above left: Avram’s holiday spread
Photography: store by Garvin Burke; tablescape © Sofiia.Popovych – stock.adobe.com
Explore new (old) traditions at Bukovina Ukrainian Deli
Even though the official date of Christmas in Ukraine changed to December 25 eight years ago, about half the customers who come into Bukovina Ukrainian Deli at 301 Hope Street celebrate Christmas Eve on the traditional Julian calendar date of Jan. 7. Stamford resident Kate Avram is among them.
Because of the difficulties of traveling during the war, Avram hasn’t been home in four years, but the 24-year-old tennis pro has created a tradition in her apartment here, gathering with Ukrainian and Russian friends. “Preparing the salads and dishes is the most fun,” she says, “We spend the whole day cooking.”
She picks up what she needs at Bukovina, the 19-year-old shop that owner Tetyana Hrab stocks with Ukrainian, Latvian, Russian and Eastern European ingredients, frozen foods and ready-to-serve dishes that her co-owner/mother, Lyubov, cooks.
Christmas Eve is a fasting day. When the first star appears in the sky, families place 12 dishes (for the apostles) on a buffet table. The selection depends on family tradition but kutia, a wheat berry porridge with poppy seeds, nuts, dried fruits and honey, and uzvar, a smoky apple cider made from dried fruits, are essential.
Tetyana says customers put in orders two weeks before the holidays, ordering up varenyky (dumplings) stuffed with potatoes and onions or mushrooms, pickled herring, smoked fish, stewed sour cabbage, mushroom gravy, potato-stuffed cabbage, chopped vegetable salads, donuts filled with jam or poppy seeds, and poppy-seed cake. Back home in Ukraine, Avram’s family table included crabmeat salad with sliced vegetables, and bowls of chopped pineapple, bananas and grapes. The family bickered good-naturedly about the proper way to cut the potatoes, carrots and beets. In Stamford, Avram and her friends don’t bicker; they’re just happy to be together, cooking.
Christmas Day
On Christmas Day in Ukraine, all the Eve’s leftovers get gobbled up along with meats and spirits to drink. Avram and Hrab both remember the men in their families roasting ducks, traditionally served with potatoes and gravy. Other favorite comforting Christmas dishes are jellied chicken and meat-filled cabbage rolls. To drink, hosts might offer kvass, the low alcohol, sweet-sour fermented beverage, sparkling wine, or vodka.
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