The Post's chief editor sniffs out some warm winter offerings of the French variety: osso buco, coq au vin and bouillabaisse.
ean winter, with its permanent ice-mist – that silvery harbinger of the flu – is starting to settle over Kyiv. The point was to compile a list of fortifying winter dishes, the food equivalent of brandy, mulled cider, fortified wine or a fisherman’s sweater.
“Irish stew,” Paul said. “Or else a thick jambalaya.”
“Soup,” piped up Lika. We waited for more. No kidding, Lika, but you’ve got to do better than that. “Chicken soup,” she elaborated, gamely.
“A big hot steaming bowl of borshch,” answered Ruslan, like the dutiful little Ukrainian-Canadian boy from Winnipeg that he is. That’s the perfect Diaspora altar-boy answer. His mother would be very proud.
I came up with the following subjective list: coq au vin, that intense dish of chicken cooked in Burgundy or some other pinot noir, though a little port won’t hurt it either; bouillabaisse, the pungent Mediterranean seafood stew; and osso buco, the Italian veal-shank dish. You can argue with me if you want. You can write in wondering why, say, choucroute garnie (cabbage and meat and sausage, in a wonderful Alsatian mess) and cassoulet (meat and white-bean stew) didn’t make the list. They’re about as thick, heavy, flavorful and fortifying – wintry, so to speak – as dishes get, and the mere mention of them brings to mind clattering bistros with their windows fogged on cold days. I’ll take your point, but defend my choices on the basis of the fact that you can find good renditions of my choices in various restaurants here in Kyiv.
Wagon, for example, serves a good bouillabaisse, the fish stew that will open up your winter-fazed sinuses with its rich saffron-and-salt scent, giving you a noseful of sun-drenched Provence when you need it most. Notice that the croutons are properly served apart from the broth – the people at Wagon seem to know what they’re doing.
Gorchitsa, meanwhile, is where to go for osso buco and coq au vin. These dishes are essays in the glories of protein, fat, marrow, reduction, slow-cooking, viscous sauciness, complex carbohydrates – all the things you might avoid in the summer, but need in the winter. Even the rich autumnal colors of their constituent products are appropriate to the freezing weather.
Moreover – and you can say this about bouillabaisse, too – they’re labor-intensive to make, necessitating much time in the kitchen. That’s philosophically appropriate, as what’s better in the winter than spending a lot of time in the kitchen? Very little, that’s what.
Meanwhile, if you know where to get choucroute in Kyiv, drop us a line.
Gorchitsa 10 Shovkovichna, 253-3008.
Open daily from 12 p.m. till 11 p.m.
Menu and service in English: Yes.
Wagon 52 Chervonoarmiyska, 227-0490.
Open daily from 12 p.m. till the last customer.
Menu and service in English: Yes.
