I'm frequently asked how the food is here. "What is there to eat in Ukraine?" Well, the country is known for two, maybe three, things. Borscht, vareniki, and salo.

Everyone knows what borscht is, and if you haven't had it I highly recommend it. Be sure to get a dollop of sour cream dropped in it. Good stuff. Vareniki are kind of like pelmini or dumplings. Never had them, can't comment.

Salo is a different animal entirely. It's basically chunks of pork fat. You might know it better as fatback. They love this stuff here. I've seen it spread on bread like butter. Or just eaten straight as kind of an appetizer or a snack with vodka. It's quite interesting to see, especially when you know exactly what it is and not just as "salo." Pictured above is salo, packaged for sale in an extremely upscale supermarket, sliced up and packaged nicely. Allmost resembles bacon, really.

This is not how I've typically seen it packaged for sale. If you go to the market that Ivan Ivanovich is buying his salo from there's typically huge slabs of the stuff just laying out on some ancient, kind of clean counter with flies buzzing about it if the weather is warm. Next time I go I will be sure to get a picture of it so that everyone can get that visual. But if you're ever here just visiting, chances are you won't see it like that. If anything it will be presented to you almost like butter (maybe with some dill in it, they use dill here like it's going out of freaking style...but that's a whole other subject) so be sure to check out what you're putting on your knife before you spread it on your bread.