Let’s talk Zakarpattian food! Thankfully, a less complex topic with less room for controversy than other topics about the region, like language or history. However, just as with the dialect, it also demonstrates the uniqueness of the region compared to much of Ukraine, its history, and the different groups that reside within the region.
There is culinary diversity within Ukraine, of course, with more seafood in the coastal regions, dishes from certain regions, and not to mention different names for staples like potato pancakes (deruny in standard Ukrainian, kremzlyky in Zakarpattian dialect, etc.). Zakarpattia boasts several dishes, making it truly stand out.
On a personal level, I immediately fell in love with Zakarpattian food when i first visited Uzhhorod in 2019, because, as much as I enjoy typical Ukrainian food, as a true Englishman, I do love spicy food (thanks to the presence of Indian/Anglo-Indian cuisine) and other foreign dishes being widely available).
Zakarpattian food tends to utilise paprika and hot peppers in its dishes, similarly to Hungarian cuisine. It adds a bit of diversity from the standard Ukrainian dishes, which, while satisfying, do not have any heat in them at all. In addition to the use of paprika in some dishes, other specific attributes are the use of corn and local cheeses.
Some dishes are popular across Ukraine, especially western Ukraine, and you can find them in restaurants in Lviv, for example. You can also often find similar dishes in neighbouring countries, although each will have a slight variation in recipes and taste.
The first dish I tried was Banosh. Banosh is a corn porridge, made by Hutsuls and other mountain groups, traditionally only by men in a big cauldron over a fire. It is cooked in cream, and sheep’s cheese, Bryndza, is added on top, as can be fried pig lard “skvarky”. It is rich, filling, not very healthy, but delicious, and a true staple of the region.
Now, I mentioned Bryndza, so we have to talk about it. Slovakians are often associated with Bryndza, where it is most famous, but Ukrainian Bryndza, designated officially as Hutsul Bryndza, is just as indigenous to the region. It is a hard, sheep cheese from the mountainous regions, quite salty, typically white, and eaten alone or with dishes. For example, it is quite common with baked potatoes and “skvarky” as well. You can find various twists, some better for cooking, some smoked, some with herbs, etc., and can easily pick up at local markets or simply from street sellers for a reasonable price.
The next dish I tried was when I first arrived in Uzhhorod, in 2019, at a sadly closed restaurant which used to be on one of the main streets in the centre. It was a giant kremzlyk (potato pancake in the local dialect), folded over meat and mushrooms in a creamy sauce. You can also find it with Goulash and other additions consisting of meat and/or mushrooms traditionally, though one restaurant in Uzhhorod does it with raw tuna, which works better than you’d think!
This type of dish is often called “Slovakian Delicacy” as this kind of larger pancake is more common in Slovakia than in Ukraine, apparently, but you can find it in various restaurants in Zakarpattia. It’s exactly what it is, satisfying, fatty (to be honest, that’s a lot of these dishes!)
We cannot talk about Zakarpattian food without talking about Bograch. Now, Hungarian cuisine has “bogracs” (the Hungarian spelling) as well, and is a part of their cuisine. However, it is also, due to historical influences, part of Carpathian cuisine too. It is, similarly to Banosh, cooked in a cauldron, but, unlike Banosh, typically by women. It is a hearty stew, consisting of different meats, often including smoked meat, peppers, onion, and various vegetables.
Everyone can have their own variations, and a true experience of Bograch is that every restaurant, every family, will have different versions. Sometimes it is very thick, sometimes very spicy, sometimes with actual chillis in it, sometimes with ribs, sometimes with pork and smoked lard, etc. The word literally means cauldron, by the way, but in Zakarpattia, it refers to this specific dish. However, just to get confusing, often people call it “bograch-goulash” but that is referring to the soup I am discussing, whereas goulash can refer to a variety of dishes technically in Hungary, but it has a different meaning again in Ukraine.
Goulash is popular in Ukraine, as it is in much of Central and Eastern Europe, but “there is a nuance,” as people like to say. Because Zakarpattians call the soup cooked in a cauldron Bograch, it tends to refer not to the Hungarian Bograsc-Gulyas, but rather a meat dish you would have with, say a giant deruny, or other side like potato. Zakarpattian Bograch/Bograch-Goulash tends to be eaten from a bowl, due to its consistency, with bread on the side, as a starter or a meal in and of itself, rather than a thick, stewed meat, which is what you would get if you ordered Goulash. Just to confuse you.
The last thing on my list is a dessert, Gombovtsi. Now, interestingly, it is, according to some sources, a traditional Ukrainian dish, but is really commonly found only in Zakarpattia these days. Allegedly, it bears similarity to Chinese Baozi, which may have spread via Hungarian nomads, or may have Turkic roots, or something else. So it is a mystery, but it is certainly Zakarpattian today. They are dough balls, stuffed with tvorog, Ukrainian cottage cheese, and/or fruits and or spices. Not my favourite, personally, but nonetheless a unique addition and truly local dessert.
I can easily make a second peace on local food, and perhaps I will, if people want to read it! What is fascinating is that the cuisine exhibits a richness and, in some ways, less uniformity than other parts of Ukraine, most likely due to its historical location as a fringe area under empires and its lesser exposure to the Soviet Union compared to other parts of the country.
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