ukraine: 71 posts

My book The Rooster House is available in Chinese (traditional characters), titled 公雞之家 and published by Faces. I will be in Taiwan in July for a few events, including a seminar about Ukraine. I will share more details soon. In the meantime, I wanted to ask my friends and readers about your Taiwan recommendations. I’ve been to Taipei and Hsinchu twice, but this time I will also take a week to explore more of the country. Any food recommendations are more than welcome too.

On this note, if you have any recommendations for books about Taiwan or by Taiwanese writers, I would be most grateful.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin

Syrnyky is a dish I order anytime I see it on the menu. Traveling around Ukraine, I ate these small fried cheesecakes at canteens in Odesa, diners in Kherson or fancy restaurants in Lviv and they have always been satisfying. In Kyiv, a restaurant chain called Puzata Hata, “pot-bellied hut,” has a wonderful oven-baked version of this popular treat. Syrnyky can be a great breakfast option or a luscious dessert, depending on what toppings you choose. Whatever way they are served, this dish is the ultimate comfort food.

Syrnyky are made from a fresh cheese called syr in Ukrainian. It’s a type of farmer’s cheese, with small, fairly dry curds and a sour flavor reminiscent of yogurt. The closest substitute is any soft white cheese, like tvorog, twaróg, quark, or even well-drained cottage cheese. Since the flavor of syrnyky is dominated by cheese, with flour being used merely as a binder, pick your favorite variety.  

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‘This is a tree of life.’ Pani Olga’s fingers traced the embroidery on a rushnyk depicting a fantastical plant. From its branches sprouted opulent blossoms. ‘It means that the embroiderer dreamed of a long life and a big family.’

‘This is Beregynya, a safe keeper.’ Pani Olga drew my attention to a figure, ample of hip and bosom, holding branches laden with grapes and flowers. ‘It was embroidered by someone to protect a loved one from harm.’ The image had none of the Orthodox sobriety and harkened back to the old animistic religion of the Slavs, who worshipped the spirits of plants, animals, birds and rocks.

From The Rooster House

A simple piece of cloth can hold a wealth of meaning. Rushnyk (plural: rushnyky) is a traditional Ukrainian ritual cloth, intricately adorned with symbolic patterns and motifs. Although at its most basic, a rushnyk is a hand towel, the word evokes much more to a Ukrainian. These cloths hold significant cultural and spiritual value in Ukrainian heritage, representing a blend of art, tradition, and identity. During much of Ukraine’s history, when expressing thoughts freely had dangerous consequences, a rushnyk served as a repository of encoded messages. It could be a declaration of love, celebration of freedom or of a yearning for escape.

Reading these secret messages in the embroideries on rushnyky became my obsession during my trips to Ukraine. I had a wonderful teacher and a partner on this quest, a lady I met at our local church in Poltava. Pani Olga plays an important role in my book The Rooster House, especially because of her knowledge about rushnyky and traditional arts. Thread by thread I unraveled the family mystery and became an avid lover of rushnyky embroideries.

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Russian rockets struck our village the other day. It was a beautiful early summer day in June and people were outside working in their gardens. Our village in the Poltava region of central Ukraine has been unscathed so far. The rocket sounded like an airplane, and by the time everyone released what it really was, it was too late. The sound deepened, shrill and terrifying. Then came the blast.

The house that we always called “the house beyond the river” was hit and our neighbor who lived there was killed. She didn’t have time to escape before the roof collapsed on her. Her family was weeding the garden, while she was cooking. She was in her forties and was working as a nurse in our small clinic.

My grandmother’s house was not touched, but the windows cracked because of the force of the blast. My cousin is safe.

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Yesterday, Ukrainians celebrated Vyshyvanka Day, the day of the national embroidered shirt. This traditional garment has so much significance as an embodiment of quintessentially Ukrainian art and sense of beauty that its celebration is a day that many anticipate with pleasure. This week Ukraine’s eastern region of Kharkiv was heavily shelled by Russia, but whenever it was safe, people still came out into the streets wearing vyshyvanka. Certainly, vyshyvanka can be worn anytime and I have many pieces that range from exquisitely embroidered blouses to simple white shirts with subtle decoration.

A popular companion to vyshyvanka is a necklace. Ukrainian traditional jewelry is quite elaborate and there are many types of necklaces made of different materials–stones, coral, amber, ribbons, wood, glass. Some of my favorite traditional necklaces are of the beaded style. Gerdan is a wider, longer necklace that looks like a pendant. Kryza is even larger and it  falls like a collar around the neck (that’s the style you can see in the title photo.) Silyanka is a narrow, choker-style necklace.

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