There are no special traditions. Girls are taught how to cook from an early age even from 3 or 4 years old when they stay with their grandmothers at home and help them with the housework. Little by little they learn how to mix the spices or how to measure the ingredients. Later when they grow up, they simply feel the right proportions for a stew or boiling time for a soup.

The Ukrainian cuisine influenced by other neighboring countries, such as Russian. It uses a lot of meat and especially pork. Fruits and vegetables also play important role as ingredients or decoration. Mushrooms also play major part in the cooking process: dried, canned or fresh, Ukrainians use a lot of mushrooms.

Bread takes an important place in the traditional cuisine. It is sign of fertility and modesty. There are different kinds of bread that are prepared on different occasions. One of the most popular is the kolach. Its name comes of its round, circle form (kolo - circle in Ukrainian) which represents the life circle.

Korovai is another round bread similar to kolach which is often baked on weddings or baptism ceremonies. There are also sweet breads like paska and babka that are prepared especially for Easter and include sultanas, figs or other dried fruits.

If you have been in Europe, probably you have tried the so called Russian salad. It consists of various boiled vegetables, mixed with ham and mayonnaise. This is another Ukrainian contribution to the world cuisine and definitely you should ask your wife to prepare one of those salads for you.

There are various recipes for it. In the time of the Soviet Union when vegetables were seasonal and people were struggling with the shortage of products, there was a joke with this salad. It was said that the Soviet salad has ham in - it is called Russian. Well, except for the meat, this salad includes carrots, potatoes, peas, eggs - sometimes boiled and cut into tiny pieces and all this mixed with mayonnaise.

The usual Ukrainian lunch consists of soup, salad, main dish and dessert. Indeed, the local peole cook much and in large quantities.

One of the most famous ukrainian soups is the Borsch. It is made of vegetables and most of all, of beets. There are millions of recipes for good borsch. Today when the market is full of fresh fruits all year round more and more ingredients are added to the beets, even broccoli which is uncommon for the region.

This soup sometimes is prepared as lenten fare and sometimes includes meat. Most women prepare it with calf or lamb, but other meats are not excluded from the list. As we already said, there are many recipes for borsch and all of them are equally good.

The Ukrainian wives are surprisingly good with desserts too. Panpushki are sweet fried dough with small holes inside. They are very similar to the doughnuts and are filled with variety of home-made jams or cheese.

You will be surprised how rich and tasty the Ukrainian cuisine is. Do not be afraid, try everything! Ukrainian wives love cooking and will be happy to feed you!