After traveling for two weeks in Russia, I returned to Ukraine with the great desire to eat caviar and sip champagne (very rare delicacies here, whereas every restaurant in Moscow and Saint Petersburg will offer these on the menu). I splurged and prepared the most delicious homecoming treat in this part of the world!

This is a traditional Soviet party dish, so put on your party hat, cause it’s gonna be GRATE! (Sorry, I just can’t help myself. Bad puns are like a disease.)

One of the great things about Passover in Ukraine is that many of the dishes we normally eat are naturally kosher for Pesach. A prime example is borsht, perhaps the most well-known and beloved example of Ukrainian cuisine. Every Ukrainian woman has her own version and so I present to you my very own, one of a kind, borsht recipe.

“SALT.  No more than 5 kg of salt per pair of hands!!!!”

In early March, the supply of salt in Ukraine decreased slightly. There was still plenty of salt ready to be mined in the east. There was no government coup or nutritional crisis. There was just some hiccup in the mining process, and for a few days the supermarkets had slightly less salt than usual. No big deal, right?

February 23, Defender of the Fatherland Day, is a former Soviet memorial holiday celebrating those soldiers who fell defending red Russia in the Russian Civil War from 1918-1921. Today it has become a sort of Men’s Day (to compliment Women’s Day, which takes place on March 8). Although many Ukrainians don’t celebrate this holiday, our office takes it very seriously and prepares an entire spectacle and feast for the men. This year, the women transformed the office into a Ukrainian kolkhoz (a collective farm during Soviet times, basically a Soviet kibbutz) and sang a Ukrainian song, with the lyrics changed for the men in our office.

Hey there. My name’s Michelle, and I’ll be your Ukrainian Jew for the next six months. Born and raised in New York, I never spoke a word of Russian or ate a bite of borsht, until I suddenly found myself living in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine three months after graduating from college.

I work for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a nonprofit organization that engages in Jewish rescue, relief, and renewal all over the world, but especially in the former Soviet Union. I personally am directing a volunteer initiative for eastern Ukraine called Do Good, Ukraine! In the six months that I’ve been living in Dnepropetrovsk, I’ve become conversant in Russian, active in the Jewish community, and pretty knowledgeable about traditional Ukrainian and Russian foods, both Jewish and secular.