olechko

… is no more. An advantage of growing older - is getting to appreciate the good things in life that passed. For instance, basic daily bread - I remember sinking my teeth into a warm loaf, biting on the crusty, burned side, mmm. The trucks would deliver the bread to the stores still warm.  Way back then the bread came in bricks, less often - in round shapes, black or white. The dessert bread would be the baton.  Everything else was pastry.

These days the supermarket stalls are terribly disappointing.  They offer shrink-wrapped goods, or even worse - sliced! (I have nothing against my bread sliced, it just goes against logic that it is fresh at the same time). The good old bricks disappeared for some reason. More foreign options are offered - pumpernickel, baguette, olive bread - not in their best executions though.  At Furshet at Mandarin Plaza I was sold a totally stale loaf of Italian bread.  At local Silpo or Velyka Kyshenia (by Peremogy square) I don’t even look at the bakery stalls.

As a relief to town came Volkonsky backery. (it is also a relief for your vallet, becuase the prices are hiiiigh). Their breads are amazing, Italian and French varieties mostly, also tons of amazing pastry. They have a coffee shop adjourning with warm creamy interior.   Another runner up is Viennese Buns (Videnski Bulochky) on Pushkinska. Make sure to ask what is fresh at the moment; unlike at Volkonsky, they do sell some goods on the second day.

One point on an artist’s view of local bread. Gaydar -commercial studio photographer from Kyiv - recently came up with a series on the subject. His loafs came out of all kinds in different shapes and colors - suspended in black space. I searched for the images online but no more, seems like the only place you’d see them is at his studio on Prorizna. It’s no big spectacle, but give it a try. Also, it’s the only art gallery that charges entry fee that I know in Kyiv, sniff.

(The pic features my breakfast today.  This brick was super small and long, but full of nuts, plus banana-nutella, yam!)

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 6:20 pm and is filed under food, photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.