Cuisine of southern Ukraine: culinary customs and customs of Odessa

Odessa is an incredible, bright, fantastic city, and its cuisine is just as original and unique. How many dishes born inOdessa, successfully integrated into the gastronomic customs of other regions! And how many beautiful "delicious" ideas found their implementation on the black sea coast of Odessa and were brought to life by the best chefs! The history and culture of the people is inseparable from its cuisine, and therefore the South Ukrainian culinary traditions presented in Odessa are the quintessence and reflection of the customs of the entire South of Ukraine.

So, what do they eat in Odessa? Of course, everyone knows that the first Odessa dish is forshmak . It is believed that forshmak is a real Jewish food, the name of which is translated from German as "appetizer" or "anticipation", that is, eating before the main dish. And this is the truth! Anticipation of even more perfection, even more delicate taste, even more pleasure – this is what a real Odessa forshmak is. By the way, according to the legend, it appeared in the city more than a hundred years ago and since then has not decreased its position in the ranking of the most popular dishes.

The Odessa lexicon does not know the words "beet", but it has "Buryak", there is no " pumpkin ", but there is a "tavern", the sweetest southern tomatoes are simply" tomatoes "(that is, in the feminine gender), and eggplants are called"blue". In Odessa, they prepare amazing caviar from "blue", but in order to get not a pathetic semblance, but a real delicacy, two conditions must be met. The first – eggplant should be baked on coals and cleaned from the crust, and the second – you need to chop the finished vegetable with a special knife. God forbid you touch the tender fragrant flesh of baked eggplant with an ordinary kitchen knife with a metal blade. Everything is lost! Cut "blue" for caviar only need a wooden tool.

You may be surprised, but Odessa is the birthplace of Russian cuisine beef Stroganoff . It was in Odessa that count Stroganov kept an establishment that was then called "open table". The French cook, who served an elderly count, invented a soft and tender dish of finely chopped beef for his master, who had lost almost all his teeth. So we can say with complete confidence that not only the ways of the Lord are mysterious, but also the migration of dishes from country to country.

In Odessa, everything is not the same as in others. Even sauce is not called gravy, but a full-fledged dish of meat and vegetables: potatoes, onions, carrots. Snack between meals in Odessa "pshenka" - young and juicy boiled corn, and also eat low-salted tulka or crustaceans-local black sea shrimps.

Especially reverent attitude to tomatoes in Odessa. And no wonder: under the hot sun, they quickly ripen and become sweet, juicy, fragrant and beautiful fruits. "Tomatoes" in Odessa-product #1: they are used for salads, fresh and prepared for the future; dried, salted, pickled, dried and fried. Also, they get juice from them, and then the whole fruit is preserved with this juice.

Modern cuisine in Odessa is popular fish fish, cooking which takes at least half a day: the fish is separated from the seeds, grind with spices and filled with a mixture of pre-filmed with fish skin. The work requires jewelry precision and patience, but the result exceeds all expectations! Odessa is famous for fish "fish", but in the Mykolaiv region they prepare stuffed buckwheat and baked carp.

Any feast in the South of Ukraine ends with a dessert. Of course, in a Sunny area, these are watermelons, which are valued here for their unsurpassed sugar taste and therefore are prepared for the whole winter: they are canned like ordinary berries or fruits. Watermelons are marinated and salted with garlic, and the taste of this dessert is difficult to convey in words… Divine, incredible, original – this is how true gourmets describe it.