An Edible Voyage

June 2019 Buttery, flaky filo pastry, stuffed with a creamy, slightly salty mixture of cottage cheese, sour cream and egg, rolled, coiled and baked.  A greasy but tasty and very filling snack - I especially enjoy the texture of the coils. Find it at every bakery - meat and spinach are other commonly found fillings.

January 2017 Thin like crepes, try blinis 'Russian style' with caviar and sour cream. Find them in Cafe Singer, and enjoy a moment of decadence in the opulent tea room with huge arched windows overlooking Nevsky Prospekt and the impressive Kazansky cathedral.  Then take a wander downstairs to Dom Knigi, the city's famous bookshop which is housed on the ground floor of this stunning building.

September 2019 To stock me up for my journey home, I wanted to find some good, solid Ukranian cuisine.  Puzata Hata was just the place - a cheerful canteen with a wide selection of Ukraine's most iconic dishes, decent quality, and big portions for a small price tag.   The potato vareniki were surprisingly flavourful for what it is effectively a potato dumpling, although, as expected, they were rather mono-textured.  The dill crepe cake was a bit like a salad in cake form.  The crepes gave it an interesting texture but it had a surprisingly overpowering flavour and the liberal mayonnaise made it rather rich. Find these, alongside many other Ukrainian specialities, at Puzata Hata.  There are many branches across the Ukraine, including several in Kiev.