The Veselka Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Landmark Restaurant in New York's East Village [Hardcover]

Second Avenue and 9th Street in New York City's East Village is where it all began back in 1954 when a Ukrainian immigrant named Wolodymyr Darmochwal opened Veselka Candy Shoppe, a newsstand and candy shop. Originally drawing patrons from the local area, the reputation of Veselka grew as the candy shop grew into a cafe and was rebuilt from the bottom up and renovated in 1996 by Tom Birchard (who started working part-time at Veselka in 1967, while a sophomore in college, as the only non-Ukrainian employee) and assumed ownership from his father-in-law, Wolodymyr Darmochwal, in 1975. When Wolodymyr Darmochwal passed away in 1975, the neighborhood was known for its heroin addicts; by the time The Veselka Cookbook was published in 2009, apartments on the same block where Veselka stood sold routinely for over a million dollars and now constituted some of the most sought-after real estate in the city.

This is the story of Veselka verbally and via color and black-and-white archival images; and, this is the sharing of some of Veselka's scrumptious recipes. For, whatever your preference--be it take out, sit in, or do-it-yourself fare at home, The Veselka Cookbook not only provides splendid recipes, but also shares its secrets and stories about celebrity customers, the restaurant's other lesser-known longtime fans, local artists who've adopted it as a second home, its own 'artist-in-residence,' and offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Veselka serves 5,000 gallons of borscht a year and hand makes 3,000 varenyky/pyrohy (pierogi) daily--all this in addition to the easy-to-follow recipes.

Veselka means rainbow in Ukrainian, and its namesake, Veselka, the twenty-four-hour Ukrainian cafe turned landmark restaurant with a staff of approximately seventy-five, offers a smorgasbord of culinary comfort food. Or, it may be also said that Veselka offers a veselka of culinary comfort food sure to satisfy.

Veselka's employees visit Ukraine routinely and say that eating habits have changed tremendously in recent years; the biggest change is that Ukrainians have increased vastly their consumption of vegetables. And, regarding borscht, beet soup, we learn that "while borscht is served throughout Eastern Europe and is a staple of Jewish cuisine (the word bors means 'soup' in Yiddish), it's believed to have originated in Ukraine." There are many other interesting bits of information in this easy-to-read and easy-to-prepare recipe book.

Following a two-page Acknowledgments section (among those acknowledged are: William Hellow, Veselka's graphic designer since 1996, who also designs Veselka's menus; Ben Fink for his contribution of the color photos in the book; and, Petro R. Strawnychy, chair of Plast's National Executive Board, who allowed Veselka to use Plast's logo).

Recipes included are found in chapters on: Soups; Stuffed Delights: Pyrohy (Pierogi), Blintzes, and More; Meat and Poultry; Salads and Side Dishes; Desserts ("Desserts at Veselka fit into one of two categories: traditional Ukrainian or traditional American"); Christmas Eve: a Special Ukrainian Tradition; Sandwiches; and, Breakfast Any Time.

Following the recipes are Menus (two pages, which include Menus for: Thanksgiving, Easter, Mother's Day Brunch, Father's Day Dinner, Birthday Dinner, Summer Cookout, Ukrainian Independence Day [August 24], Buffet Brunch, Picnic Lunch, Box Lunch, Home with a Cold Lunch, Sunday Supper, Weeknight Dinner, and Super Bowl Party). The Glossary is 2-1/2 pages and defines terms used within The Veselka Cookbook; Resources lists 4-1/2 pages of helpful places to look when purchasing ingredients for recipes; and, lastly, the 7-page Index is a handy tool for locating recipes quickly.

Whatever your craving, whatever the time of day or evening, Ukrainian culinary comfort food has been available for over five decades at the landmark Veselka restaurant. The Veselka Cookbook not only will appeal to serious cooks and bon vivants who've relished Veselka's famous recipes at the cafe for decades, but also will appeal to patrons who've visited Veselka while in New York City and wish a souvenir of their visit, or to those who wish to personally bake or cook some Ukrainian or American food.

Veselka serves over 1,000 people on a busy day, and Veselka is almost always crowded during the twenty-four hours a day that it remains open. That Veselka is a successful restaurant with delicious cuisine is a given; that the recipes within The Veselka Cookbook are easy to follow is also a given, as are the informative notes that accompany each recipe.

The Veselka Cookbook is a fine collaborative effort of Tom Birchard with Natalie Danford. Design is by Maggie Hoffman. Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Press, published the First Edition in November, 2009. An excellent supplement to The Veselka Cookbook is the website found under the name of the book.

As the current owner and author of The Veselka Cookbook, Tom Birchard, states, "I'm not just an honorary Ukrainian--I'm an extraordinarily lucky honorary Ukrainian, and I hope that reading this book will help you feel a little Ukrainian, too." Five stars plus for a recipe book which is sure to whet your appetite for foods Ukrainian and American, entice you to visit Veselka restaurant, and even, perhaps, try your own hand at making the recipes.

Addendum: Readers, you're invited to visit each of my reviews--most of them have photos that I took in Ukraine (over 600)--you'll learn lots about Ukraine and Ukrainians. The image gallery shows smaller photos, which are out of sequence. The preferable way is to see each review through my profile page since photos that are germane to that particular book/VHS/DVD are posted there with notes and are in sequential order.

To visit my reviews: click on my pseudonym, Mandrivnyk, to get to my profile page; click on the tab called review; scroll to the bottom of the section, and click on see all reviews; click on each title, and on the left-hand side, click on see all images. The thumbnail images at the top of the page show whether photos have notes; roll your mouse over the image to find notes posted.

Also, you're invited to visit my Listmania lists, which have materials sorted by subject.