you stopped by. It can get pretty lonely when you're in a place where you don't know anyone & don't speak the language. Your comments are such an encouragement to us - thanks!!