Food for Thought

Hello and thanks to all whom encourage us with comments! We’ve been in Ukraine for over one week now and while our spirits are hopeful—we do crave the connection to home. Tim thought I should spend some time discussing the adjustment in expectations as it relates to food items. He showed you our breakfast from this morning and unless you are used to spaghetti and cucumbers for breakfast, it was out of the ordinary. We actually enjoy the variety and guessing whether breakfast will include the more traditional omelet, kashi, spaghetti, blintzes (Yum!), yogurt, vegetables, black and white bread. Dinner is always an exciting culinary adventure as well! I asked the “Excursion Department” in our hotel if they had a list of local restaurants, (in what I thought was not-halfway bad Russian) and the man said in almost-perfect English, “Yes, and here it is”.
I found a restaurant that advertised “Tex-Mex” cuisine and was excited, as we haven’t had Mexican food in a few weeks. I was a bit suspicious of the restaurant’s name “Potato House”, but still optimistic that at least some of the dishes would be Mexican. Oh, no! They didn’t have a chip, dorito, or salsa in the place! Tim ordered the closest thing to Mexican on the menu (with the help of Oles)—3 tortillas with meat or something like that. The “tortilla” was 1 soft flour blintz with meat in wrapped up in the center with cheese and mayonnaise. Oles and I ordered from a picture on the counter that had three sausages and many tomatoes on the side. What came was different; one sausage and some parsley on the side—no tomatoes! Nevertheless, the sausage was delicious. Talk about the need for truth in advertising!
Today’s culinary adventure was in the Italian realm. The restaurant’s name is not Italian and they make no claim to offer any one kind of dish. However, our mouths started watering when we saw the Pasta section on the menu (we were thinking of Maurizios, Hah!). Since Oles wasn’t with us to translate, I was able to discover with the help of the waitress, that the word I didn’t know meant “veal”. Therefore, by the looks of it, I ordered “Veal Parmesan”—my favorite! Tim ordered meat lasagna. What we were served was unlike any Italian dish I ever had (although it had spaghetti—like from breakfast), the meat did not taste like veal and wasn’t really discernable which usually means “pork”. Tim’s dish did look like lasagna but without a marinara sauce—more mayonaise. Both tasted great, just completely different from our expectations. When in doubt, there’s always good-ol’ morojennie (ice cream). The chocolate ice cream with cherry sauce was scrumptious!
Today, we didn’t get to go to the orphanage as Oles was busy driving from here to Gorodnya to Kiev back to here and then to Gorodnya and then back to Kiev to submit our documents. Long story. We were asked about Tanya and I’d like to elaborate. Tanya is Katya’s older half-sister and has been in the orphanage for 11 years. She will be 18 June 19th . She’s the oldest in the orphanage. She is tiny—well under five feet and is wearing the boots we bought for Sophie when she was 12. Despite her diminutive appearance, she mothers her sister lovingly. She has beautiful blue eyes, an engaging smile and a low voice like Katya, and is very gregarious despite the language barrier. From the information we’ve been able to extract from Oles, spending time with her, and from Katya when she visited us, Tanya is a smart girl who is determined to make a future for herself. She doesn’t smoke, drink, or do drugs and is very protective of Katya. She is planning to go to cooking school here in Chernigov next year. She has a great sense of humor and is quick-witted. We are heart-broken to leave her here: and we are praying that God will help us to help her in whatever way He leads. The lawyer at the orphanage is already starting to get her passport, so we think she’ll definitely be able to visit us this summer. If she wants to be in America, we will try to get her a student visa and a scholarship into a cooking school in the US (maybe she will learn how to make veal parmesan like Maurizios). Any ideas, Rob P.?