Last weekend in Ukraine included a public holiday, and with most of our colleagues in Poland, Mishka & I decided to have a big cooking weekend!
First up was Roast Chicken and Vegy at my apartment on Saturday night, but first we had to shop for food!! Saturday morning we caught the metro to Target.... which Mishka thought was two stations away.. but since he has been taking Russian lessons and Masha has been helping him, he actually changed his mind and thought it was three stations away. Unsure... we went to the third station....We saw a lot of people get out at the second station, & we looked at each other & said, OK if we have the exit station wrong, all we have to do is ask someone at the next station if Target was upstairs, before we actually get out of the station and we can go back.. We got off the train at the third station & I said to Michal, "Ask someone who looks young if we have the right station". Mishka goes up to the first guy he sees and asks something that I don’t understand as it is in Russian, apart from the word "Target". This guy opens his eyes that are very glazy & points upstairs then left and right. Now this guy was either drunk or on something else, and Mishka & I looked at each other & laughed.... as we do a lot! We proceeded upstairs & out of the Metro station...... & there was Target one of our favorite food and accessory type shopping centers. First mission complete.... we found Target.
Now as I have mentioned in previous blogs, when I shop, I go prepared with a list of things I need. "Mishka, do you have a list", I ask? " No I don’t need a list", he replies!!!! We grab a trolley between the two of us & Mishka's phone rings. Its Sasha who is in Poland with Christina and Maryna! So Mishka is having a conversation with our colleagues, casually glancing at the shelves & occasionally picking up the odd item, while I commence traipsing the isles for my items on the list. I have most of my things when Mishka finally catches up with me and says "Mez, you shop to fast"!
We finally get to the fruit & veg section. I look for carrots, pumpkin and potatoes. I find potatoes, but nothing else. OK, Potatoes and roast chook go hand in hand, so Mez, just go get some frozen veg. I tell Mishka to pick out a nice chook... many and varied size on display... while I continue my journey. We meet back somewhere in between frozen veg and meat & Mishka has picked out an enormous chook! But you never know who is going to turn up for a meal here so big is good.
Finally all shopping is finally in the basket.... including Bear Crossing Chardy! "Mishka you didn’t pick up toilet rolls" one of the reasons we shop at Target.... " I still have two rolls left before I have to buy more" he says! Buy in bulk now I say...... "too hard to carry" Says he!.... Shit shopping with men is too hard!
Next, to the checkout! We find a checkout that has few people in it and jump into the queue. As we start putting our purchases on the table, the lady says something, that neither of us understand. We continue to unload our trolley & I say to Mishka that she probably asked if we needed bags, which they charge for & we didn’t need! When I get all my stuff on the table, I flash my Ukraine credit card at her & she says something I don’t understand.... never do! At the end of the scanning of goods, the lady says something again & unsure of what is happening, I offer her cash in the hope this will ease the anguish of the people in the now long queue behind us. "SUPERVISOR to checkout! is what I understand the nice lady yelling out! Mishka & I look at each other and laugh!!!! Absolutely no idea what is going on, we wait until a lady takes me to another register & scans my card to pay for the purchases..... Mishka goes through exactly the same scenario & ends up at a different checkout swiping his card for his purchases..... we still have no idea what we did wrong in the etiquette of supermarket shopping in Ukraine..... Maryna, Andrey, Dima...... help....What did we do wrong???? Folks back home, this is the challenge we face..... but hey we laugh about our little adventures.....
OK food purchases are complete & Mishka & I manage to get a taxi home, bit hard on the metro with all those bags.... & we are stuffed!! It is hard work navigating the metro and supermarket! "Dinner at my place 7pm " I text to Mishka.
The chook goes in the oven, potato’s peeled, and I open a bottle of wine! Hmmm home cooked food smells so good. Gravy is the last thing I need for official Australian Roast Chicken meal with Polish and Ukraine friends Mishka and Mashka. I could not find anything like gravox in the supermarket, so I purchased flour at the supermarket & decided to make it from scratch. I take the beautifully cooked chook out of the baking dish, add some flour to the juices in the pan and stir. Nothing happens! the flour just seems to dissolve instead of thicken, so I put more flour in and stir. Same thing, the flour just dissolves! What sort of flour did I buy I think? I read the label, but I cant make anything out that says it is anything but flour, so I give up. I was so looking forward to having meat with gravy, but it was not to be. My friends arrive, a feast is had and too much Bear Crossing was consumed....... pics courtesy of Mishka.
Masha
Laughter
We went over board on the pics
Oh how cute
We were singing and dancing to ...
The Pink Funhouse Aussie tour DVD
Mishka getting intimate with an Aussie rules footy. I think he likes the Bombers
The Russian hat come out to play..
Such good mates
Yep... I know exactly how
you feel Mishka!
Sunday was spent recovering...... all of Sunday!
Monday.... Mishka texts me and says “ My place at 6.30 for dinner, I have to go shopping for food”! Why didn’t you get all the stuff on Saturday at Target, I think to myself and shake my head!!! It is International Women’s day and the Europeans celebrate it in a big way, even more so than Mothers day. Everyone seems to be out buying tulips and what looks like to me to be Australian wattle, but surely not.. so I Google it...
"The mimosa (technically, the Silver Wattle) is the symbol of the celebrations of Women's day in Italy and Russia"... From Wikipedia. Blow me down, there is a little bit of Aussie used to celebrate in Ukraine!
I arrive at Mishka's apartment and he has started cooking.... and had a bottle of wine open! We were having cannelloni with meat and canelloni with spinich...Yum. So I sit there and watch Michal cook for a while, with glass of wine. He is not all that well organised & there is a lot of mess and ingredients everywhere, but he seemed to know what he was doing. Im impressed !!!
Meat is prepared and canelloini softened in simmering water for four minutes. Meat and spinich mix is stuffed into canelloni.
Place stuffed canelloni into baking dish
Prepare béchamel sauce
Pour sauce over canelloni
Place mozzarella chees over canelloni.
Cook in oven at 180 degrees fan forced for a while to get the cooking started, then non fan forced for a while. Complete first bottle of wine and laugh a a lot while waiting for canelloni to cook and Masha to arrive.
Wash dishes, give Mez flowers for international womens day.
.
Serve canelloni
Open another bottle of wine, eat, and laugh ...... nice weekend !
Go home, fall into bed and think about yet another great weekend spent with friends in Kharkiv, Ukraine
PM Australia wanted a picture of me in a tourist destination in Kharkiv so they could write an article for the Tobacco Times (in house newspaper) for publication in Winter. The only Place in Kharkive that we know of so far and have been able to visit is Freedom Square in the heart of Kharkiv. So I asked my personal photographer, Michal, to help me with a photo shoot of me and Lenin to send back to PML.... here are the pics.
Me and Lenin with the University on the left
He is a big boy!!!
Me & Michal
& our big friend.....I'm home now and last week we had terrinble weather, hail stones the size of golf balls! My verandah coped the hail & now it is fully airconditioned!... Pics next blog
Since my arrival, the weather has been perfect.. +25 to +29 degrees, so I am thawing out nicely and looking forward to catching up with family & friends before the last three months in Kharkiv
xm
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