Ukraine’s national dish of pork fat is a dense, white, chewy treat that can become an acquired taste. However, a new restaurant transforms the traditional dish, molding it into kitsch edible sculptures and even “sushi.”
Pork fat is “a cult dish and we decided to turn it into a cult art object,” said Mark Zarkhin, the co-owner of the restaurant.
Known as salo in Ukrainian, the pork fat comes in numerous varieties, ranging from smoked to streaky to pure white blubber. It is often sprinkled with paprika and washed down with a shot of vodka.
Photo: AFP
Named simply “Salo,” Zarkhin’s restaurant opened in June in the western city of Lviv and also markets itself as a museum of the lardy delicacy.
On the menu are kitsch offerings including a copy of the penis of Michelangelo’s David, stuffed with potato dumplings, and an anatomically accurate “Van Gogh’s Ear.”
There is even a local version of Japanese sushi — ubiquitous in Ukraine’s trendy restaurants — made from smoked pork fat.
Zarkhin, a businessman, says the restaurant mildly mocks the national love for salo.
“We are being ironic about ourselves and about our tastes,” he said.
However, he himself raves about the food’s versatility, insisting that it can be much more than a savory snack.
“People think of salo as either salty or smoked. They can hardly believe that this food can be more like cream. You add some ginger and cinnamon and it becomes a wonderful filling for chocolates,” he said.
The menu even offers desserts of whipped pork fat dipped in chocolate and a frozen “ice cream” dish based on actress Marilyn Monroe’s famous pout, called “Monroe’s Lips.”
The restaurant is aimed more at tourists than locals in the country’s poorer western region. Prices go up to 200 hryvnas (US$25) for the most expensive dish, David’s penis, which serves three.
The interior is scattered with objets d’art made from pork fat, including a model of a human heart, complete with a motor to simulate its beating — but without the blocked arteries likely to ensue from over-indulgence.
Visitors were enthusiastic about the restaurant.
“Wow, this is amazing,” said Maria Alexeyeva, who was visiting from Kiev with her sister Anna. “It’s very good and the interior is really cute. There’s nothing like this in Kiev.”
Zarkhin opened the restaurant together with a German artist of Ukrainian origin, Boris Berger, who came up with the idea.
“At the start, we weren’t sure this could be done,” he said. “Our chefs were also baffled ... but after three months of reflection, we finally got there.”
He is keen for the restaurant to become known as a gallery and has invited a series of artists to create sculptures from pork fat.
“Pork fat is a new material for art. Yes, it doesn’t last long, but neither does ice and it is used for sculptures all over the world,” he said.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
RSS