"Salo" - what's that?

[benda]

Ukrainians are known to eat salo. Some people even answer: "The people who eat much salo" - if asked who the Ukrainians are. I saw a fine picture in Russian encyclopedia: a man enters the chemist's and all he sees is shelters, all full with salo. But I must say it's becoming a myth. Statistics says - Ukrainians eat less and less salo. Every ear its consumance decreseases by abut 10% (maybe that's wrong number). I personally dislike it. So I would say that "men who eat salo" is more a tribute to traditions than the truth.

Olexiy, Kyiv

[Petro_moskal]

Ahh, I love salo. It's too bad they have none in America...

[benda]

Why do both you and mikeaverko use a word "kokhol" while Russians say "khokhol"?

[Kathy]

Hello Zbyszek - Here is another salo story, though it's about a month old. I would note,that Horlovka is not a village. I'm sure Russian border police are enjoying tasty salo (or the proceeds therefrom), and Ukrainians have once again been deprived of a favourite national delicacy -

HORLOVKA, Ukraine -- Russian border police on Monday arrested a group of five Ukrainians attempting to smuggle three tons of raw salted pork fat across the international border, the Interfax news agency reported.

The arrests took place in the early morning hours after Russian troops detected three automobiles attempting to exit Russian territory via a field near the village of Gorlovka, in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk province.

Russian law enforcers arriving on the scene halted three GAZ sedans, each crammed with a ton of raw salted pork fat, cut into slabs and wrapped in newspapers.

The GAZ-24 Volga is an economy-sized automobile with a cargo capacity of some 500 kilos.

The three arrested drivers and two passengers explained that the vehicle convoy was moving off-road to reduce travel time back to Gorlovka village, incidentally avoiding border checkpoints in the process.

Russian authorities released the suspects later in the day after filing smuggling charges. The vehicles and fat were impounded.

Raw salted pork fat, or "salo," is considered a delicacy in Ukraine, where it is known as the national food.

Three tons of "salo" would retail in the Ukrainian capital Kiev at approximately nine thousand dollars.

Source: DPA

[Zbyszek]

Many thanks Kathy for your another story on SALO. So great to see you online again.
Ukraine as Poland's western neighbour and ever more important trading partner imports considerable amounts of Polish meat including salo of course. The imports go two much different channels. The first one is official state supervised trade is has been halted for about one year and only a week ago the Ukrainian ban on Polish meat was lifted. Ukrainian meat inspectors did not generally dismiss meat quality but they questioned the associated paper circulation claiming that veterinarian certificates were sometimes falsified.
The second channel is operated by thousands of tiny importers called 'ants' who smuggle huge amounts of meat through much porous PL-UA border. The individual smugglers are difficult to track down because they can pass ten or more times the same border route carrying the acceptable amounts of meat or salo in their bags every time. Palm grease is a routine procedure undertaken for bypassing the long queues on both side of the border. Smuggling various goods is a way of life and important family business for many local inhabitants living of both sides of the border.
A Ukrainian woman who works in Warsaw as a maid for one of my colleagues says that meat import is highly profitable for many Ukrainian families who find shop meat prices in Ukraine excessively high.
A newly restarted official meat trade is surely better, more civilised and prospective solution which can positivelyy stimulated more effective meat production in Ukraine where agriculture is still ineffective but has enormous hidden potential.
Meat wars have much more serious implications in Polish-Russian relations where meat ban issue is a long-lasting bone of contention. Russians claim that Poland tries to re-export meat to Russia from other countries falsifying the production certificates. Poland's government lost its patient and, as a member of European Union, effectively vetoed the EU-Russia round of negotiations demanding lifting of long-lasting ban which according to Polish authorities is baseless is artificially prolonged without reason.
At the moment, Poland has definitely too much meat to be sold on domestic basis. Luckily, major European countries appreciated the taste of Polish meat products and buy more and more. Germans, direct Poland's eastern neighbours have become particular supporters of some traditional Polish meat products like sausages and they not not often cross Oder river looking for less expensive products on the local border Polish markets but they are bold Polish investmets in Eastern part of Germany and Polish meat shops pop up almost every day in big German towns. Also Polish bakeries found their place easily.
Poland has a unique agricultural property structure and as the only post-communist-country retained old-fashioned family-oriented agriculture. The overall agricultural efficiency is lower than the western one but Polish farmers use less fertilizers and pesticides/fungicides. They also feed their cows more traditional way basing on fresh grass and hay rather than on artificial mixtures of bad reputation, connected with mad-cow disease.

[Kathy]

I am not surprised at the level of smuggling, Zbyszek. People will always get around regulations which are put in place to protect domestic markets. This is, and has always been the case in parts of Canada and the US as well, mostly at the border in the Maritimes with New England.

I am surprised that meat is expensive in Western Ukraine, given the level of agriculture. My mother in law has not complained about the price of food in Kyiv.

[Kathy]

Here's a good Gogol themed video about salo

YouTube - Salo. ukraine, ukrainian music, Poplavski