Myroslava Stadnyk, Toronto
RE:Ukraine is a fundraising branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (Toronto), generating money online and by holding events in support of various causes. The causes include immediate needs of the Ukrainian army and those affected by an ongoing truce with terrorists in the eastern Donbas.
On December 4, 2014, the RE:Ukraine team organized a charitable dinner – TAREELKA – featuring some of the most popular Ukrainian cuisine dishes, with the goal to offer an opportunity to sample some dishes from the Ukrainian cuisine, lifted to an upscale level, and to raise funds for the extraordinary Isayevs family.
“The Isayevs family is rather unique for the Ukrainian society,” said Maksym Stolyarevskyy – the host of the event and a member of the RE:Ukraine initiative group. He added that despite the economic hardships the people in Ukraine have been facing – Isayevs family has adopted nine children, everyone of whom are HIV positive. “Eugene and Svetlana Isaev are a remarkable couple. They have two children on their own, and they are taking care of the nine HIV-positive adopted kids, regardless of a strong social stigma associated with being HIV positive.” Stolyarevskyy also said that the RE:Ukraine shares a vision with the Isayevs in terms of providing an unconditional love to children and strives to collect funds to help them in any way possible.
Hosted at The Chef’s House on King Street East in Toronto, the dinner commenced with a video presentation on the Isayevs family. Guests were emotionally moved by the visuals and a story, depicting the difficulty the Isayevs family is going through – but nevertheless, their enthusiasm and love for the adopted children. The story of their family is very touching, as the house they owned has been destroyed in the midst of a military conflict in the Donbas. As a result of war, Isayevs were forced to leave their home city – Mariupol – and find refuge in another region. Currently, Eugene and Svetlana Isayevs are trying to provide for their family in a small town Bucha located nearby Kyiv.
To help raise funds for the family, the RE:Ukraine team of volunteers offered an exclusive opportunity. The TAREELKA dinner invitations were sent to members of the Ukrainian Canadian community and beyond to taste the delicious dishes of the Ukrainian cuisine in a form of a fundraiser.
As well, a silent art auction and a musical duo performance by YANA (Yana Bilyk) and Constantin Necrasov, which sang Ukrainian carols rearranged in jazz and lounge styles, were included in the overall evening programme.
Tickets for the event were sold out within days – thanks to the generosity of people donating to a good cause. The TAREELKA dinner generated a tremendous interest, and though not all interested were able to attend due to limited seating at the restaurant, there were a few donations made through an additional online link.
“Ukrainian cuisine is a very rustic cuisine,” mentioned Anne Yarymowych – the chef of the TAREELKA charitable dinner, who is also an executive chef of the AGO restaurant FRANK. “The idea of tonight’s dinner was to take the traditional cuisine and elevate it a bit, make it a little more special – in the details,” she added.
Anne Yarymowych created a special menu for the event and lead a culinary team of the George Brown College students throughout the night. The dinner comprised of a variety of appetizers and a multi-course meal, including: mini cheburek (Tatar-influenced, fried minced lamb turnovers), mini buckwheat pancake with picked baby beets, crème fraiche and smoked almond, ikra (eggplant caviar) on toasted baguette crouton with pomegranate seeds, and pomegranate molasses.
The first course was a mixed mushroom soup with sour cream fresh chives, served together with a buttermilk-chive biscuits with porcini butter. “For this soup, honey mushrooms were chosen, which are similar to the ‘pidpenky,' which my father would gather in Ukraine,” said Yarymowych.
Among the other familiar dishes were the varenyky, which were served as the main course garnished with the roasted pork lion and roasted baby carrots. “(We have) these two kinds of varenyky,” chef Yarymowych added, “(which) were chosen to have a not so traditional filling, as we usually know with potato and cottage cheese, but (tonight) with potato-squash and kapusta – to make the dish a little bit more upscale.”
The dessert of the night was the individual honey walnut cake – medivnyk, sprinkled with brandied custard sauce and caramelized apples. To compliment the meal, two kinds of wines were presented by Krystina Roman of Rosewood Estates Winery: Mina’s Block Riesling and Rosewood Merlot. As well, to complete the honey-dessert, Mead Royal (or honey wine) barrel-aged dessert wine was served.
A wine tour, along with four bottles of wine, was also donated by Rosewood Estates Winery as part of a silent auction. The TAREELKA dinner ended with a give-away of the beautiful Christmas tree ornaments – small tokens of appreciation from the event's organizers.
RE:Ukraine will continue fundraising money for the Isayevs family until December 19, 2014, through their online link: http://snip.ly/a9aI. All proceeds and gifts will be sent to the caring parents and their 11 children on behalf of St. Nicholas thereafter.
For RE:Ukraine's future fundraising initiatives, follow them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reukraineinitiative?fref=ts
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