вегетаріанська їжа в Україні

Yes, that means "vegetarian food in Ukraine." Although not as easy as in Poland, it is possible to find good vegetarian food in Ukraine. (Note: I have nothing against traditional ways of raising and eating meat; my vegetarianism is primarily in the context of the U.S. meat industry).

Here's a recap of some of the interesting food and drinks we had in Ukraine (mainly Lviv). Hopefully we'll be making some of these at home in the coming months!


@ Kumpel in Lviv
Banosh (Банош) is a creamy cornmeal porridge from western Ukraine. A reputable source informed us that Kumpel has the best banosh in Lviv.

More after the jump...

@ Kumpel in Lviv
Garlic soup in a rectangular bread bowl. This was delicious. Hearty brown bread is common in Ukraine, and it makes a great soup bowl.



@ Gazova Lampa in Lviv
There are a number of themed restaurants in Lviv. Gazova Lampa has a kerosene lantern theme, since the modern version of the kerosene lantern was invented in Lviv, by the Polish inventor Ignacy Łukasiewicz. The restaurant has tasty bar food, including these fried onions that reminded me of onion pakora.



@ the underground monastery restaurant in Lviv
Vegetable-filled cabbage rolls. Julie and I are expert cabbage rollers ourselves, but usually we just make cabbage roll casserole since it is a lot less work.



@ ArtPole folk music and art festival
Cheese and vegetable blintze. This was delicious and tasted like pizza.

Also at the festival, I had a simple meal of boiled potatoes with dill, cucumber with dill, and rye bread. It was so simple yet so satisfying. I will have to recreate it.

However, my absolute favorite meal of the whole trip was borscht pizza, made by our friend Areta who we were visiting in Lviv! So creative and delicious!


Areta also turned us onto these chocolates with interesting flavors. The chamomile flavor wasn't super noticeable, but I really liked the poppy seed one.


And one final photo...infused vodka in plastic shot glasses!
 
There were some good flavors: honey, plum, peach, pear, horseradish; but we came up with some ideas of our own, including: beet, dill, poppy seed, turmeric, mustard seed, cardamom, and tomato leaf!