It is a very nutritious and tasty winter salad. The main ingredient is meat. Every meat can suit, so it is possible to choose it to taste.

If you've read 'Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka' by Russian classical writer Nikolai Gogol, you surely remember how adroitly one of the characters ate vareniki with sour cream that flew into his mouth by themselves. Of course, traditional Ukrainian vareniki don't have such super skills, but their taste is sure to make you think of the Ukrainian cuisine's magic. Ukrainian vareniki are often compared to Russian pelmeni or Italian ravioli. Vareniki's crucial difference from other similar dishes is their dough. Traditional Ukrainian vareniki can't be Lenten, that is, kefir and eggs are always added to the dough. What are vareniki like? Nikolai Gogol wrote that you could eat hat-sized vareniki at some farms. That's, of course, an exaggeration. The classical varenik is around 10 cm large and, contrary to pelmeni or ravioli, has a crescent shape. Vareniki's filling can be very different: potato, cabbage, potato and meat, potato and salo (pork meat), sweet or salted curd, pumpkin, cherries and so on. The filling is warped up in dough and cooked for five minutes or less. Vareniki are usually served with sour cream. Although it's truly Ukrainian dish, vareniki are well-known all over the world. People in different corners of the world took liking of vereniki's unusual and rich taste and installed monuments to varenik. In particular, Ukrainian varenik was immortalized in Canada and Russia.

Unmistakable smell, inimitable taste, different recipes are the main characteristics of salo, the visit card of generous Ukrainian soil. Salo is a principal national dish of Ukraine that always is present on festive table. Salo is an animal fat, mostly, the pork one. It contains lots of A, D, E vitamins, and carotene. There are a lot of recipes of salo – it can be salted, smoked, fried, or boiled. The best way to serve it is a canapé style – it is a piece of black bread, covered with thin piece of salo, pickled gherkin and garlic. Also the salo is used to make cracklings and lard, utilized as a culinary fat. The cracklings might be spread over bread instead of a butter, or added to different dishes in order to give them unusual taste. Moreover, the cracklings are frequently served with vareniki. Recently, the Ukrainian exotic – salo covered with chocolate – was invented. They say this dish possesses an inimitable taste. The salo is well-loved all over the world, however, only Ukrainians know how to cook it right. Therefore, a lot of tourists prefer to buy this dish as a souvenir or present.

The mezhivo is an authentic Ukrainian dish. Besides the vegetable one, there is the fruit mezhivo. It will better compliment the alcoholic beverage but it should be made beforehand.