Pelmeni & pirogi or varenyky & pyrih - in search of a Ukrainian meal

Our friends invite us to eat pelmenis and pirogi in a Ukrainian & Russian restaurant. We decide to score Ukraine on this visit. But how do we stay true to the plan when the menu items sound Russian: Pelmenis, borshch, pirogi, beef stew?

Jukka ate dumpling looking food called pierogi in a Polish restaurant just a while ago. At this Ukrainian & Russian restaurant similar looking food items are called pelmeni.  And here they serve a selection of pirogi that looks like bread rolls. Confused? Me too.

Pelmeni are a Russian version of dumpling, often served with special sour cream (smetana). Ukrainians call them  varenyky and Polish pierogi. There are other national versions of the dumplings in China, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Tibet, Uzbekistan, Korea and Japan. Not to forget Italian ravioli. The difference is the thickness of the shell. Russian and Ukrainians like the shell very thin so that there is a lot of filling.

So, we choose pelmenis with Smetana to share. They have vegetable and meat stuffing. They need to be eaten on one bite to make sure that the juices inside the pelmeni do not fall out.

Jukka eats a delicious borshch soup for main course. I do not share as I am not a fan of beetroot.

I take a selection of pirogi. They are baked rolls with stuffing, especially known as Russian national food. And not to be confused with Polish pierogi which are dumplings (which Russians call pelmeni). I am starting to get it.  Pirogi in Ukrainian are pyrih and also stable food there.  I savor pirogi with mushroom stuffing and pirogi with cabbage. Freshly baked from the oven they are really heavenly.

And now the conclusion: what country meal was this? The menu would have said varenyky and pyrih instead of pelmeni and pirogi if they had intended us to eat Ukrainian versions. Or is it just a marketing thing since there are more Russians than Ukrainians in Helsinki?  The chef/owner and his staff are Ukrainian. We came to eat Ukrainian and the food items are typical to Ukraine. I decide on Ukraine. Tick in the box.

 

Restaurant Pelmenit

Kustaankatu 7

00500 Helsinki, Finland

http://eat.fi/helsinki/pelmenit

Mad dog and hunter's stew - exploring Polish cuisine

One evening we decide that is it time to eat Polish. Paris has a choice of Polish restaurants. We choose the one that has a combination of good reviews, close to a metro station and not expensive. So, the result is Paris Polska. We book a table using an app called The Fork. A reservation made with the The Fork app grants us a 20% discount on food at Paris Polska. We make the reservation using the app as we walk to the RER station. 

We get a table for 2 with velvet covered arm chairs. The table next to us is full of young Poles who are drinking beer. And in the corner a very serious looking woman is hosting an amusing TV show in Polish. The owner behind the counter looks Polish, speaks Polish and even has a Polish t-shirt. We decide that this restaurant meets our requirements for a Polish restaurant. Especially since the menu has food items that are impossible to pronounce, such as śledź w oleju z cebula (oil marinated herrings with onion), oscypek z gruska (grilled cheese with warm peaches) and kaczka faszerowana (stuffed duck).

A look at the menu tells me that the Poles must love potatoes and pork. That sounds a bit like Denmark where I currently work.  I choose items from the menu with the kind help of the waitress. She asks whether we are Polish or have any connection to Poland. She is excited when I tell her that we want to eat genuinely Polish food. Jukka takes the tasting menu.

First a vodka shot. Jukka has plain vodka and I have a shot called ‘mad dog’ which has tabasco at the bottom, raspberry liquor next and on top a layer of vodka. There is no stirring, just drinking the whole thing on one go. The Poles in the table next to up stop conversation to see how I cope with a vodka shot but they do not realise that I am from Finland and this not my first vodka shot.  Owner teaches us that “cheers” in Polish is “Na zdrowie!”( which means “for health”). This is the best vodka shot ever! The raspberry liquor with a tabasco kick leaves a very pleasant after taste in the mouth. Mad dog was not so mad.

For starters I have bread covered with fat and side dish of pickled cucumbers. The cucumbers taste like Russian pickled cucumbers that we sometimes had at home when I was a kid. Maybe I have already had more experience with Polish-like food than I realized!








For main course I order Polish Golonka w Piwie (knuckle of pork with potatoes and sauerkraut/choucroute). The waitress warns that the sauerkraut is nothing like German or Alsatian suerkraut. I am willing to take my chances since I do not particularly care for German style sauerkraut. And I am not disappointed. The cabbage has been prepared in beer with meet for a few days and it is the best sauerkraut I have ever had. I am having a feast.

Meanwhile Jukka is eating through his tasting menu of 3 starters and 3 main courses. Fortunately, they are small portions so he can also enjoy the 3 desserts. I take a bite of his herring and it is fantastic. The Polish salad looks like a version of the globally known salad that has vegetables (potatoes, pickles, carrots, green peas) and mayonnaise. It is known as Russian salad, Macedonian salad, Italian salad depending on where you are in the world. For main course he gets hunter’s stew (called Bigos with a large amount of the fantastically tasty sauerkraut), Goulasch and Pierogi (that look like dumplings).  He empties his plates so the food is to his liking.

We share dessert of cheese cake called Sernik, apple cake Szarlotka and Makowiec (poppy seed roll).

While we were eating and drinking through our menu, other people, French, tourists, Polish and non-Polish fill up the restaurant.  Who knew that Polish food was so delicious? Apparently many already did know and we do now, too.

Paris Polska Restaurant

42 rue des Vignoles
75020 Paris
http://www.parispolska.com/

Tour d'Europe - France

We need to debate the rules a bit. Can a breakfast be included in the challenge? How do you even know that you are eating a typical breakfast of a country? According to Wikipedia, English breakfast is one of the most recognized English dishes. I will keep that in mind when England shows up on the list (it will be country number 61-70, so it will be a while).  Many countries actually have typical breakfasts.

American breakfast would be eggs and bacon or sausages or pancakes with syrup or all of it.
English breakfast would be eggs, bacon, different kinds of sausages, beans and toast, tea with milk etc.
French breakfast would be café au lait, croissants, and baguette.
Finnish breakfast consists of oat meal (porridge) and coffee.
In Asia breakfast foods do not seem to differ much from the other meals of the day. I have eaten noodles and dumplings for breakfast in China.

Conclusion: a breakfast can be typical to a country so a French breakfast in Paris meets the criteria for a French meal.

On a gray Sunday morning we decide to go for a breakfast downtown Paris and check out the pyramid of Louvre.  Artist JR has made the pyramid disappear, at least from one ankle. It is fascinating how he has covered the pyramid with a picture of the building that is behind it. From a specific spot it really looks like the pyramid has totally disappeared.

In one of the side buildings of Louvre there is a restaurant where we sometimes have coffee: Le Café Marly. After checking out the pyramid (or rather its disappearance) we sit in the terrace for a breakfast. Jukka has café au lait, grapefruit juice, a selection of small size pastries (croissant, pain au chocolat and pain au raisin). I have a tea (well, a pot of hot water and a tea bag), jus d’orange and a grilled baguette with a choice of strawberry and apricot jams.

We eat the most typical breakfast in Paris and pay the real tourist price: 22 euros per person. At least we had a view of Louvre while enjoying the breakfast.
I think a breakfast was a good twist to the challenge and will it not be the only French meal we will have.

Le Cafe Marly

93 rue de Rivoli
75001 Paris
http://cafe-marly.com

 

First meal - Europe- Italy

This feels a bit lame. Our exciting food challenge has just started and we decide to eat in an Italian restaurant. I had kind of thought that we would start with something more exotic. But, the restaurant is very close to home and we know for sure that the owner is Italian so the restaurant meets our requirements. We decide to start the easy way to get started. More challenging countries lie ahead!

I love Italian veal (vitello in Italian). I tend to stick to the few same types of scaloppini every time, though. I usually have Saltimbocca or Marsala.  Saltimbocca is veal topped with prosciutto and sage or basil (the translation of Saltimbocca is “jumps in the mouth” in Italian). Saltimbocca alla Romana is veal, prosciutto and sage and rolled-up before cooking.
And the third option is Scaloppini alla Marsala which is veal with mushrooms and Marsala wine sauce.

Today I will try something different.

We greet the owner in Italian only to realize that it is the full extent of our language skills. I struggle to pronounce a food item on the menu, “ Bocconcini” and get a pronunciation lesson in Italian from the amused waiter. Bocconcini is pronounced “bokkontsini”.

I choose the exotic Scaloppini Bocconcini for my main meal.  It turns out to be a mozzarella type of cheese (and in Italian means “small mouthfuls”). Large veal cutlet, covered in cheese and marsala sauce. What better can I choose!

Jukka goes with scaloppini alla Marsala with French fries. I take green beans with my Bocconcini. Our choices of the side dishes are a bit off from what a real Italian would eat. I guess mashed potatoes, linguini or fettuccini would be more typical choices but I only think about that after ordering.

Before the veal, we order antipasti to share. It is a typical collection of vegetables and meats.  St. Pellegrino water and Peroni beer from Italy meet the requirements of Italian beverages. Italian coffee rounds up the meal.

The meal was enjoyable. Sauce was tasty and veal was as good as ever.

I am really excited about this challenge. I get to eat and talk with hubby over a good meal. And as an achiever, I get to tick a country off the list.  Learning to pronounce Italian was definitely a plus.

Le Valentino

18 rue baudin

92400 Courbevoie

http://www.pizzeria-valentino.fr/

Eating our way around the World

I love to eat. I love to eat when someone else cooks. Therefore, it is fantastic to be a daughter of an avid cook and a wife of a food enthusiast who is not afraid to try out new stuff in his kitchen.
Husband and I also love to travel to new places. And we live in Paris that is home to a numerous restaurants from all the continents of the World.

I read a lot and last year I heard of Ann Morgan who read a book from each nation in the world (https://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/). Inspired by the thought of being able to "touch" every country in the World, I came up with an idea to eat a meal from every country.

I introduced the idea to my husband, Jukka and together we came up with a plan.

First rule: we eat every meal together. This is not a competition. This is an experience that we will share together.

Secondly, only meals that we eat now onwards, count.

We discussed back and worth to create a structure for this eating challenge. Do we have to eat out or is it also ok to cook at home? How do you know that you are really eating the real thing from that specific country in an ethnic restaurant? Do we only eat in restaurants outside of the country or woud eating in the country be also a good idea? How do we choose the order of the countries? Alphabetical order? Size?

We decided that the restaurant has to be owned or operated by people from the country that the restaurant is dedicated to. We can also eat at home or on the street if we buy the food in a restaurant/market that clearly can be linked to the specific country. If we travel and eat in a country, we ask for advice to make sure we really eat local food. We could also cook at home if the recipe is from that country and all the incredients are original (no Westernised adaptations).

We also agreed on an order for this all. I wanted to avoid eating one continent at a time until finished. Imagine eating 51 meals of European food before being able to sample any African delicacies. So, we agreed an order of the continents in the order of the Olympic rings from left to right. We recognise that there is some controversy about the connection between the colors and the continents but we decided to go with the pre-1951 version (that I learnt at school in the 70's). That is Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia & Oceania and Americas.

We then listed the countries in each contined by area and chose  the 10 largest countries. We will eat in the 10 largest countries of Europe. Then we will eat in the 10 largest countries of Asia etc. So the first 50 meals will include the 10 largest countries of each continent. Then round two we will eat in 11-20th largest countries of each continent. It will be a long time before we will eat in Lichtensteinese restaurant. My biggest worry at the moment is that Saudi Arabia is in Asia's top ten list and there is absolutely no Saudi-Arabian restaurant in Paris. Maybe I will only worry about that when we have eaten through Europe.

Transcontinental countries like Russia and Turkey are only counted in one continent and we choose which one (Russia to Europe, Turkey to Asia).

We can eat the ten countries in a group in any order. One restaurant and one meal can only count for one country.

The first 10 countries are from Europe and they are:

• Russia
• Ukraine
• France
• Spain
• Sweden
• Norway
• Germany
• Sweden
• Poland
• Italy

How long we expect this project to take? A couple of years, at least. We spend a lot of time apart and we might also want to eat in restaurants from other countries than those on the current list. But we are both committed..

Now, off to look for a Norvegian restaurant in Paris!