I'll spare everyone more gushing or talk of how I spent my whole night working on a present for M. (I did) Instead I'll talk about dinner. Yummy, Ukrainian dinner.
Growing up I had the privilege of know Peter Ostroushko. One of the many great local folk musicians. If you listen to A Prairie Home Companion, you know he regularly sits in with the house band. Growing up, via Peter, my family would go to the Ukrainian churches in NE Minneapolis for Friday lunches where little old ladies would make pierogies and borscht. Pierogies (or varenyky) are little dumplings of goodness. As far as I'm concerned, the only kind is potato and cheese, but they do come in other varieties. They are one of my favorite comfort foods, that I don't have the energy to make regularly (lots of rolling out and stuffing).
While Friday afternoons I am usually at work, I can still get my fix at Kramarczuk's (just don't ask me how to pronounce it). They are part deli, part meat market, specialty bakery, and well, love. They have everything from a huge selection of home made sausages, to Szegedin Goulash (a pork product and sauerkraut dish that defies a good explanation it would seem seeing as I can't write one). They have German and Eastern European sweets and condiments, fresh bread and a pretty stellar butcher selection.
They are one of my favorite local eateries. They've even inspired me to make our holiday meals more interesting. Christmas day dinner at our house is usually some adventure in ethnic cooking. We've done German, Spanish, and well not sure what to call it but it involved beef, and blue cheese, and walnuts. It was good.
So, where do you like to eat? What is your favorite comfort food?
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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6 comments:
We always say "kuh-mar-chucks" at our house...I think that's correct(ish). They sometimes have family-friendly live music there, which is fun.
We always say "kuh-mar-chucks" at our house...I think that's correct(ish). They sometimes have family-friendly live music there, which is fun.
argh, sorry for the double-comment!
"Krah (say Ahhhh) mar (like a mark without the K) chicks"
We used to live in the apartment building across the street. I was in the deli one day when I heard a man accidentally refer to the little old lady behind the counter as Polish.
"Not Polish, UKRANIAN!" she yelled in the best soup nazi voice I have ever heard.
We take my proudly self-referrened "bohunk"grandfather there whenever he is in town. He loves the sausage and saukraut
If you want to go a little nicer, Nyes has fantastic pierogyes (cannot spell them at all).
My Ukranian grandma used to make those things that are like pierogi only she called them (don't know the spelling) puddah-heh. I was just thinking about her yesterday and wishing I'd gotten her to teach me how to make them properly.
I have a terrible confession: although not a vegan, I've got it bad for the local vegan restaurant's "meatloaf" with shitake gravy. If I was a person with a different skill set, I would cook it and force my family to try it on Thanksgiving. Instead I'll give them long lectures about how they'd love if they could just try it...
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