Journey through Bessarabia
On the way to buy the mobile bakery we traveled through a region called Bessarabia - known for its lush produce, vineyards, mixture of cultures - and legendary hospitality.
Road sign showing Bessarabian food and drink trail
The Ukrainian flag is blue and yellow for a reason - as you drive through the vast countryside in the sudden, fierce heat of late spring or early summer - the fields of wheat and sunflowers form a bright stripe of yellow, beneath the cobalt blue sky. We passed fields flecked with red poppies: it is hard to escape the heavy symbolism.
But this was a journey not towards the front lines, but into a region known as Bessarabia - an area which combines people and culture from Moldova into southwest Ukraine. Its history goes back to the Ottoman Empire and Roman times. There was a mix of all sorts of people - including Ukrainians, Romanians, Jews, Bulgarians and Cossacks. Before the full scale war, people would come here on cruises, for culinary excursions, to visit wine makers and agro-tourism spots. Villages look very different, depending on their ethnic history - some have architecture which looks very Bulgarian, others more like Ukraine. The mobile bakery was being sold by a man called Vlad, who ran a small family bakery in the town of Izmail, on the Black Sea coast, a few hours outside Odesa, so we loaded up the car for a three day trip through the region.
Bessarabian hospitality is legendary, and we had arranged to call in on some local families on the way: Maria warned me - "be prepared to eat a lot of food. I've told them not to go to any trouble, just a cup of tea - but they will be so excited to see us because there haven't been any tourists or visitors here for so long, I think they won't listen ..."
Natalia’s summer kitchen
We drove into the village of Plakhtyivka and pulled up outside a small one storey house, as a woman rushed out to greet us, waving us through the gate towards the narrow back yard. "Just a cup of tea", said Maria - as Natalya ushered us towards the summer kitchen - small outhouses where Ukrainian families traditionally preserve food and cook simple meals during the hot weather. There were chickens and geese running around, and a small plot at the back with carefully tended rows of fruit and vegetables: Natalya stooped down to pick some radishes, brushing off clods of earth, huge bulbs of green garlic, bunches of parsley and dill. Inside the summer kitchen a small table had already been laid with plates of pickles and pork sausages, as well as some kind of small fried fish. There were huge tomatoes and knobbly cucumbers, salty home made brinza cheese, all the herbs - and suddenly slices of bread appeared and bottles of wine and home made spirits. "Just a cup of tea, really", Natalya said. They were worried that I didn't eat pork: "But what will you eat? You will be hungry!" I picked a small frond of dill to have with a tomato, and everyone laughed to see it: they eat dill here by the handful.
‘Just a cup of tea’
We drove on to another village, Krynychne - passing long, low roads swooping down towards a lake and pulled up at another house - this time, a lady called Tatyana and her husband Kyrill, who must have been in his late sixties but leapt up as soon as we arrived and began playing an accordion - while Tatyana ushered us towards the kitchen where I could see another table groaning with food. Maria had told me that Tatyana had become well known as an expert home baker, making all sorts of sourdough loaves in the ancient wood fired oven she kept in an outhouse. As we walked inside, she was busy slicing up two kinds of brioche style loaves, one swirled with poppyseed, the other with roasted quince and walnut. There was also a huge white loaf, which Tatyana said was designed to last as long as possible - made in several portions to share with other people. The table covered in food was not everything though: plates were hastily moved aside while Tatyana brought out another enormous dish from the oven, containing a kind of filo pastry pie filled with a mix of salty brinza, egg and curd cheese. My plate wasn't allowed to be empty for even a second: "You'll be hungry! You've hardly had a thing - please, take some more!"
Tatyana’s incredible baking
The conversation was all about bread. Tatyana had volunteered to help with the test bake on board the mobile bakery the following day: Maria wanted to make sure that everything worked, and that the palyanytsya recipe she wanted to make on board would be easy to teach to someone who'd never made it before. We were about to head to Izmail, to check in on Vlad and make sure everything was ready for the test bake the following day - Tatyana wanted to come with: everyone wanted to see this famous mobile bakery for themselves. It was about an hour's drive, through such peaceful countryside: there were storks nesting, the odd person on a bicycle passing by, shopping bags precariously balanced on the handlebars, elderly ladies sitting and chatting on benches under the trees - if only all Ukraine was like this, so tranquil, the everyday rhythm of life - until Russia's full scale invasion destroyed everything in its sight.
Peaceful villages, as they should all be
We drove into Izmail, bigger streets, a parade of shops, traffic: and a small bakery with a cafe out front - this was Vlad's place. We went in to buy coffees while we waited for him to arrive back and couldn't help but be tempted by the glass cabinet full of creamy layered cakes, recipes which brightened many a Soviet childhood, hand made by Vlad's mother. We bought a few to share: the coffee was strong, and the paper cups bore a slogan in English - 'Be Optimistic'. It was an excellent omen for the days to come, as Vlad came in with the keys to the back lot behind the shop and we drove inside - there, at last, was the mobile bakery. All it needed was some wood loaded in to fire up the ovens - and it would be ready to start baking bread.
It’s amazing to hear of these pockets of peace
in and amongst the atrocities. It gives such a beautiful sense of the traditions around living and cooking and eating in Ukraine.