Now, on to the show. Tonight we ate at a restaurant that I have been dying to try for ages and it was sooo good. Usually I am not a fan of adding o's onto so's but in the case of this restaurant I will make the exception. I cannot even describe how delicious it was and what's more, I had really high expectations for this restaurant and finally, because I've been disappointed by restaurants that I've had high expectations about before, finally I was not disappointed by the reality of said restaurant's food. The name of the place is Veselka: it is a medium-sized Ukrainian diner in the East Village (corner of 9th Street and 2nd Ave) and it's open 24/7. From my very limited knowledge of what emcompasses Ukrainian food, I'm pretty sure that they serve it all and boy are they are good at what they do. I had a vegetarian plate which for $12.95 came with a whole lotta food. There was (and I do apologize now Dad) the best vegetarian borscht that I have ever had, a really tasty and fairly large salad with some kind of dill dressing and then a plate with four large boiled pierogies (potato and cheese) and the best vegetarian cabbage roll ever -- it had a chunky mushroom gravy that looked not so appetizing but was absolutely plate-lickable (it did make me miss my Nannie Mary though because that lady makes a mean cabbage roll...a cabbage roll that she rolls so tight it could probably survive being Fed-Ex'ed to me...). Oh man it was good. The service was fast and fairly cheery for New York and the place was just-a hoppin' with people. I will be back without forsure: in fact, if I wake up in the middle of the night, I may just hop on over, it's not too long of a train ride after all.
The Veselka Vegetarian Plate -- 4 boiled pierogies, 1 cabbage roll (soup and salad are not pictured because I have already eaten them...)
I'm totally a member of the clean plate club.
Now, I know you are all thinking, what about me? How come she gets to taste this yummy, yummy Ukrainian food and all I'm left with is a hungry tummy? Well, fear not my friends because Veselka has a cookbook and I'm going to buy it and learn all about Ukrainian diner food and tell you all about it. And as a side note, if I spelled pierogies wrong, can someone Nicely tell me? Toodles and Thanks!
looks like either "perogies" or "pierogies" are acceptable spellings... but it is not so much the spelling but the tasting that counts!!! An d I like the ones my mom makes best.
ReplyDeletewoohoo - I get the prize for the first comment. (There is a prize, right?)
ReplyDeleteWell one of the reasons that I have not been making comments recently is that I have been having problems getting this system to accept my comments. And there is nothing more frustrating than typing what you have thought to be a few paragraphs of witty comments and then find out that they have disappeared into cyberspace. I don't usually use a gmail account so, trying to remember a new username and password has been challenging. I don't know why I went almost a whole month without a problem and now it is giving me hassles. I only hope that I am the only one that is having this issue.
ReplyDeleteSo here goes again!
Who knew that there was a Ukrainian restaurant open 24/7 in Manhattan? I didn't!
I had said earlier that I was crushed to hear that my borscht soup has been topped by a vegetarian version! I still don't believe it!
I use big chunks of browned Grade A Alberta sirloin beef and now I am told that this place serves a better vegetarian one! I am going to have to go there and taste that to believe it.
Oh yes, now I remember what I had previously typed before it got lost! I was apologizing for not commenting on what to do with the blood oranges. But I guess that nobody else provided the Blog Mistress with any ideas either, so I should not feel so bad!
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion, even though it might be a few days too late, would be to make a marmalade with a variety of other citrus fruits to go with that great no-knead bread recipe from last week. I am sure that you have probably turned out another loaf by now!
I did hear from a lot of the family over the Easter weekend about how much they enjoy reading your blog. Maybe they are all intimidated or frustrated with the hoops that you have to go through to make the comments. But I would really encourage the followers and readers to persevere as I do find this quite entertaining.
Oh, I understand the siren song of blood oranges - the first time I saw them as an adult (since a childhood trip to Spain, But I digress) was in LA and I bought up a bag. I was positively giddy with anticipation when I got them home, but discovered that they just don't taste all that great eaten out of hand, as they say.
ReplyDeleteUse their juice with prozacco for breakfast and Ina Garten extols the virtues of a blood orange margarita. Rod's idea of marmalade is also perfect. Nice work, Rod.