Wheat Free in the Bread Basket

One of my biggest challenges during the trip will have nothing to do with transportation, language, local customs, or photography. For two weeks, I will be traveling through the bread basket of Europe and I am what intolerant. Luckily it's different from celiac disease or I would be really in trouble - I can't have wheat, but with celiac you have to avoid all gluten which can even be found in vitamins.

Growing up in a Ukrainian family I'm already familiar with some local foods - although the dishes we eat in Canada are just the tip of the iceberg of traditional cuisine. Having been diagnosed with a food allergy later in life, I've learned to adapt and modify the recipes so that I don't have to give up my favourites, but I doubt that they have pyrohy made of rice flour in Kyiv.

One amazing resource that I have found to help me eat at the local establishments is an iTunes App for my iTouch called the Gluten Free Restaurant Card. Although aimed more towards those that have Celiac Disease, this app created by www.celiactravel.com contains 43 language translations of text that basically says "I am allergic to foods containing flour or grains of wheat, rye, barley and oats. Does this food contain these ingredients?" You choose the language you need and then you can show the translated card to your waiter to read. They don't have Ukrainian, but they have Russian which is close enough since many people speak it in the cities. I can see myself using this app on many trips to countries where I am not fluent in the local language.

There are a lot of great foods that I can look forward to while I'm in Ukraine, and some that I love that I'm going to have to avoid:

FOODS I'M GOING TO MISS OUT ON

• vushka - little mushroom-filled dumplings you get in borscht.
• pyrohy - the fried version of "pierogies" and often filled with fruit or poppy seed filling for dessert.
• varenyky - the boiled version of "pierogies" normally filled with potatoes, cabbage, cheese and topped with butter, sour cream, bacon, and onions
• nalisnyky - crepes that you can fill with cottage cheese, meat, caviar or fruit
• kotlety - minced meat or fish fritters rolled in breadcrumbs
• kanapky - black or white bread-based canapes topped with mayo or butter, caviar, smoked herring, cucumber/tomato slices and dill
• pampushky - fried sweet dough similar to doughnut hole, filled with sweet fillings.
• pyvo - beer
• kasha hrechana zi shkvarkamy - buckwheat cereal with chopped, fried bacon and onion
  

FOODS I CAN INDULGE IN

• ohirky - sour pickles
• kapusta - sauerkraut
• borscht - beet soup (with a dollop of sour cream)
• hrybivka - mushroom soup
• kapusniak - sauerkraut soup
• yushka - fish soup, usually carp
• holubtsi - cabbage rolls with rice and meat (avoiding the ones with buckwheat)
• syrnyky - cottage cheese fritters (sometimes with raisins - blech!)
• pechenya - roast meat
• kartoplia - potato with sour cream, butter and dill
• huliash - stew
• kovbasa - various smoked or bolied pork, beef or chicken sausage
• shashlyk - shish kebab of lamb and vegetables marinated in vinegar and grilled on skewers with white wine
• pliatsky - potato pancakes with sour cream
• sichenyky - minced beef with omelette and fried onions
• torte - cakes, frequently made without flour using instead ground walnuts or almonds

YOU CAN'T PAY ME TO EAT THESE

• salo - salted (or occasionally raw) unrendered pork lard similar to bacon but with a higher ration of fat to meat. Eaten as a snack. Also available as "chocolate covered".
• studynets - jellied fish or meat
• kvas - a sweet and sour sparkling beverage made from yeast, sugar and dried rye bread

It's going to be challenging navigating my way through what I can and cannot eat. But I figure that if I made it through 2 weeks in Italy, with their love of breads and wheat, then I will have no problem with the Ukrainian diet. I'm always up for an adventure.

Some food name and descriptions from Wikipedia - Ukrainian Food. Images from Wikimedia Commons.