For more than fifty years, customers have crowded into Veselka, a cozy Ukrainian coffee shop in New York City’s East Village, to enjoy pierogi, borscht, goulash, and many other unpretentious favorites. Veselka (rainbow in Ukrainian) has grown from a simple newsstand serving soup and sandwiches into a twenty-four-hour gathering place, without ever leaving its original location on the corner of East Ninth Street and Second Avenue. Veselka is, quite simply, an institution.
The Veselka Cookbook contains more than 150 recipes, covering everything from Ukrainian classics (potato pierogi, five kinds of borscht, grilled kielbasa, and poppy seed cake) to dozens of different sandwiches, to breakfast fare (including Veselka’s renowned pancakes), to the many elements of a traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve feast.
Veselka owner Tom Birchard shares stories about Veselka’s celebrity customers, the local artists who have adopted it as a second home, and the restaurant’s other lesser-known, but no less important, longtime fans, and he offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to serve five thousand gallons of borscht a year and to craft three thousand pierogi daily---all by hand.
The Veselka Cookbook will delight anyone with an interest in Ukrainian culture, New York City’s vibrant downtown, and the pleasures of simple, good food.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
What started as a modest candy shop/newsstand in 1954 grew into a humble lunch counter and is now a bustling 24-hour restaurant in New York's East Village. Ukrainian fare mixed with American favorites fill the pages of this gift-sized restaurant cookbook, interspersed with the history and stories of the people behind the business as well as an introduction to and celebration of Ukrainian culture. Broken down by course (with additional chapters including Breakfast Anytime), recipes for popular dishes such as borscht, pierogi and banana chocolate chip cupcakes are accessibly written. Diner food, including tuna melts, hamburgers, buttermilk pancakes and apple pie, have more than their fare share of space, but are offset with Ukrainian gems such as kutya, a wheat berry dish; uzvar, dried fruit compote; and bigos, a pork stew with sauerkraut and onions. The spirit of community that grew from this beloved neighborhood spot (veselka means rainbow) informs the pages of this unique cookbook, which brings readers everywhere a little piece of a New York institution. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
Praise for Veselka
“It’s one thing to have delicious food, it’s another thing to have it available twenty-four hours a day. Veselka has always been there when I’ve had a three a.m. pierogi emergency.”
- Jon Stewart
“Veselka excels at comfort food. . . . Even better are the Ukrainian specials. Whatever your mood, something on Veselka’s menu will appeal to you.”
- TimeOut New York
“Borscht, whether hot or cold, is hot these days, as a culinary glasnost. The best borscht happens to be found at an old standby, the twenty-four-hour Ukrainian cafe, [Veselka].”
- New York Magazine, The Best of New York
“Whenever the craving hits for hearty Eastern European fare, Veselka fits the bill with fluffy and light pierogi, stuffed cabbage, grilled Polish kielbasa, freshly made potato pancakes, and classic soups, such as a sublime borscht. Breakfast is special here. If all you want is a burger, don’t worry---it’s a classic, too.”
- Frommer’s
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Cookbook I've Been Waiting For...,
By Gloria Sosnoski (New York City) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Veselka Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Landmark Restaurant in New York's East Village (Hardcover)
If you live in New York City, Veselka'a is probably your best friend already; and if you don't, it's worth a trip to New York. The Borscht is the best, as are the pierogis, the soups, and also the tastiest burger. All the best recipes are in the cookbook. The ingredients are accessible and the recipes easy to follow. And if you read the stories as you go along, it's the next best thing to being there. If you love Ukranian food, American food, and good food in general, treat yourself and buy this book. Then buy another copy to give to your best friend who also loves good food. Now I'm waiting for the sequel...
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Memories,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Veselka Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Landmark Restaurant in New York's East Village (Hardcover)
The comfort foods of my childhood were pierogi, filled cabbage, kasha, varnishkas, and cabbage soup. My mother cooked without recipes and over the years some of my attempts to duplicate these foods have been successful, some not. Then my sister told me about Veselka and its cookbook. This tome is my call home to check on a recipe. It brings back memories of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings gathered around long tables on Christmas or Easter, or around the kitchen table in my grandmother's kitchen. This food tastes like it does in my memory. A visit to Veselka is on the itinerary during a trip to New York City.
This cookbook definitely needs to be in the kitchen of anyone interested in Eastern European cooking.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great gift,
By Forester203 (New York) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Veselka Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Landmark Restaurant in New York's East Village (Hardcover)
I bought this as a birthday present for a fabulous cook with Ukranian roots -- she loves it.
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