Shopping in Kiev

Groceries

As I mentioned earlier, the school delivered a few things to our apartment before we arrived to help us get started.  On the kitchen table we found some food items (bread, milk, oj, instant coffee, cereal, breakfast croissants, salami, and cheese) and a jug of water (tap water is not safe for drinking).  They also gave us two small plates, two small bowls, six juice glasses, and an electric kettle to boil water.  Aside from that, the kitchen was bare.  There were no other dishes or cookware.  Even so, we were grateful, especially that first night.  It was getting dark by the time we explored all the rooms of the apartment and unpacked some of our things. We were told there were a couple of small grocery stores nearby, but we were not sure we wanted to venture out at night without knowing exactly where we were going.  Besides, we were exhausted. So our first meal in our new home consisted of bread, cheese, salami, and water.  It tasted delicious!

By the afternoon of day two we were already joking about our "bread and water rations", so we went looking for a grocery store.  However, without pots or pans, we still had to choose food that we could eat cold.  Dinner that night ended up being more of the same: bread, cheese, bologna...except this time we added wine and chocolate!  Too bad we forgot to pick up some candles.
 

 

  dinner rations

 

 

Our first breakfast: pastries and instant coffee out of a bowl

 

 

Day three, Saturday, we decided we would just have to take our chances and try to find our way to a place called Mega Market where we could buy groceries plus household items like dishes, cookware, and other assorted kitchen and bath basics.  It seems to be the Ukrainian version of Wal Mart.  Getting to the Mega Market required a 4-5 block walk and then a Metro (subway) ride into the city. This was not a problem, and a one-way token for the Metro is only about 10 cents.  The problem was we had to limit ourselves on what we could buy because we had to schlep it back to the apartment.  This was a challenge for me; the Mega Market was huge, with so many new foods I wanted to try, and lots of nice dishes and cooking gadgets.  I also had to remember that we did ship a box before we left the States which contains some of my kitchen stuff.  So we bought a couple of coffee mugs, a medium cooking pot, a chef's knife, and some food.  My favorite purchase was fresh dill and parsley that I bought from a street vendor on the way home.  She was the stereotypical Ukrainian babushka, complete with a scarf wrapped around her head and tied under her chin.  Thank goodness I had been practicing Russian numbers so I knew how much to pay her.  She charged me 4 grevna, which is about 50 cents American.  That night I made Chicken Kiev (chicken fillets rolled with fresh herbs and butter) and rice. I was glad that I had packed some of my Penzey's spices.  Dinner was pretty good. :)

 

                                                          some cooking essentials