Russian Brunch Club – I’ve just had my first taste of Ukrainian food

I first met Katrina last year at a potluck cooking event in London. I hadn’t seen many Russian food blogs before, so she has become my de-facto Russian foodie to follow! So when I saw that she was hosting a Russian brunch club event, I signed up without hesitation (well I may have hesitated a little when I saw the photos of the ladies in flowery costumes, but I saw the men weren’t wearing them, so I wouldn’t be forced to wear one)!

This is the third Russian brunch club that Katrina was to host. Each of her events are themed around different things. This one was to be themed on Ukrainian food. I really didn’t know much about Russian food (and less so about Ukrainian), so I didn’t know what to expect. Katrina kept the menu secret until the day so I didn’t know if I would be getting vodka with caviar or vodka with cabbage (the only thing I was fairly certain of was the vodka).

Due to issue with the slow, cram-packed train from Milton Keynes to Euston (sardines have it easy!) I arrived 10 minutes late, but luckily just before things had gotten started. So I said hi to everyone, sat down and then out popped Katrina with a selection of salo.

What is salo? Well it’s pig fat. Or as Boris Berger, curator of Salo museum in Lviv, Ukraine would say:

“Salo is when noone f**ks you around and you’ve got a bit of money.”

By the way, the Salo museum is the world’s first pig fat museum!

There were mixed types of salo – light, dark and layered. Katrina explained what salo was (the fat from the back of a pig) and how the layered salo was created by feeding the pig alternate types of food as it grows. She also showed us how to eat it – by rubbing a clove of garlic on a piece of bread and then eating the bread with a slice of salo. Little did I know before the event that I would be eating pure pig fat and stinking of garlic! Then again that’s not such a bad thing because I’m a baconaholic and garlic is good for you.

We were given cold shots of vodka (which seemed to go down very nicely) and made a toast to ‘salo’. There was also some home-made red wine which had a slightly dry, sweet-cherry, oaky taste to it – very nice! 3 of the 12 guests were Ukrainian/Romanian and they told me how it was normal for their families to buy grapes back home and make wine from it (some with better results than others!). Apparently most homes did this.

Next came the Aubergine and tomato stacks. These looked fantastic and were Katrina’s mother’s speciality dish from southern Ukraine. They were a very light tasting, summer food that tasted as good as they looked.

After this came the Lyuba’s borsch, which was a soup with vegetables. It reminded me of a cross between tomato soup and oxtail soup. The lady to my right (sorry I’ve forgotten her name!) commented on how nicely I had poured the sour cream on top of my soup – for a second I felt like Kryten turning on ‘smug mode’.

The next course was a little unusual – or at least the presentation of it was… It was half a pigs head. The pig still had its teeth and had been shaven! Images of Katrina applying shaving foam and then shaving the pig entered my head – but I didn’t taste any shaving foam so it was okay. The presentation of this caused quite a stir and everyone reached for their cameras. The pig had taken 2.5 hours to cook and the meat was very nice. The skin was very thick and hard to cut through, but it was fun to watch people carve it! The crackling was very nice though, so well worth the effort. Along with the pig was buckwheat and booze. Plus there was gravy (made from the pig) which was the perfect complement to the buckwheat.

Also with the pig was Vareniki, which are dumplings, stuffed with the ‘best bits’ of an animal and mushrooms – although Katrina didn’t say what she meant by ‘best bits’… [Update from Katrina in the comments below - by 'best bits', she meant offal!]

Then there was a course of: 

• Trans-Carpathian Banush which is a luscious polenta-like stew of corn, home-made sourcream and shkvarki. This was the only thing of the 6 courses that I wasn’t really too fond of (just my personal taste) – having said that, I managed to eat it all! It tasted a bit like a cross between rice pudding and scrambled egg
• Lviv oladushki (plump little pancakes, made with a secret ingredient)
• A couple of other things that Katrina made that aren’t on the menu she gave us. Being in Ukrainian I can’t remember the names of them, but they were nice and you can see them in the photographs below

Dessert

Then there was dessert – with something that I wasn’t expecting – cheesecake! Actually there were two types of cheesecake, one with raisins and a Lviv cake which is made with fresh cheese (which she made herself) and a layer of poppy seeds.

Finally there was Vareniki, stuffed with sour cherries. These were very nice and to my surprise the cherries and sour cream were warm – very yummy!

Overall I thought…

The event was actually far more fun and educational that I thought it was going to be.

It was my first taste of Ukrainian cooking – and what better way to experience it than with a room full of fellow foodies, some of whom were Ukrainian (or from that region).

Katrina and her friend (who got roped in to be an assistant) dressed up in traditional costume and did a fantastic job of keeping everyone fed, drink levels topped up, involved, entertained and happy. I even got a slice of cheesecake to take with me for the train-ride home.

It really couldn’t have been any better. Plus for just £25 it really was amazing value. I would highly recommend it to everyone, whether you have an interest in food, want to experience Russian cuisine or just want a fun afternoon out.

View all photographs of the event.