Ukraine is a country rich in culinary diversity, with each region boasting unique dishes that reflect local traditions and geography. This gastronomic map of Ukraine highlights the distinct flavors and specialties that define the country’s regional cuisines.
Northern Ukraine
In Northern Ukraine, the cuisine is heavily influenced by the region’s bountiful potato harvests. The signature dish of Polissia is deruny or potato pancakes.
- Chernihiv Oblast: Known for its expertly prepared pot roast, made with potatoes, sauerkraut, and meat. For dessert, locals enjoy pies filled with viburnum berries, a common fruit in the region.
- Sumy Oblast: The local variation of pot roast includes both meat and liver alongside potatoes. The region also prepares a unique borscht, made with pork and beet kvass.
- Kyiv: Famous for its iconic Chicken Kyiv, a dish known worldwide.
Southern Ukraine
Southern Ukraine, where the Dnipro River meets the Black Sea, is a region rich in fishing traditions, resulting in a cuisine dominated by fish dishes.
- Odesa: Locals not only enjoy dried goby fish with beer but also prepare fish patties by mixing minced fish with batter and frying it. A more complex dish is gefilte fish, which involves skinning the fish, removing the bones, mincing the meat, stuffing, and then baking it.
- Mykolaiv Oblast: Fish is often preserved in tomato sauce or cooked in fish soup with tomato juice.
- Kherson: Renowned for its vegetables, particularly eggplants, which are fried, canned, or made into caviar.
- Crimea: Famous for lagman and dolma—a noodle dish with meat and stuffed grape leaves, respectively. The thick cabbage soup of Zaporizhzhia is also a regional specialty.
- Azov Region: Known for its pancakes made from thin yeast dough, butter, and cheese filling, rolled into spirals.
Central Ukraine
Central Ukraine offers a variety of borscht recipes, each with its unique twist.
- Cherkasy Oblast: Borscht here is traditionally served with fragrant garlic buns known as pampushky.
- Kirovohrad Oblast: The region is famed for its varenyky, which come with a wide range of fillings including potatoes, mushrooms, meat, liver, and cabbage. Another notable dish is krochyky—small meat rolls filled with minced meat, pâté, or prunes with nuts.
- Poltava Oblast: Famous for its galushky (dumplings) and pundiky. In Dnipro, forshmak is popular, and fresh fish from the Dnipro River is often made into fish soup with leeks.
- Vinnytsia Oblast: Known for bigos, a dish made from stewed sour cabbage with meat and mushrooms. Flaky—a soup made from beef tripe, seasoned with roots, cheese, and spices—is also popular.
Eastern Ukraine
Eastern Ukraine is characterized by its rich and diverse culinary traditions.
- Donbas: The region is famous for its numerous variations of okroshka, a cold soup, with over 50 recipes to choose from. A common dish served alongside is roasted pork knuckle, rubbed with salt and spices before being baked in dough.
- Luhansk Oblast: A traditional dish involves layering minced pork and beef on cloth, topping it with an omelet and boiled carrots.
- Kharkiv Oblast: The local borscht is made with beans and meatballs. For a main course, grechaniky—meatballs made with buckwheat—are a local favorite.
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Western Ukraine
Western Ukraine is home to a variety of hearty and flavorful dishes, often inspired by the region’s mountainous terrain and diverse cultures.
- Prykarpattia: A dish called banush—a thick porridge made from cornmeal, served hot with fried bacon and bryndza cheese—is a regional staple.
- Carpathians: Known for its abundance of porcini mushrooms, which are skillfully made into a creamy mushroom soup.
- Bukovyna: The local specialty is chinakhy, a hearty stew, and the region is also famous for its homemade bryndza cheese and mamaliga—a traditional cornmeal porridge.
- Zakarpattia: Bograch is a popular dish, a rich goulash seasoned with Carpathian herbs and cooked in a cauldron. The region is also known for zavyvantsi—beef rolls filled with a mixture of boiled eggs, pickles, lard, and raw grated potatoes.
- Volyn: Famous for its mazuriky—homemade sausages made from turkey, butter, and cheese.
- Polissia: Renowned for its verguns—delicate fried dough treats.
- Lviv: Known for its exquisite Viennese strudels.
- Rivne Oblast: Popular dishes include potato pancakes (or zrazy) and matsyky—dried meat in a seasoned pig stomach.
- Ternopil Oblast: Famous for machanka—a thick soup made with meat, flour-based roux, onions, and sweet peppers.
- Khmelnytskyi Oblast: Notable for its potato sausage, where pig intestines are stuffed with grated raw potatoes and baked.
FAQ: Gastronomic map of Ukraine
The signature dish of Polissia is deruny, also known as potato pancakes.
Southern Ukraine, especially Odesa and Mykolaiv Oblasts, are renowned for their fish dishes.
Vinnytsia Oblast is known for bigos, a stew made from sour cabbage, meat, and mushrooms.
The main ingredient in banush is cornmeal, often served with fried bacon and bryndza cheese.
Okroshka, a cold soup with over 50 variations, is popular in the Donbas region.