Day #14/31: Clouds

DAY #14: CLOUDS

It is no secret that the food here, for the most part, is wonderful. We eat with Ukrainians. They teach us to cook the things we like best. Then we cook our own versions of the foods we have come to love. When I was in training living with Tanya and Sasha, on holidays they would make a feast of shashlik. This is basically the Ukrainian version of shish kebabs- although all translations seem to point to “ barbecue”. If the barbeque is cooking meat and vegetables over hot coals- then, yes, it is barbecue. It is not the rubbed, slow cooked, and sauced barbecue that I think of in the Southern U.S. Nonetheless, the marinated meat is skewered and cooked over the coals and boy is it good. Other volunteers seemed to have this meal more regularly than I did, as it was reserved, in our home, only for special occasions. I believe the few times I have had shashlik were on Victory Day, day of the dead, a birthday party for Tanya and Sasha’s late son, and on my last night in Chernigov when Pavil and Vera came to wish me well on the next step in my journey. This photo of Pavil and I standing in a cloud of smoke was taken on my last night in Chernigov. The meal was every bit as good as I could have asked for. And in fact when I went back to Chernigov for a visit last October, I requested the same dinner. They came through again. Now that I have networked myself a little bit in the town of Razdol’noye, I hope to increase my shashlik consumption several fold this summer.