If you go food shopping in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village and happen to call a Ukrainian varenyky by its Polish name, pierogi, no one will be upset. They’re the same thing. And even though Ukrainian families traditionally have inhabited the blocks between 2000 to 2400 west around Chicago Avenue, plenty of folks with roots in Poland and other European countries live there as well, as do a few from Mexico and Central and South America.
About 8,000 people of Ukrainian extraction now live in the village, about a tenth of the Ukrainians in the greater Chicago area.
Of course, if you speculate about who makes the best pierogi , you’ll surely spark a discussion, perhaps an argument. Any contest involving the crescent-shaped dumplings filled with sauerkraut, cheese or mashed potatoes would find dozens of contenders in Ukrainian Village, which former Mayor Jane Byrne once designated as the blocks girded by Chicago, Damen and Western Avenues and Division Street.
For instance, above the counter at Caesar’s Delicatessen, 901 N. Damen Ave., huge letters proclaim that Tribune columnist Mike Royko once called Caesar’s the “Rolls Royce of pierogis.”
“Who made Royko the judge?” asks Kasia Bober, an indefatigable widow who runs Kasia’s Polish Deli at 2101 W Chicago Ave. “Taste his pierogi, then taste mine. You decide.”
If hard work, experience and devotion have anything to do with it, the dumplings for sale on Fridays in the basements of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Parish, 2245 W. Superior St., or at the St. Nicholas Cathedral School, 2224 W. Rice St., have to rate high.
Parish women appear early in the morning–sometimes 20 to 30 at a time–to roll dough and make fillings for the varenyky that are sold by the dozen, ready to heat up, in plastic foam containers.
For at least 80 years, Ukrainian churches in the U.S. and Canada have helped pay mortgages and expenses by selling traditional foods.
“This is the way we make money,” says Luba Sheremata, who commands a platoon of women in the kitchens of Sts. V and O making the varenyky as well as cabbage rolls and Ukrainian pastries.
At the school, where the neighborhood grade-school children get a generous dose of Ukrainian language and culture, Angelina Pleskanka supervises the hand molding of at least 6,000 varenyky on Fridays plus a large kettle of Ukrainian borscht, which also goes on sale.
In either spot the potato-, sauerkraut- or cheese-filled pastries are a good buy at about $2.75 a dozen. Stop by early, though: They often sell out by 11 a.m.
If you prefer your varenyky as a side dish to a sit-down meal, several places will accommodate, led by Galan’s Ukrainian Restaurant, 2210 W. Chicago Ave., the largest and most formal restaurant in Ukrainian Village. Service is friendly and the music live on the weekends. The menu features more than a dozen traditional Ukrainian dishes including chicken Kiev, a butter-filled breast of chicken, named after the country’s best known city.
At Saks Ukrainian Village Restaurant and Lounge, 2301 W. Chicago Ave., the restaurant is a brightly decorated room behind a darker front bar.
The food is as robust and calorie-stuffed as many of the patrons. Tripe soup is outstanding, as is the borscht, a hearty beef-based beet soup with chunks of other vegetables.
For a quick, inexpensive lunch or dinner, the relatively new Old Lviv restaurant at 2228 W. Chicago Ave. puts out an all-you-can- eat hot buffet of potatoes, sauerkraut, roast chicken, sausage, mushroom gravy, meat- balls, cabbage rolls, salads, soups, potato pancakes and of course varenyky all for $4.99, or $5.99 on weekends and holidays. There aren’t many seats but there’s a small bar with a couple of stools.
Not all neighborhood restaurant food is Ukrainian. Soul Kitchen, 2152 W. Chicago Ave., offers an iconoclastic mix of Cajun, Caribbean, Mexican and Southern cuisines, while the Blue Willow Chinese Restaurant, 1958 W. Chicago Ave., is a small dine-in, carryout family-run establishment. At Andrzej Grill, a tiny diner at 1022 N. Western Ave. with less room than an apartment kitchen, you can order many Polish-influenced chicken, pork and beef dinners and several vegetarian alternatives. A fixed price lunch is $3.50; dinner is $5.50. At Bite Cafe, 1039 N. Western Ave., which has a neighborhood coffeehouse atmosphere, the menu often reflects the chef’s whims and can range from ethnic Indian to contemporary California cuisine.
But the big business in the village is food to take home.
The display cases of prepared food at Kasia’s may be the most extensive. For the past 12 years, Bober has spent much of her evenings cooking stuffed cabbage leaves, meatballs in chicken cream sauce, potato dumplings, sauerkraut with split peas or with caraway, cabbage and noodles, chicken and veal, beef-filled French pastry, meatloaf and chop suey.
Chop suey?
“Sure, chop suey,” Bober says. “Whatever people want. Only my chop suey isn’t like you get in a Chinese restaurant.”
There also are salads, soups , breaded cutlets of chicken, veal and fish, chicken Kiev, fish and, of course, pierogi. On Saturdays she throws in a free loaf of freshly baked bread from Barbara’s Bakery with each order.
“I have Polish customers and Ukrainian customers,” Bober says. “Everybody gets along.” She plans to open a small outside garden next door by mid-August so customers can lunch alfresco on carryouts.
Other smaller delis include Boniek’s Deli, 1023 N. Western Ave., Deli on Rice, 833 N. Western Ave., Polish Delicatessen and Butcher, 904 N. Western Ave. and Rich’s Delicatessen, 857 N. Western Ave.
Most have some cold meats and sausages and a few store-made soups and salads. Rich’s is a small market with a good-looking selection of produce, fresh meats and a small hot buffet. It also has several brands of Polish and Czech beer not found elsewhere in the village, plus Polish-language magazines and newspapers, including an edition of Playboy in Polish.
In addition to Edmar Foods Inc. supermarket, 2019 W. Chicago Ave., one of a small local chain of standard groceries, shoppers can visit the Ukrainian Village Market, 2204 W. Chicago Ave. The UVM feeds Ukrainian and other European tastes with imported foods, particularly candies, cookies and canned fish. The neighborhood’s penchant for fruit-filled pastries is evident by the complete line of Solko brand canned fruit fillings most supermarkets have one or two kinds, There are several brands of butters, fresh cheeses for fillings and bottles of cherry syrup. The meat counter is no less styled to the territory, with at least five types of head cheese — a kind of cold cut of mixed-variety meats–as well as several smoked meats , dried mushrooms and sausages, e.g., Kowbasa sausage for $2.69 per pound.
Among the produce you’ll find bulk poppy seeds, baskets of beets with and with out leaves, and fresh dill, an herb common in Ukrainian cuisine.
Just a few blocks away the aroma of dill is replaced with the fragrance of garlic and cheese at Fiore Fruit Market, 2258 W. Erie St., a corner grocery with dreams of being an emporium of Italian cuisine. In hopelessly crowded labyrinthine aisles packed floor to ceiling, groceries tumble out onto the floor.
But here you find homemade fresh tortellini, cavatelli, ravioli and 10 different pasta sauces ready to heat, plus a wall of dried pasta.
While Polish and Ukrainian markets have their cold cuts, Fiore’s offers Italian hams and sausages along with imported and domestic hard and soft cheeses, including fresh mozzarella. Olives are sold by the pound and homemade Genoese-style pesto at reasonable–no, cheap–prices.
Italian ice? Sure, but someone has to run upstairs to get it from the freezer. No room in the store.
For the greatest variety of Ukrainian baked goods, visit Ann’s Bakery, 2158 W. Chicago Ave., where the first thing you see is shelves of breads, including loaves large as basketballs. There are twists, various ryes and breads with poppy-seed swirls. Also tempting are the multilayer cakes with finely chopped nuts and the strawberry, cream and apple pastries, giant cream puffs and a battalion of huge apple turnovers.
Then there are the pastry tubes of apricot, apple, prune, poppy seed or sauerkraut. Everything is freshly made and reasonably priced.
Of course, Ukrainian Village offers more than food, There are flower shops. travel agencies, a Ukrainian bookstore , shops with imported goods, the Castlewood Wines & Liquor store, a museum, a cultural center and even the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, all within a few blocks walk. Hardly far enough to vanquish the calories of a plate of varenyky.
UKRAINIAN MEATLESS BORSCHT
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Yield: 12 servings
Angelina Pleskanka makes this basic Ukrainian borscht at St. Nicholas Cathedral Parish School and sells it to the public each Friday during the school year. Each cook can add her or his own favorite other ingredients, she says, but the secret of a good borscht is simple: “It’s love.”
4 to 5 fresh beets
2 medium onions, diced
2 carrots, cut in thin julienne strips
2 ribs celery plus 4 ounces tender inner stalks, diced
2 medium leeks, minced
9 cups water
1 clove garlic, crushed, or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 bay leaves
2 cups spicy tomato vegetable juice, such as V-8
1 tablespoon salt or to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup minced fresh dill
Whipping cream or sour cream for garnish
1. Cook beets in a saucepan of water until tender, about 40 minutes. Drain. When cool enough to handle, peel and cut into thin julienne strips.
2. Put onions, carrots, celery, leeks, garlic, bay leaves and water into a large soup pot or kettle. Heat to boil; simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.
3. Add cooked beets and tomato juice. Heat to boil, then add salt and pepper. Simmer about 10 minutes.
4. Remove bay leaves and add dill just before serving. Serve in bowls with a dollop of whipping cream or sour cream, if desired.
Note: Soup may be served chilled, if desired.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories….35 Fat……………0 g Cholesterol…..0 mg
Sodium..720 mg Carbohydrates…..9 g Protein……….1 g
SPICED HONEY CAKE (MEDIVNYK)
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 50 to 60 minutes
Yield: 12 servings
This dense cake, fragrant with warm spices and studded with dried fruits, is adapted from the Time-Life “Foods of Russia” cookbook.
3/4 cup honey
2 three-inch strips each: lemon rind, orange rind, removed with a vegetable peeler
1 teaspoon each: baking soda, cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon each: allspice, salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 cups dried fruit, preferably equal parts raisins, currants and dried cherries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9- by 5- by 3-inch loaf pan.
2. Combine the honey and citrus rind in a 1-quart saucepan and heat to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt. Set aside to cool. When it is cool, remove and discard the rind.
3. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until light, 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the honey, sour cream and vanilla and mix well. Stop the mixer and add the flour and baking powder. Mix lightly then add the dried fruit and nuts. Mix just until combined.
4. Transfer to the prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool in the pan 5 minutes then invert onto a wire rack.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories….340 Fat……………13 g Cholesterol…..75 mg
Sodium…215 mg Carbohydrates…..54 g Protein………..6 g
