From outer space? Sask. farmers baffled after discovering strange wreckage in field
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
One of Canada's largest supermarket chains is taking a small but meaningful step to signal its support for Ukraine as the country defends itself against Russia's invasion.
Loblaw will change the name of its frozen President's Choice-brand chicken Kiev, a dish of breaded chicken breast stuffed with herbs and butter, to chicken Kyiv, using the Ukrainian spelling.
"The product is currently being updated, and we expect to have new ones on (the) shelf later this summer," says Catherine Thomas, vice-president of communications at Loblaw, in a written statement.
Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea prompted the Ukrainian government to assert its own language and culture after years of Russian domination under the Soviet Union. Campaigns from the Ukrainian ministry of foreign affairs have largely convinced western governments and media outlets to refer to the country's capital as Kyiv, following the Ukrainian spelling, transliterated from the Cyrillic alphabet, instead of Kiev, which is the Russian version.
Though the language campaign has been focused on the city, not the dish, other players in the food industry have adopted the change since February, when Russian forces launched their attacks on Ukraine and created a humanitarian crisis.
One early adopter of "chicken Kyiv" was Ricardo Larrivee, a Quebec chef who has hosted his own cooking show for more than 20 years. His website changed its spelling of the dish recipe on March 2, less than a week after the start of the war.
"We are sensitive to the current situation and it was important for us to show our solidarity with Ukrainians," Nathalie Carbonneau, vice-president of communications at Larrivee's company, Ricardo Media, said in an email.
In calling the dish "chicken Kyiv," Loblaw joins several supermarket chains and food manufacturers in Australia and the United Kingdom that, following widespread calls on Twitter, have already changed their spelling.
Despite its name, chicken Kiev/Kyiv has neither Russian nor Ukrainian roots.
"It's a French preparation," says Darra Goldstein, professor emerita of Russian at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., and author of six cookbooks, including two devoted to Russian (and Soviet) cuisine. "Starting in the mid-to-late 19th century, a lot of the aristocracy in Russia hired French chefs."
These chefs brought to Russia the French a la Marechale style of cooking meat, where a tender piece of meat is rolled in a mixture of bread crumbs and eggs, and then sauteed.
It's not clear when chicken a la Marechale was first stuffed with butter and renamed chicken Kiev.
Goldstein picks up the story in the 1920s, when she believes that chicken Kiev, as it then was, likely first made an appearance in the United States thanks to aristocratic Russian emigres.
"Most Soviet sources claim it was invented in 1947 by the chef to the Ukrainian minister of foreign affairs, to celebrate his return from negotiations in Paris," says Goldstein. It is unclear how reliable that claim is, she adds, because Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union in 1947, and the Soviet Union's foreign minister in 1947 was ethnically Russian, not Ukrainian.
Yurii Kovryzhenko, a 38-year-old chef from Kyiv, points to a 1918 recipe from a restaurant in the city that he believes is the earliest chicken Kiev/Kyiv recipe. This version retains the bone of the wing, unlike the mass-produced, frozen varieties of chicken Kiev/Kyiv common in North America and the original chicken a la Marechale.
Kovryzhenko first strips the bone of all of its meat and fat. He then wraps the breast around a mixture of butter, garlic, parsley and dill, and seals it with another strip of chicken meat to keep the buttery mixture from seeping out. He rolls it twice in flour, egg yolk and bread crumbs, deep fries it and finally bakes it until the skin is lightly bubbling. Diners pick up the bone using a paper frill.
He ardently advocates for the rechristening of chicken Kiev as chicken Kyiv in his role as a culinary ambassador for Ukraine. Prior to the Russian invasion, Kovryzhenko travelled the world showcasing Ukrainian gastronomy. He was in London, England for a food event when the war began on Feb. 24 and has not been able to use his return ticket since.
Instead, he is waging a culinary war from abroad. Much of his time is now devoted to organizing and cooking at fundraising dinners to support Ukrainian refugees. At one such event, he prepared varenyky -- better known to Canadians by their Polish name, pierogis -- with TV chef Jamie Oliver.
Kovryzhenko also helps non-Ukrainian restaurants design dishes that incorporate Ukrainian elements. A Japanese restaurant in London, for example, served udon with green borshch. Borshch (or, as Russians say it, borscht), a sour vegetable soup, is Ukraine's national dish, even if it is often incorrectly assumed to be of Russian origin, say both Goldstein and Kovryzhenko.
Along with others, Kovryzhenko successfully lobbied two of the most prestigious restaurant guides, Michelin and the World's 50 Best Restaurants, to suspend operations in Russia.
Most of all, Kovryzhenko wants the world to learn about Ukrainian food, and thereby, about Ukraine.
"The Russians took all the best dishes from the different republics of the Soviet Union," he says. "But they don't say it's Georgian. They don't say it's Crimean Tatar. They don't say it's Ukrainian or Belarusian."
Loblaw says chicken Kiev/Kyiv sales have increased this year. Kovryzhenko also predicts there will be a resurgence of interest in Ukrainian cuisine after the war is over. His restaurants in Ukraine, which served food from all over the world before the war, now feed the nation's fighters.
"But I think when I return to Ukraine (after the war), I will open a Ukrainian restaurant again."
----
Jeffrey Mo is an economist, public policy analyst and a former chemist and engineer, currently taking part in the Dalla Lana Fellowship in global journalism at the University of Toronto
____
Do you have any questions about the attack on Ukraine? Email dotcom@bellmedia.ca.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
The National Post is reporting that Rex Murphy, the pundit and columnist who hosted a national call-in radio show for decades, has died.
Another suspect is in custody in connection with the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year, police say.
Careful attention to government statements and legislation is required to get a handle on the level of risk British Columbians’ information is under, as investigators probe multiple breaches under a continued barrage of attacks.
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
A Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre would not legislate on, nor use the notwithstanding clause, on abortion, his office says, as anti-abortion protesters gather on Parliament Hill.
Hailey and Justin Bieber are going to be parents. The couple announced the news on Thursday on Instagram, both sharing a video that showcases Hailey Bieber's growing belly.
Studies have shown that ultraprocessed foods can have a detrimental impact on health. But 30 years of research show they don’t all have the same impact.
The Oscar-winning team behind the nearly US$6 billion blockbuster 'Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' trilogies is reuniting to produce two new films.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.