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W e h a ve o n l y fre s h a n d s a vo r y n e w s!

March 2016 | № 3 (150)

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Project manager – Yuri Beloyvan

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Belarusian

week at Korchma

The Globe in Your Pocket: The Maldives: Islands of Contrasts

Olha Freymut: I eat only Belarusian food – foreign food doesn’t taste as good to me.

Alexander Lukashenko

The Restaurateur’s Inspector

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2 | culinary

Ksenia Viatskaya: ‘I Hope Food Can Reconcile the Two Nations’ Real foodies don’t need a special introduction for Ksenia Viatskaya. She is a wellrecognized Belarusian cuisine expert; she has produced her own popular cooking projects, one of the most famous is Mommies in the Kitchen. For several years now, she has given specialized workshops, master classes, and training seminars, as well as counseling sessions on healthy eating, food coaching that has already had thousands of participants.

In 2014, she created her own brand Mom’s Meals – a traveling bistro with honest food. The project’s key principle is to recreate ancient national recipes in such a way as to make them healthy.

It’s not surprising that Kseniya Viatskaya was invited to help Korchma organize its Belarusian week. Right before the project launch she gave a brief interview and talked about food as a magical reconciliation tool and about Belarusian dishes, which one absolutely must try.

– Kseniya, you know about the quite complicated relations between Russia and Ukraine.

Politically, Minsk has volunteered to provide a platform for the negotiations between the two countries… Do you believe that food can serve as just a uniting, reconciling factor?

Absolutely! Take a look at history and you will see that all important documents and peace treaties were signed at a table set for copious dinner.

Always feed your friends, and especially enemies, before something really important. I believe that our Belarusian cheesefare that we have envisioned, our round dranik will become more than just a matter of taste! After all, potato is an important ingredient not only in Belarus, but in Ukraine and in Russia too. I do hope that food can reconcile the

nations who have always had such good relations.

Because our culinary tastes and habits are so very similar.

– What will be included in our Belarusian menu, how was it devised, and who tasted it?

We chose traditional Belarusian dishes, nothing too unique or especially ancient. We want to focus on the pre-Soviet culinary traditions of the interwar period. They will mostly be potato dishes because everyone associates Belarus with potato. We will have potato sausages, babka, draniki, kletski – a lighter version. We also want to stress the healthy aspect of eating and so we are going to add spinach to kletski and serve them with an herbs sauce. We will offer an oatmeal starch drink, which has long

been known for its therapeutic properties – it has a beneficial effect on the stomach and digestion.

We will also serve kvasouka, whole-meal oats porridge which today is rarely served in restaurants and in our homes. For some reason, the recipe was abandoned – we now find it easier to use cooked cereals.

As part of the Belarusian week project I would like to present our cuisine not only as a fried dranik cliché, but as a tradition complying with all the contemporary healthy food requirements – as a pure, real, low-calorie, balanced, and ideal Slavic menu.

Look forward to many culinary discoveries. I invite you to come and I promise you that you will like it!

culinary | 3

Belarusian National Cuisine: The Continuity of Traditions Belarusian national cuisine is very diverse, distinctive, and of course rich and tasty.

It developed under the influence of traditions and cultures of numerous neighboring countries. The Belarusian cuisine has Slavic, Baltic, Jewish, and partially German roots.

It goes without saying that all Slavic cuisines are similar in many aspects. Despite the similarities, each of them is strongly individual.

A distinctive feature of the Belarusian traditional cuisine is that the old recipes from the 18th century have survived almost unchanged for hundreds of years. National culinary traditions of Belarus are a mixture of cuisines of different social classes (peasants and gentry, middleclass and magnates). The unique flavor of Belarusian dishes is due to the variety of local products that nature has endowed Belarus with and the unusual ways of culinary processing which are still used today.

For a long time the most widely used foods have been potatoes, beans, turnips, cabbage, beets, carrots, rye, buckwheat, oats, mushroom, fruits, and berries. As for spices and seasonings, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, horseradish, and mustard are some of the most common.

There is a good reason that potato is called a second bread in Belarus. It came in the 18th century and considerably enriched the national cuisine, becoming the basis of a wide variety of dishes. The most favorite specialties of the Belarusian cuisine are draniki, kolduny, kletski, babki, and potato sausages. Potato is traditionally used in grated form: raw grated potato (with or without the juice), boiled and mashed.

Meat is rather rare in the Belarusian cuisine – it was usually served only on holidays. The most popular was pork. But lamb, beef, poultry, and game were also known.

The gentry table featured zhur (a Belarusian soup cooked on oat sour liquor), vereschaka (pieces of short ribs and sausage stewed with water or rye beer and brewed in flour, sour cream and onion) and drachena which, however, could also be seen on the peasant table. But stuffed chicken with herring soaked in milk, called pechisto, was a privilege of the nobility.

A peasant table had dishes made of products from forests and gardens: nettle soup, porridge with berries, oatmeal, game, and freshwater fish.

Many of these dishes are still eaten today. Dairy products make a big part of the Belarusian diet. Pancakes, muffins, and draniki are served with butter and cream. Klinkovy and syrnitsa are cooked from cottage cheese.

The main feature of the Belarusian national cuisine is the complicated and lengthy process of cooking. One recipe may require simmering, stewing, baking, boiling, blanching, and frying the ingredients!

In some dishes, various types of flour, such as rye, oat, buckwheat, pea, and their mixtures are used. Moreover, flour is added not only to the dough, but also to soups as a thickener (zakolota).

One of the most popular Belarusian soups is zhur. It is cooked on an oatmeal broth, flour, and can be served with or without milk and meat. (It is especially delicious with smoked meat.)

Those who want to stick to a healthy diet should try the Belarusian traditional unleavened bread that is baked from rye flour on specially grown yeasts.

This is a very healthy and tasty product with a pleasant acid flavor. Kvasoika, an oatmeal porridge with whole grains with berries, is also a very healthy and delicious authentic meal.

Honey is very often added to the desserts of the Belarusian cuisine. It is added to baked goods, for example, to piernik – a gingerbread cake made of rye flour. Honey is also added to a variety of drinks and jelly.

You can try for yourself and see that the Belarusian cuisine is really tasty, original, and distinctive if you come to Korchma Taras Bulba between March 10 and 18.

During a week of Belarusian cuisine at Korchma, a famous Belarusian food-coach Kseniya Vyatskaya will present the most interesting and delicious national dishes.

4 | interview

You can like her or not, scorn her or admire, but to ignore her is just impossible. And that’s not because she is special. Though, after all, she is special indeed. She created herself, her own image, appearance, and programs. Just say “Revizor” or “Inspector” and everyone will immediately know that you are talking about Ukrainian presenter Olha Freimut. Her programs are so different from other TV shows that they became popular at once.

This blonde poses a challenge to restaurants, cafes, and hotels. Taking into account her capricious temper, some owners, after having heard her name, close with horror all their entries and exits to hide from Ukraine what is going on in their kitchen, reception area, and hallways…

Olha Freimut: ‘I like to be famous – otherwise what have I been working so much for?’

The TV project brought many changes to the Ukrainian hospitality business. Some establishments which received her positive reviews tried to maintain the same quality and level of service, and others, several years after Olha Freimut’s repeated inspections shamefully lost their recognition. Finally, having gained considerable experience in the food industry, the Olha published her own diary book with a rather scandalous title “Where Freimut Eats and with Whom She Sleeps.”

The Book This book changed my life. It became mystical for me. I was writing it in the style of Virginia Woolf as a stream of consciousness, and in the style of Oscar Wilde, whom I adore. It is also a little bit poetic as Lina Kostenko’s books. Of course, I was inspired by my life. In a program’s format I cannot tell everything to the audience. The book is about my fictional world. Apart from my memories, there are many pages dedicated to my biography, my thoughts, love, and pain. Maybe, my formula for success will help somebody make a wise choice in their life.

Inspecting restaurants abroad In the previous seasons of our program, the audience could often see how we inspected restaurants abroad. Lots of establishments in

Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, Slovenia were captured by our camera. The people in those restaurants were not afraid of us. Moreover, they invited us to come in and show everything on TV. They are very sociable. Some of them even said, “Why are you in such a hurry? We haven’t shown you our fish yet and where we store our meat.” It was a very interesting and practical experience. For example, in Croatia, Ms. Mira cooks all the dishes in her restaurant using vegetables and fruit grown in her garden. When I visited her restaurant, she treated me to an omelet with truffles. In our country there are very few such frank and intelligent people. (She smiles) Ukrainian restaurants In Ukraine, there is a great problem in the food industry. For some reason most restaurant and cafe owners wrongly invest great capital into the interior and exterior design of their establishments and totally neglect the cuisine. In Europe, it’s completely different. There, the first thing they do is look for a real master chef. In such a way, all clients know that the cuisine in a certain restaurant is top notch.

Another Ukrainian problem is cleanness. Owners tend to think that if the kitchen doors are closed, nobody will see neither a dirty dish towel nor that the food has gone bad. This is not the way to go!

Tourism Wherever I stay abroad, I never show that I am a tourist. I don’t hang a camera around my neck and take a map into my hands. I like when a city belongs only to me. When on a trip somebody treats me as a native and addresses me in their own language, then I think that my journey is going great! I cannot stand the sights advertised in guidebooks and on the Internet. I wouldn’t touch them with a ten foot pole. Instead I look for the streets that I want.

For example, last summer my daughter Zlata and I visited Santa Barbara and saw the tree that was filmed in Avatar. We also saw Oprah

Winfrey’s house. I would not say that these places are tourist attractions, but for us they were special.

In New York, we didn’t visit the Empire State Building, but walked along the street where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), the heroine of Sex and the City, lived, because we like this series. We also saw the Statue of Liberty from far away, but walked more around the city to get a feel of its rhythm, watched its citizens’ everyday life.

Hotels A five-star hotel is an intimidating place. There, you immediately want to lose weight, change your

interview | 5

wardrobe and your boyfriend, and the staff is dressed more stylish than the guests.

I can splurge one thousand dollars and more for a night in a five-star hotel in Europe. For example, Villa d’Este on the shore of Italian lake Como is my favorite hotel. Built in the 16th century, it has preserved the spirit of those times. Hitchcock, Verdi, Liszt, and Yves Saint-Laurent stayed there.

Damien Steven Hirst (Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist and the most outstanding member of the Young British Artists group, nowadays the richest artist of the world – author’s note.)

Once I talked with him and coquettishly asked to paint something for me that I could later sell and then grow rich. He painted me. Later, The Sunday Times published an article on a foxy TVstar who wheedled a painting out of Hirst.

He told me how he had sold the empire that he created. He also told me that he had been dreaming about trips for a long time – otherwise, he wouldn’t have visited Lviv. He said that he personally had chosen his followers – a Frenchman Rosier and a Scandinavian Krejberg. He told all this monotonically and with a smile on his face so that I wouldn’t notice his pain... Though, it hurt him. I could feel that. How is it possible to give your own child into somebody else’s hands, however skilled and strong, and at the same time feel light-hearted? I’m sure that the man who introduced the silhouette of Japanese kimono into the European fashion has a very sensitive and vulnerable soul…

Since then the portrait painted by Kenzo hangs on the wall in my bedroom. On it, I have something from Lesya Ukrainka. How could this man see me so deeply?..

Takada Kenzo Once I came to a Lviv fashion show to interview Japanese designer Takada Kenzo.

The man in checked purple and black pants was smiling and pretending to feel happy. Japanese people know how to control their emotions.

People I don’t judge people by their status. It doesn’t matter who a person is – a street sweeper or a minister. What really matters to me is whether he or she is my person or not. Names on business cards and regalia do not mean anything. Doctor

of Philosophy, Member of Parliament, these are all eulogies. While some people are happy because of some letters on their business cards, for me it’s enough to say “Olya Freimut.” That’s all. My name is enough. It’s like Coco. Everyone knows that this is Chanel.

Style Great Britain formed my style. Somebody might call it puritan. And I see myself as a Ukrainian Mary Poppins who went out for the Paris Fashion Week. England has completely changed my wardrobe. I looked greedily at the people on the streets of London. Even a beggar near the Waterloo Station had sneakers that made me feel jealous.

Four times a year I renew my wardrobe with my favorite Celine, Saint Laurent, Chloe, Chanel, Prada, Chantan Thomass, Worford clothes. Ukrainian designers Luvi supplement it with the models in the style of the 1920s. It’s comfortable and safe to mix similar brands.

Text by: Lesia Kichura Photos courtesy of Nash Format Publishing House

Quotations • Night and social life of some Ukrainians is worthy of sympathy.

Jane Eyre just cannot drive a Range Rover.

• I decided that God has his own plans for me – and I will become somebody good.

• I am afraid of poverty and that’s why I work a lot.

• At some time I paid all the bills in one of my past lives.

• I like to be famous – otherwise what have I been working so much for?

• There is no lock for me. Yes, I have a duplicate key. I easily pass through steel obstacles.

I don’t believe in the stereotypes that you cannot climb in through a window or pass through a closed door.

6 | History

March 1 Saint Macarius’s Day

March 3 Day of Saint Hierarch Leo the Great International Writer’s Day

March 5 Meat Fare Saturday. Commemoration of the departed

March 7 Shrovetide. The beginning of the Cheese Fare Week

March 8 First and Second Finding of the Head of Saint John the Baptist International Women’s Day

24 March

Birthday of Korchma Taras Bulba restaurant chain March 9 Birthday of the Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko

March 13 Shrove Sunday

March 14 Beginning of the Great Lent of 2016 Day of Martyr Eudokia

March 20 Spring Equinox International Day of Happiness

March 22 Birthday of Korchma on Krasnokazarmennaya St. Day of Forty Martyrs of Sebaste

March 24 Birthday of Korchma Taras Bulba restaurant chain Birthday of Korchma on Petrovka St.

March 25

Day of the Icon of Lidda

Barbie Doll: A billion Dollar Toy On March 9, 1959, the first Barbie dolls came out on the market at one of New York fairs. The dolls were long-legged beauties dressed in blackand-white striped swimsuits, sunglasses, and high heels. At first, buyers were indifferent to the product and there was not much hype. Skillful publicity, however, changed that. The first consignment of toys, which consisted of three thousand dolls, sold out very quickly. No one of the lucky owners of Barbie could imagine back then that they were holding a future symbol of the era. A few years later these dolls sold by millions and a whole industry was established. Pretty Barbie became the most famous doll in the history of toys.

Barbie’s history begins in the mid-1940s.

At that time an American couple, Ruth and Elliot Handler, launched a company manufacturing wooden frames for paintings. The business was not very successful, and the head of the family wondered why he should throw away the scraps

of wood if they could make good money as well.

His wife came up with an idea to make toy furniture because she liked to observe their daughter Barbara building cots and tables for her dolls. The idea turned out to be surprisingly good: the miniature furniture began to bring more revenue than the main business.

Ruth Handler didn’t stop at that point. Very soon a new idea emerged. The idea was to make a doll that would not look like a baby, but would bear a strong similarity to an adult female. It was again her daughter who helped her with the task as she and her girlfriends often made dolls that imitated runway models.

Inspired by this idea, Ruth hired the best technicians, artists, and engineers so that they would bring her idea to life. Furthermore, she held a kind of opinion poll. She invited hundreds of mothers and as many girls of different ages for them to look at the first prototype and to voice their opinions. Interestingly, all the mothers were against the new doll: «Barbie looks too naturalistic; playing with such a doll is harmful to a child’s mind.» But the girls, on the contrary, were excited. Ruth decided to listen to them because we all know that they tell the truth.

It should be noted that the toy was not created from scratch. A character from German comic books for men, Lilli, a fatal woman with a thin waist, lush breasts, and blond hair, provided the basis for the doll. Ruth had seen the doll Lilli in one of the Swiss stores and the toy was really to her liking. Of course, Lilli’s design and appearance was significantly changed, so that it was suitable for children, not adults.

At that time sex symbol Jayne Mansfield was very popular all over the US, and the first Barbie was an exact copy of her. In 1958, Handler patented their invention and a year later the toy appeared on the market. Ruth approached her creation with all possible seriousness. If the legend is anything to go by, the first outfits for the beauty were ordered exclusively from Givenchy and Dior.

Barbie had long shapely legs, she wore a makeup, and had a bright nail polish and pearl earrings.

Both a brunette and blonde version were sold. The

History | 7

‘I was drinking birch sap in the spring forest’

bulk of the Mattel profit, a company owned by the Handler couple, came not from the sale of dolls, but from the sale of complement products: clothing, accessories, and houses. The box Barbie was dressed only in a swimsuit and sandals and all the rest of her clothing had to be bought additionally.

After a large-scale TV advertising campaign in the 1960s, the United States, followed by other countries, became Barbieaddicted. For this reason Ruth decided not to stop with just Barbie. She found herself a boyfriend Ken, who was named after Handler’s son Kenneth, as well as a best friend Midge and a sister Skipper. Over the time, the circle of Barbie’s relatives and friends enlarged. In 1967, the first dark-skinned doll Christie was introduced. This could easily be explained by a profit calculation: the larger the family, the more money it would bring because each model required clothing, accessories and so on. By the way, Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, and Jean-Paul Gaultier started to design outfits for Mattel dolls. The designers considered creating dresses and suits for these toys by no means less prestigious than creating clothes for popular Hollywood actresses. Needless to say that Barbie instantly became the most fashionable and exquisite doll in the world.

Of course, throughout all these years, the appearance of Barbie was constantly changi n g .

De-

signers experimented with color and length of hair. The doll was becoming more flexible, featured “sleep eyes” that opened and closed, could wink, and so on. In addition, models of different nationalities appeared who were dressed in ethnic costumes. Moreover, Barbie made a successful career in many professions. She was a flight attendant, a rock star, a teacher, and a business woman.

For several decades, this toy remained the most popular in the world. According to statistics, every second two Barbie dolls are still sold on our planet. It is no wonder that only for the first ten years after the release of the dolls the Handlers made $500 million.

In 1993, Barbie brought around one billion to the family, and a year later two billion dollars.

Now Barbie is sold in 150 countries, and its cost ranges from $25 to $70. According to experts, it is one of the top twenty most popular goods. Although this toy is not as popular as it used to be, its history continues. Not so long ago, a startup ToyTalk announced the introduction of a Barbie equipped with a camera, microphone, and WiFi-transmission module. It will be able to speak with a child, and record her voice.

Do you still remember three-liter jars of this wonderful refreshing drink? If not, then ask your parents – they must remember them. In late March–early April, the traditional season of collecting birch sap started in the Soviet Union, otherwise called berezovitsa. Perhaps this drink is not so popular today, but in those days spring was associated with it. You could see jars and cans left in the forests by people, and people carrying home string bags with the newly purchased product. In times of goods shortages, it was a great opportunity not only to enjoy a refreshing and all-natural drink, but also to replenish vitamins in the body after a long winter.

And even more to the point, if you remember, in those days a glass of birch sap cost only eight kopecks! To pass up such a price was a sin. However, due to the fact that grocery shelves were swamped with this juice, a myth was born in the Soviet Union that what was sold on the market was not the real product but its surrogate.

People thought that the country was not capable of producing such a large amount of this drink. But this, of course, was not true.

The most developed production of birch sap was in Belarus, in northern Ukraine, and in the middle belt of the European part of the USSR. Perhaps the most active procurement operations were run by forestry units, which was a more lucrative business than selling timber. In spring one birch tree can produce up to three hundred liters of the precious liquid. What if there was a birch forest nearby?

There was in important reason why the juice was so popular. Scientists proved that this drink has therapeutic properties, contains an extremely large amount of vitamins and organic acids. It helps to combat chronic fatigue, drowsiness; it boosts metabolism and improves the immune system, which is especially important in spring.

Big companies stored and sold it on an industrial scale, but regular people drank the fresh juice straight from the birch. They also made house wine and kvass out of it. Such kvass was the first thing offered to guests returning from a long trip, because kvass was believed to fight off fatigue and to revitalize. As such, kvass was especially appreciated in summer. In the villages it was drunk by small children and adults, and especially by those who were engaged in physically demanding jobs. “Drink a glass of kvass – get a new surge of power to scythe the grass,” the haymakers used to say. This is why birch sap was so often mentioned in movies and books, and even songs were dedicated to it.

A Soviet Belarusian folk rock band Pesniary popularized the drink in their famous song: How often, besotted by the brightness of day, Have I aimlessly strolled along spring streams, And motherland was feeding me generously With birch sap, with birch sap.

8 | Travelling

The Maldives: Islands of Contrasts The Maldives, Fiji, Bali: there’s so much magic in these names. When we hear them we immediately picture paradise islands with beautiful nature and wonderful exotic beaches. However, it isn’t necessarily so. The extraordinarily beautiful nature is an indispensable attribute of these places, but it can be very illusory.

We are going to tell you about the Maldives – one of the poorest yet one of the most beautiful countries in the world. A truly paradoxical and outstanding country. The archipelago, which comprises 1,196 islands, is famous worldwide for its luxury resorts. The authentic Maldives, however, are not only clean beaches catering to all the needs of international tourists. You should remember that locals live on many of the islands.

And the territory inhabited by the natives is entirely different. By the way, only recently have foreigners been allowed to go on holiday to these islands. That’s why almost every island is booming and is trying to develop its own infrastructure. The capital of the country is Malé and that is another story. Here’s a little taste of a Maldives vacation for you!

Resort Islands We are going to reveal a secret to you about the Maldives beauty that you’ve seen on the Internet. All those pictures were taken on the resort islands. A vacation there is really like being in paradise: comfortable bungalows on the water, cozy hotels on the seaside, peace

and quiet without the city bustle and crowds of tourists, surrounded by palm trees, white sand, and blue ocean.

The biggest resort is on Kuramathi Island.

There you can find several VIP villas, diving centers, tennis courts. Usually, only one luxury hotel occupies an entire island, where locals can be found only among the staff.

This sort of vacation is by no means cheap.

And this is the paradox of the Maldives: one of the poorest countries in the world has very expensive rates. A night in such a hotel can easily start from $500 – meaning you have to shell out not hundreds but thousands of dollars for a vacation here. Therefore, until recently only the wealthy were able to afford a trip to the Maldives. A flight to the country, a plane to a remote island, and a hotel fee can amount to a small fortune. The other disadvantage of such a holiday is that the ambience is too quiet. You probably won’t mind spending a week almost alone. However, what if your seaside holiday lasts longer? You wouldn’t want to pay big money and feel bored the entire time.

The Islands and their Natives Only recently did everything change there. Now it is a possible to enjoy the marvelous nature of the islands inhabited with the locals. The country’s

government lifted a years-long ban on building tourist facilities. It gives great opportunities for relatively low-cost holidays. Besides, it’s a chance to get to know the real Maldives, get a feel for the country. However, you won’t necessarily find something extraordinary and unknown there.

It’s strange, but the culture of the Maldives as a country and nation is very poor; moreover, it’s almost absent. The Maldives is a Muslim country, although it can be noticed at once that this religion doesn’t play a large part in the people’s culture.

There’s actually no trace of Islamic cultural heritage on any of the islands. Forget about monuments of architecture and art.

Every island offers limitless possibilities to see the everyday life of the Maldives. The majority of the population, both old and young, uses smartphones. Nonetheless, they live in poverty. The main means of transportation here is a scooter.

Poorer people ride bicycles. Each island usually has a school, a kindergarten, a health clinic, and one or two cafes where you can order only snacks or soft drinks.

The Maldives do not have their own products: but papayas, bananas, watermelons, coconuts, cucumbers, and some other vegetables grow on the islands. Concerning seafood, the locals fish for some species of shellfish and fish, mainly tuna.

Everything else is imported. The country actually produces nothing.

The Maldives people aren’t very educated; they live a calm life and they are never in a hurry. As they were allowed to host tourists only quite recently and no one has ever traveled abroad, the notion of service is a strange concept to them.

Consequently, everybody works at their own discretion. Tourists are hosted at guest houses: small one-story multiple-room houses with a shared living room and a kitchen.

Travelling | 9

As mentioned above, there’s no hurry, urgency, deadlines, and sometimes even dates on the remote islands of this country. That’s why you can’t always expect punctuality and reliability. Timetables and schedules are uncertain, your requests can be neglected because not all of them are worthy of attention. Ships can arrive to the capital on time or fail to arrive at all.

The second peculiarity is waste. There’s a problem on all the Maldives islands with waste collection and disposal. Besides, the locals don’t know how to deal with rubbish in an appropriate way.

As a result a lot of rubbish is washed ashore from the ocean. You can find everything there, but mostly it is plastic bottles which couldn’t be disposed without special recycling. That’s why the tourist beaches are regularly cleaned, although very often you can find bottles washed out from the ocean a moment ago.

Nonetheless, the inhabited islands are part of the real Maldives, which you won’t see at a high-class seaside resort. All the islands are different: some of them are buried in verdure and grow fruit, others can impress you with their long snow-white sand beaches, still others feature coral reefs right off the coast and all you need for coral-watching is your snorkeling mask.

Sand, as everywhere in the Maldives, is snow white, the sun and the ocean are the same all around, so just enjoy the nature. The fact that you’ll pay less money than the tourists on the resort islands do is an additional incentive to enjoy the sun and the wonderful beaches.

The Capital Malé differs drastically from the other islands.

The capital differs even from the inhabited islands and resorts. This Maldives metropolitan city with a population of 153,000 citizens reminds one of an underdeveloped city in South-East Asia without culture or sightseeing attractions. Concerning historical heritage, there’s an ancient mosque but it is closed to tourists. The historic royal palace is also inaccessible. All the rest is a large construction site. Moreover, the capital doesn’t seem to have any specific architectural style. Therefore, when a new construction project is started it is hard to say what the result will be.

The most interesting place in the capital is the main square on the seafront with several benches, palm trees, and fountains, as well as Sultan Park with artificial trees that are beautifully illuminated in the evening. The neighboring National Museum is hardly worthy of attention,

especially taking into account the expensive entrance ticket.

My advice to you: don’t go to Malé intentionally. But if you do find yourself there I recommend you to make a culinary tour and eat at the local joints. Don’t go to restaurants, but to the places the locals go. They might look very unattractive to you, but there you can try a mouthwatering mix of tuna and coconut for breakfast, enjoy different deep fried snacks for lunch, taste excellent local pasta or rice with seafood, chicken, or beef for dinner. The prices are far cheaper there than those on the other islands.

In general, it doesn’t matter where you go or what type of holiday you choose, the Maldives always have something to impress you with. Both the luxury resorts and modest islands offer you multiple attractions: daytime and night fishing, swimming with manta rays, hunting for langoustines, diving, snorkeling, water skiing.

The Maldives is a unique country. Everything about it is amazing and fascinating: its pristine nature, luxury resorts, islands, the ocean and the beaches. This is something quite different from what you’ve ever seen before.

Text and photos by: Ostap Protsyk

10 | culinary

Do you keep coming to our restaurants because you’re looking for healthy and natural food and because you like to cook with quality ingredients at home? We have wonderful news for you! As of now, you can find a wide variety of produce in our deli store at 13 Nametkina St. and at 12/19 Smolenskiy Blvd. The deli offers basic ingredients necessary for every cook to make delicious dishes: cheese, fresh cream, milk, fat, meat, potatoes, carrots, and beetroots. You can also find delicious pastries, sweets, honey, spelt wheat, and lots of other things. To help you save time, our cooks have already pre-packaged varenyky and dumplings for you, and prepared many premade dishes for your healthy and tasty meals at home.

Fresh and healthy produce in our new deli!

It is worth noting that the entire range of products sold at the deli is chemical- and GMOfree. Everything is grown and delivered from our Kazachye Farm located far from polluted areas, industrial factories, waste dumps, and highways.

The farm contains a cattle farm, gardens and fields for vegetables, our own mill and beehives.

Our cattle are raised on natural feeds only, prepared from clean natural ingredients. Water used in the production is extracted from our own artesian well. All products are monitored by a technician who carries out stateof-the-art lab and clinical examinations.

For baking our bread and pastry we only use high-quality grain flour, high-category pastured eggs, and vegetables grown on

our fields without any artificial fertilizers.

More and more people have come to understand that ecologically clean products are indispensable for humans. Unfortunately, the food we find on supermarket shelves is often of lesser quality, full of harmful preservatives, and bad for your health.

Be aware of what you’re buying and stay healthy!

culinary | 11

From a Cow to Your Table: We’re Launching a Cheese Factory!

It is hard to imagine Ukrainian cuisine without excellent sour cream, delicate buttery cottage cheese, aromatic hard cheese, butter, and other dairy products.

Undoubtedly, the most delicious and healthy ones are those made from natural cow’s milk.

On March 15, we are finally launching our own dairy and cheese factory. Due to the production cycle “from cow to table,” clients will get high quality natural products. The food will be processed on complex technological equipment, the quality of which is on a par with European analogues. All the dairy products will be supplied exclusively from our Kazachye Farm located in a pollution-free and picturesque area of the Ryazan region.

«Taras Bulba» chain of restaurants we present a CD of Ukrainian classical music in modern arrangements from Bulba Press.

The products will be supplied to the Korchma Taras Bulba restaurant chain, offering its customers many delicious dishes with dairy ingredients. Buying them from a national producer has many advantages. First of all, it is fresh natural products supplied directly from a production site without longterm storage and transportation. Second, the Russian

food industry in general, and the milk industry in particular, has a new incentive for development in light of different sanctions. A national producer has all the chances to offer dairy products that are able to compete with foreign brands and that can satisfy the tastes of the most demanding customers. The emphasis on the products’ naturalness is the insurance of the enterprise’s prosperity and of the good health of the end consumers.

We are especially happy to announce the news on launching a cheese factory since dairy products make up to 80 percent of our diet.

A regular person can hardly imagine their day without milk, sour cream, or cheese. And it is especially appreciated that natural food can be purchased in our restaurants both for eating in and to take home.

The exclusive new disc will be available for sale in our restaurants!

Find time in your life for our music!

12 | news from korchma

‘All the Way!’ Korchma has never seen as many military marches or uniforms as it did this year! Our restaurant chain celebrated its most noisy, creative, and joyous Defender of the Motherland Day ever! To create the appropriate ambiance, the participants of the flash mob arrived in sailor shirts, service shirts, and airborne uniforms. Young men and women sang military songs and danced to their heart’s content. The winners of the contest received trophies and the main prize was a cake dedicated to this holiday.

Look for new issue BULBA PRESS of the children’s magazine Tarasik by taurants in “Korchma Taras Bulba’ chain of res

Your kids deserve the best childhood!

news from korchma | 13

Saint Valentine’s Day: Delicious and Romantic I love you, Je t’aime, Ich liebe dich: you can express your love in many different languages. Saint Valentine’s, the most romantic day of all, was also celebrated in our favorite restaurant chain – Korchma Taras Bulba, which provided enamored couples with

a romantic dinner setting in the light of sensuous candles.

This atmosphere is known to be most conducive for love confessions and marriage proposals. We decorated the interior accordingly, we presented our guests with valentine cards, and we had a special St. Valentine’s menu.

Our Kyiv restaurant launched an entire Ukraine-style festival program. The

guests danced to joyful music and competed in funny games.

Solokha the Witch tested the couples and our chefs offered them heart-shaped varenyky and delicious gingerbread cookies “You&Me.”

Chefs’ Competition

A tasty breakfast is a wonderful way to start the day! And we all know that the dolce vita has no effect on the figure! Breakfasts and desserts were at the focus of our attention during an exciting chef’s competition in the Korchma in Leninskiy Avenue! The award was given to the best breakfast and the best dessert! But don’t be

too jealous of the jury because their task of judging the delicacies was very difficult… But all Korchma patrons deserve only the best.

We plan to hold such competitions monthly in all restaurants of our chain and you will be able to taste the winning dishes in any Korchma.

14 | MENU

MENU | 15

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reality n u of sense t l. n easa l arriva p n but ely upo A mild diat e imm sets in

Moscow 5% holders discount card

nal 5% off get an additio rk in a New Yo Restaurant

– Дорогой, ты купил мне на 8 Марта подарок?

– Конечно, дорогая.

– А он мне понравится?

– Если не понравится, отдашь мне, я о таком спиннинге давно мечтал.

Korchma i n

Soho

357 West Broadway, Soho, New-York

Маленький мальчик спрашивает у папы: – Папа, а почему день 8 Марта выделен красным?

– Это, сынок, цвет нашей с тобой мужской крови! Если бы только мужчины управляли этим миром, то... Восьмое Марта перенесли бы на двадцать девятое февраля. Раз в четыре года это еще можно вынести.

8 марта – каждый мужчина может честно признаться: «Сегодня не мой день!»

4 4 7 7 0 8 (495) 7

Ukrainian cuisine – made with love!

Restaurants’ location:

MOSCOW, Aviamotornaya metro station, 6 Krasnokazarmennaya St., (499) 763 5741

Avtozavodskaya metro station,

6 Velozavodskaya St., (499) 764 1532

Akademicheskaya metro station,

16/10 Profsoyuznaya St., (499) 125 0877

Alekseyavskaya metro station, 3 Bochkova St., (495) 616 6754

Airport metro station,

64 Leningradskiy Prospekt St., (499) 151 9011

Baumanskaya metro station,

23/41 Bakuninskaya St., +7 (495) 956 55 81

Borovitskaya metro station,

8 Mokhovaya St., 24-hour, 89037965141; 89856448544

Krasnye Vorota metro station,

47 Myasnitskaya St., (495) 607 1762

Leninskiy Prospekt metro station,

37 Leninskiy Prospect St., (495) 954 6466

Maryino metro station,

163/1 Lublinskaya St., 8 (495) 349 78 09

Novokuznetskaya metro station, 14 Pyatnitskaya St., (495) 953 7153

Novye Cheryomushki metro station, Nametkina St., 13 г, (495) 331 4211

Smolenskaya metro station,

12 Smolenskiy Avenue. St., 24-hour, (499) 246 6902

Tsvetnoy Boulevard metro station,

13 Sadovaya-Samotechnaya St., 24-hour, (495) 694 0056

Chekhovskaya metro station,

30/7 Petrovka St., (495) 694 6082

Yugo-Zapadnaya metro station,

6 Borovskoye Road, (495) 980 2051

Vystavochnaya metro station, of 1905 year,

27 Shmitovskiy Passage, 24-hour, (499) 256-4660

The town of Odintsovo

122 Mozhayskoye Shosse 8 (925) 166-16-18

KIEV, “Teatralnaya”, “Zolotye Vorota”,“Kreschatik” metro station, 2-4/7 Pushkinskaya St.,+38 (044) 270-7248 357 West Broadway, NYork City, NY 10013 phone: (212) 510 75 10

Laskavo prosymo!

Certificate of registration PI № FS 77 – 19940. Circulation is 5 000 copies.