Eastern European Food Review

HEY! FINALLY UMMI DECIDES TO BLOG!

So two nights ago, while my friends Ruth, Indhira (gandhi?) and I were crawling all over the East Village for food almost to midnight, we knew we would end up going nowhere. Too bad most restaurants would be close by 10 ESPECIALLY on Sunday in New York, which sucks big time.

But thank god for Veselka.



Located 9th street, 2nd avenue
Sorry gambar kecik.


Veselka (meaning, "rainbow") is a Ukrainian coffee shop slash restaurant slash gerenti cekik darah. Well it wasn't THAT expensive, but for $12 a meal, that's considered above average in the New York style of dining. Or maybe with my student status lah kut!

Looking through the menu, I noticed the similarities of their meals with Polish food (which I had in Greenpoint, Brooklyn last year) so, I might as well wrap up my Polish and Ukrainian food report altogether in a single entry as....


THE EASTERN EUROPEAN FOOD REVIEW.


Okay, so apparently they like boiled stuff. Vegetables and potatoes. And pigs. It's kinda gross, but I'm all about exotic foods, remember?

First up, Ruth ordered the borshch (борщ) , which is a predominantly beet soup. Apparently the most popular and uniquely Ukrainian dish.




When the bowl arrived on to our table, the first thing that came to my mind were of those pink onion thingies you ate with murtabak, except its... soupy. But it's distinctively red and suspicious to eat at first!! I tried some of it later, and it has a salty, dry taste to it. Very savoury. But still suspicious. Made out of veggies such as beans, cabbages, carrots, onions, etc with a bit of meat in it. With beef in it instead of pork.

----------------------------------------------------


Indhira then ordered her favourite pierogi (pyrohy):



A common eastern european dumpling (fried or steamed) with goat cheese and mushroom in it, served with apple jam and lots of sour cream as a dipping sauce. They even have a meat pierogi served, with only pork as the option, which obviously I cannot makan!!

Personally, I love dumplings, pierogi, dim sum of all kinds. I know commonly in Malaysia we would dip it with chilli, tomato or even soy sauce, but apple jam? It was bizarre. The combination taste of cheese with sour cream and apple sauce turned out to be more bizarre than I expected.

Borat would definitely say it's like a mouth partyyyyy!!

----------------------------------------------------

I however, was extremely wise in choosing my own food, so I got myself The Beef Strogranoff:




I'm sure you guys have heard of it; it's made of onion, mushroom, sour cream (again!!) sauce with beef and paste cooked together. Served with french fries (my choice actually). God it was amazingly delicious!! It was the safest food I could fall back on besides the borshch (pronounced boa-rsh) or...

----------------------------------------------------

The Golabki (Gołąbki)




Boiled cabbage, stuffed with ground beef, rice, chopped onions, and made it look like a huge light green coloured sausage. Eaten with more beet sauce/jam/whatever the hell AND sour cream. It tasted a little plain, until you dipped them in beet and sour cream. I don't know how to describe the feeling on my tongue, but was simply... interesting. Seriously, what are these people thinking when it comes to their own dishes??


Ivan: Wife I am hungry!
Mykhaila: But Ukrainian/Russian/Polish/slavic dish hasn't been invented yet!
Ivan: well just go make something!
Mykhaila: I got er, beet, pork and cabbages.
Ivan: .....
Mykhaila: wait, and LOTS OF SOUR CREAM!!!!!!!!
Ivan: Приятного аппетита!!!! (enjoy your meal!!)


We didn't get desert though, the food was too filling for us to continue anymore munching. I guess the French are right when it comes to dining, that they do it for the taste, not gluttony. Meaning, you order a little so you can eat a lot at the same time, and not shoving everything in huge portions to actually enjoy it!


----------------------------------------------------



However, there is one more dish I'd like to share, which puzzles me until today. I couldn't find an image for it, no matter how hard I've googled and wiki-ed it. I think basically it's a MEAT PATE, and not exactly french, but here goes the description:


Ground meat, lightly cooked so it would stay red and sliiiightly brown from the fire.
Raw egg yolk on top of it.
Radish chopped one side.
Peppers that look like little pellets (Ukrainian red midget, I think)
Raw, chopped garlic and onions.


It was a questionable dish when I ate it with Nadia in Greenpoint. It took us forever to start digging in because it was a very raw looking meal, more like a set of food you make before you toss them into the kuali.

I was the first to try it. Wow. It was actually delicious!!! The combination taste of pepper, yolk and whatever the hell they marinate the ground beef with was amazing. It was the best taste I've experienced with eastern european cuisine so far, and I count the very day I wanna try it again. In fact, maybe I should call up my friends to join me do so this very moment!! (chey konon ahahhaha)


----------------------------------------------------


There you go. My first and very long review on food. Sorry there are no recipes or whatever, because I can't bloody jack cook to save my own soul!! I would be, however, responsible reviewing the nice restaurants, meals and pastries I experience in NYC, so y'all can be more prepared the moment you come into this city :)


Oh yes, I don't think I'll be going back to Veselka again. Bankrap aku. Oh, the price for exotic food!