Been back on the road again this spring, after a relatively quiet winter mostly at home.
In April, I went to Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, close to the Russian border, for “America Days”, a week of educational and cultural events organized by the U.S. Embassy. I went for just 2 days, for an education fair and a workshop. That was more than enough time for me in this industrial hub – the air was so filthy and toxic that my eyes wouldn’t stop watering and my nose burned like hell. I don’t know how people live there, geez.
Next trip was to
Georgia (Republic of), always a favorite destination. I managed to squeeze in a bit of sightseeing, despite the busy work schedule, including a trip to Uplistsikhe Park, a 4000-year old cave city that once housed over 20,000 people. Amazing.
Actually, Easter was before my trip to Georgia. Igor was the grillmaster, as usual
There was much in abundance.
He tried a new recipe: grilled pineapple. Vova approved.
Last week I made quick trip for another America Days program, this time to Ivano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine. The tiny plane from Kyiv was full with almost all Americans – the guy checking us in was so surprised! I guess that daily flight usually only has a handful of passengers at most, and certainly is never full of all Americans. I sat next to two Native American chefs, who had been brought over from Arizona as part of State Department cultural exchange program. Really cool people. Before the education fair the next day, I dashed over to the other side of town for their master class.
It was really cool. They told me on the plane that most of the dishes they’d be preparing were selected because they could be made with ingredients easily available in Ukraine, but they did bring blue cornmeal from the U.S. to make blue cornbread. Yum.
In their presentation, they talked about how food brings people together across cultures. I knew some of the foods that were native to the Americas and were introduced to Europe only after 1492, like tomatoes and potatoes, but I didn’t know (or maybe had just forgotten) that corn, squash, and sunflowers were also non-existent in Europe before then. Sunflowers are so quintessentially Ukrainian! Hard to imagine this country without fields and fields of bright yellow sunflowers.
Anka in Kyiv 