Advance Meal Ticket: Meat Vareniki Set

Ukrainian Denver Food Festival is the most popular multicultural event in Colorado where we make it fun for the broader community support Colorado local but with Ukrainian Twist....

About Vareniki: 

It is believed that this dish existed before Christian times in Ukraine.   Varenyky are not just a national dish, but also a special talisman and are believed to have magical powers.   Girls brought them to women who had recently given birth.   They were eaten when a cow was calving to ensure the health of the newborn.   They were served during the wheat harvest so that the reapers would have strength to bring in a good profit. Ukrainian ancestors equated varenyky with a young moon just like their shape. They used dumplings as sacrificial food, offering up vareniki with cheese near the source of spring water.

Varenyky have been immortalized in poems, songs, movies, and even monuments!

They can be savory – as the sauerkraut filled ones at Findlay.   They can be sweet and served as desserts with blueberry, cherry, plum, apricot and others.   And they can also be hearty meat filled ones.   There are also some unusual traditional fillings from Ukranian culinary history, like radish and fern.   And – egg on your face, Putin – they are twice as big as the Russian pemeni, which are round, not half-moon shaped.    There are regional variations throughout the Ukraine – in Polissia, crushed beans are the filling of choice, whilie in Zakarpattia, its cheese, and in Chernihiv, bacon crisps or cracklins are added as a garnish.  In Belarus varenyky are called kalduny and their recipes are similar to Ukrainian ones.