Food Glorious Food

Last time I went to Kiev I thought that the food wasn't much to write home about. How wrong was I?

On arrival, the first place we were taken to was the restaurant with the horses' bums... the chairs aren't made of horses, they are carved from wood, which was something of a relief to discover.



The food was tremendous.

Every time we have been taken out for dinner, our hosts (Tatanya, Olga and Victor) have plied us with as many plates as the table could carry and insisted we try everything. It's all soooooooo good.

Much of the diet is similar to Scandinavian food - lots of smoked fish and cured meat - and it naturally has a lot in common with other Eastern European food so lots of pickles... garlic, beans, onions, eggs, anything and everything.

So, favourite goodies to sample...

1. Cabbage rolls - filled with sausage and a tomao-cheese sauce poured over the top which are delicious, and probably my favourite.
2. Vareniki - dumplings made with cottage cheese, filled with anything you like... savoury or sweet, though my recommendation would be sweet dumplings filled with apricot.
3. Potato and onion pancakes.
4. Pelmini - pasta parcels filled with meat.
5. Fur coat... smoked fish in sour cream with cheese and chopped salad vegetables.
6. Chicken Saschlik - chicken and pepper kebabs, served with a hot spicy sauce.

Mmm, I'm making myself hungry.

I've also been sent home with two tubes of solid condensed milk for spreading on hot pancakes, which you then roll up... It's better than a sexual experience....

Then there's the sausages, as featured at our sausage and vodka BBQ. Vodka... £2 a bottle for the good stuff.



There's lots of butter and oil involved in the frying of the food, but they also like a lot of sugar.



And these are pampushka, the most delicious garlic bread buns served with borscht. It's fantastically delicious.



I'm drooling now.