The Soviet habit of celebrating the New Year with Olivier and Shuba dishes must be abandoned, insists the city manager of Dnepr
Popular Olivier and Shuba salads, traditionally enjoyed during New Year’s celebrations in many former Soviet countries, should disappear from Ukrainians’ tables, Dnipro Mayor Boris Filatov has said.
“To tell you the truth, I can’t swallow those Olivier and Shuba [salads] longer because it’s the third day” of the new year already, he wrote on Telegram on Monday.
“Therefore there is a proposal. Let us gradually abandon the Soviet habits. And to be honest and sincere: ‘Away with Moscow’.” Filatov added.
But the mayor said he had no problem with another Russian dish – Kholodets, or jellied meat – and said he would “give up your soul” for that, especially when served with mustard.
The post, written in Ukrainian and apparently intended as a joke, made headlines in Russian media. The mayor of the fourth largest city in Ukraine responded to the coverage with a message in Russian and called the journalists “stupid and humorless.”
“Besides, the jelly meat we eat is made by orthodox babies,” Filatov added in another apparent joke.
It is believed that the original Olivier salad was invented in the 1860s by Lucien Olivier, a chef in one of Moscow’s best restaurants at the time, the Hermitage. It contained grouse, veal tongue, capers, caviar and crayfish, along with other seasonal ingredients.
However, the original recipe has been changed and simplified over the years and Olivier salad now consists of meat or sausage, potatoes, pickled cucumber, peas, eggs and mayonnaise. The dish has become famous all over the world and is usually called Russian salad.
Shuba salad is believed to have been first served in 1919 by a merchant named Anastas Bogomolov, who owned a chain of eateries in Moscow. It consists of layers of herring, onions, potatoes, carrots and beets, bound together with mayonnaise. Bogomolov is said to have wanted to create a dish to unite people after the Bolshevik Revolution, and Suba was short for “Chauvinism, decadence, boycott and anathema.” However, some researchers dismiss this theory and believe that the salad has Scandinavian roots.
Some restaurants in Kyiv had already removed the Russian dishes from their New Year’s menus before the Dnepr mayor’s recommendation, media reported.
READ MORE: Ukraine dismantles monument to iconic Soviet writer
“We have to turn the page. What is happening in our country now affects our relationship with the world, and we have to be modern.” This is what Tatyana Mitrofanova, who owns the popular eatery Chasing Two Hares, told AFP.
Source: sn.dk