Ukraine | world-food-thursdays

Country No. 41: Ukraine

Albina, Canning Town

2nd August 2018

Attendees: Ben, Ellen, PK, Chloe, Becky, Kim, Lee, Michiko (debut)

£35 a head

Let’s talk about ideologies, and more accurately how a blind pursuit of an ideology can lead to downfall unless it is embraced wholeheartedly until the bitter end.

Our ideology is simple. Fate will select one country per month for us to visit. Provided the country’s cuisine is represented within the confines of the M25 we will endeavour to gather at the appointed restaurant, no matter how doubtful we are as to the delectability of the fare. Fate does not care a jot for the joy of your taste buds.

Ukraine caused a great deal of disquiet within the ranks, a countermovement briefly flourished, suggesting that Italian would be a preferable choice. Fortunately for the purists General Fels swiftly crushed the rebellion and so, in the middle of the heatwave, we arrived at Albina, somewhere in the suburban sprawl between Canning Town and Barking.

Albina, with its name proudly scrawled in Cyrillic above the door, is something of a throwback. Bitterly cold, wood panelled, and adorned with crowds of figurines entering was like stepping into another world. Michiko, our latest debutante, could not be blamed for assuming she had been tricked into entering some kind of candid camera light entertainment programme, alone as she was in this strange strange world. Fortunately she was swiftly greeted by a stranger being…Lee and swiftly educated on the joys of pre-starters. For this particular episode pre-starters consisted of potato cakes with soured cream and cabbage leaves stuffed with minced pork. Well worth turning up early for.

As the rest of the gastronaughts arrived in dribs and drabs, local beers were brought out and ceremonially poured into gaudy ceramic mugs, a superb accompaniment for a platter of mother-in-laws pickles. Those that elected not to try the beer quenched their thirst with some Georgian wine, a lovely throwback to the World Food #3.

Following the devouring of the pre-starters the serious ordering began. Taking advice from the waitress, necessary as the menu had been infiltrated with Belarussian imposters (crucially avoided) we ordered pancakes three ways…cheese, potato and meat. What arrived were more similar to dumplings, although with a much thicker shell. Tasty but quite stodgy.

A mid-meal palate cleanser of Borsht was next up, two bowls of steaming beetroot soup accompanied by some absolutely delicious buttery, garlicky, sweet bread rolls. Like brioche on steroids.

After much deliberation we arrived at the main event, and predictably, we went with the classic. 4 humungous chicken kievs arrived, resplendent in their breadcrumbed finery, garlicky entrails spilling out at the first incision.

To finish we pushed the boat out and ordered some traditional Ukrainian honey cake. Layered and encased in white frosting.

Long live the ideology.

Ukrainian Facts:

Only one fact is needed.

As you know, Kiev is a capital of Ukraine, and while the name of the dish may sound very much Ukrainian, it actually is not. Turns out that Chicken Kiev is originally from France. It was invented by French chef, Nicolas Francois Appert and was known as côtelettes de volaille. Côtelettes de Volaille arrived to Russia during the times of Emress Elizaveta Petrovna. Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna was brought up by a French tutor, spoke French and was fascinated by the French culture. By the late 18th century, French dishes and fashion were widely imitated in Russia. However, it is generally believed that côtelettes de volaille have been renamed to Chicken Kiev by New York restaurants trying to please Russian clientele in the 20th century. The dish was also known as Chicken Supreme.