I personally decided to start eating meat again for one main reason: I didn’t want to be seen as rude or difficult. If you are planning on moving to Ukraine and are vegetarian I would highly recommend considering your options. If you are planing on just visiting Ukraine and maintaining your vegetarianism here are some tips:

• Study your food words in Ukrainian and Russian
• Your soup will be meat-broth based, except this and move on.
• The breakfast of champions is a Snickers and bag of chips
• Your options in winter are going to be fewer then your options in summer
• Expect meat to pop up in places you wouldn’t think it would be
• ?????? (potato pancakes) is usually a safe bet.

For my carnivores I have advice for you too. My top three favorite foods that include meat in Ukraine:

• ????? (borscht) – If Ukraine had a national food it would be borscht. If you visit Ukraine and don’t have borscht at least once I would have to say you didn’t really experience Ukraine. Every restaurant, even the Italian ones, have borscht on the menu. Excellent with a side of ???????? (papmpushkas), fluffy garlic rolls.
• ??????? (holypsi) – Cabbage rolls stuffed with rice, onion, and ground-up meat simmered in a pot of tomato broth. These are the first Ukrainian food that I will make for my friends and family back in the states.
• ??????? (shashleek) – The Ukrainian version of barbeque. Juicy chunks of pork slow cooked over charcoal. A dish that defiantly calls for a cold beer or a few shots of vodka.

Being a vegetarian in Ukraine is not impossible. I know many Americans who live here and have maintained a vegetarian diet. I also know a small handful of Ukrainians who are vegetarian. I remember one conversation with a Ukrainian where she told me she is the only vegetarian in her family and is viewed as an anomaly. The way I see it is this: there is a Ukrainian word for vegetarian so people here are aware of the concept but will still give you a hard time when you tell your food preference. You should see the looks I get when I explain veganism.

Julia Grebenstein is a Peace Corps Youth Development Volunteer working in Central Ukraine. To read more about her experiences in Ukraine, follow her blog at http://jgrebenstein.wordpress.com/.

The Varennyky dough is cut into circles, filled, and then closed into a half-moon shape. Sometimes they are sauteed with salo (bacon bits) or with a mushroom sauce, and then served with sour cream.  If they are of the fruit variety they can be sprinkled with sugar. They are delicious!

To find the best Varrennyky I suggest you find your nearest babusya, but if you can’t make it to Ukraine today you can try making your own!

Heres a great recipe!  http://www.shesimmers.com/2010/04/best-vareniki-dough-recipe-from-valya.html

In Ukraine, Easter is the biggest holiday of the year, for many families. Easter is three days long in Ukraine, although the biggest day is still Easter Sunday. The holiday starts on Saturday night. Everyone attends Church for a candle-lit ceremony through the night. In addition, all the church-goers bring their Easter baskets to be blessed. Inside are all the painted eggs (pysanky), sausage, and Easter Paska break (like coffee cake). This way, when the fast is broken after the church ceremony all the food can be considered holy.

If you sleep at all on Easter it is only for a few hours. In the morning on Sunday, the real celebration begins. There is a huge feast including all the food that was blessed the night before as well as a little vodka, and then a lot more food! The celebrating can continue (as with most holidays in Ukraine) for hours!

Usually Ukrainians spend the first day of Easter with their families, and the second and third paying visits to friends.

Ukrainian Easter in the Kyiv Post

Peace Corps Volunteer Emily Kotay, Outside of her Village of Kozova, Ternopil's'ka Oblast

SEE: _{Emily Kotay*}

Kosova

Western Ukraine is a major agricultural area in Europe.  The country fields are beautiful to see, especially in spring and summer.  Visiting western Ukraine, one gets a feel for authentic, rural life.  Pictured here are fields of Canola blooming in the beginning of May 2008, near the town of Kozova, Ternopil’s’ka Oblast. (30 kM from Ternopil) A visitor is free to walk among the flowers and crops, enjoying the idyllic scenery!

EAT: _{Jenny Heintz*}

?????? ???? (Starey Miln) “The Old Mill”

At Starey Miln, Ternopil Ukraine, you can experience some of the best food and best beer the country has to offer for a pretty good price.

The main event and my favorite main course at Starey Miln is soup in a bread bowl! This might be the most delicious thing on a cold Ukrainian afternoon.

You have a choice between the traditional red borsch (???????? ????), green borsch (??????? ????), and a soup called “solyanka” (???????), all of which you can get in a normal bowl or a rather large bread bowl made out of only the best Ukrainian rye or “brown” bread. My personal favorite is the green borsch, which unlike its red counterpart, has no beets in it. It’s made of chetl which is a green I have not seen outside of Ukraine but looks and tastes similar to spinach.  This is a truly fantastic Ukrainian staple that my host mom used to make and Starey Miln replicates to a T.

Don’t forget to try your soup with a half liter of draft ???????????? (Mykulynetske), which is the Ternopilska Oblast micro brew!  Mikolenetske is available in light (??????), dark (?????), and honey (??????).

TRANSPORTATION:

Trains from L’viv to Ternopil run three times daily (3 hours ride) and from there you can take a short bus-ride (????????) to Kozova.  In addition overnight trains run from Prague to Ternopil and Kyiv to Ternopil every evening.

To Starey Miln from the train station: Turn right out of the station onto Khmel’nyts’koho Street and go 1/4 mile to Zbarazka St and turn right. Go through the tunnel and across the intersection. The restaurant is on the left hand corner at 1a Brodivscka Street.

*Emily Kotay and Jenny Heintz were Peace Corps Volunteers in Western Ukraine from 2007 to 2009.