The Times They Are A Changing

By Volodymyr Kish

Several weeks ago, an article I wrote about making khrustyky, a favourite Ukrainian crispy dessert treat that my mother used to make when I was a child, elicited a lot of responses from others of my generation who also remembered this remarkable little delicacy. My mother was a great cook with an extensive repertoire of dessert creations. Aside from the addictive khrustyky, I remember many other similar delights such as pampoushky (deep fried dough filled with various jams and dusted with icing sugar), rugalky (sweet crescent rolls with poppy seed or ground walnut fillings), medivnyk (honey cake), or the countless varieties of tortes, cake and pies that were regular fare at our house every holiday and on most weekends.

In this, my mother was similar to most Ukrainian mothers who came over as immigrants in the large wave after World War II. They all knew how to cook and bake, practical skills passed down from mother to daughter through countless generations of Ukrainian women. The end results of their culinary labour were indeed commendable, though they required many long hours in the kitchen making everything from scratch. Regrettably, that cooking tradition has mostly died with their generation. To quote the famous Bob Dylan song, “The Times They Are A Changin'”.

I should qualify that I use the word regrettably with some caution, since it is not in any way meant to be interpreted as any kind of criticism of today’s generation of Ukrainian women here in Canada. Rather, it is a reflection on the kind of world and society that our mothers and grandmothers inhabited was very different from the one that confronts us today. First, with limited financial resources, eating out or buying prepared food was out of the question. Secondly, very few of the women of that generation had jobs outside of the home. They were full time mothers, housekeepers, gardeners and cooks. They spent a good portion of every day preparing food, and that was the accepted norm. Families survived on the salary of the father, the family’s sole breadwinner.

In today’s social and economic climate, that family model has become ever rarer, and from a practical point of view increasingly less feasible. Reality dictates that both parents must now have full time jobs to sustain the demands of maintaining a decent quality and standard of life. With less disposable time, we have shifted increasingly towards eating out, buying processed or prepared food, and minimizing the amount of time we spend in the kitchen. Investing in three or four hours of time to make khrustyky or pampoushky from scratch becomes a rare indulgence. Which of course, is why we hardly ever see them any more. They simply require too much time to make. Our mothers used to have the time to make them; our wives certainly do not. And as for us men - well, with few exceptions, cooking and baking has been culturally conditioned into us as being “women’s work”.

Recently, spurred on by equal parts nostalgia and curiosity and the encouragement of some of my female friends and relatives, I have been trying my hand at recreating some of my mother’s creations. Several weeks ago it was khrustyky. This past weekend, I tried making pampoushky. I must confess that I am absolutely delighted with the results. Yes, it takes virtually all afternoon to make either of these, but the results are worth the effort. I have bought both khrustyky and pampoushky at a Polish deli not too far from where I live, and though I find them good, they cannot compare to those I have made myself. The aroma that permeates the kitchen and the rich, fresh taste and flavour of something you have just created from scratch is beyond description. In both cases, I was joined in the culinary process by good friends and family, which made for a rewarding social as well as cooking experience. Who says cooking has to be a solitary art?

Having realized unexpected pleasures and gratification from these experiences, I am determined to expand my horizons still further. I would like to deepen my understanding of the basics of food, and re-establish some of the relationship that our ancestors used to have between what nature provides and what we put into our stomachs. Food should not just be something that we consume out of necessity. Even more important is that I stop accepting that most of what comes from a package, a can, a fast food outlet or the grocery store is “real” food. It is time to get back to the basics!