Restaurant and catering service, too! Ukrainian food is very much associated with the Prairie table and it's no wonder - in the late 1800s and early 1900s, over 170,000 Ukrainians immigrated to Canada attracted by the promise of free land. In addition to cultural and social practices, they brought with them deeprooted food traditions - think old-style charcuterie like smoked sausages, sweet festive breads studded with dried fruit, hearty soups and stews, and nut cakes - all which have become synonymous with cooking on the prairies.

  In 1954, Wolodymyr and Olha Darmochwal opened a newsstand and candy store in the area largely inhabited by Ukrainians in New York’s lower East Side called Veselka. A hangout for many Ukrainians who lived there, the reputation of this small cafe grew far outside the community’s confines.

TORONTO – Pyrohy, those mouth-watering dumplings stuffed with potato, cabbage and mushrooms, are gradually making the transition from peasant staple to high cuisine. From hip cafes to chic restaurants, Eastern European food is coming into its own. Once deemed principally fare for peasants, leading chefs in the West today are experimenting with Eastern European food and raising it to a high art form.

I am sipping on a frothy cappuccino, sitting on a bold red leather chair on a trendy terrace under a Parisian stripped awning-how divine! A "fashionista" struts by in 6 inch heals on the cobble stone walkway below. Seated next to me is a guy on his iphone. I experience at once a feeling of displacement and elation. Am I in Prague, Vienna or is this possibly Krakow?

  As a single person who isn’t good at cooking and who has an empty refrigerator on most days, I am frequently at restaurants or cafes and sometimes at groceries around Kyiv. While the city’s offerings have improved greatly since the first time I was in Kyiv 16 years ago, service is still stuck in the slow lane in too many places.