BY CAROLYN ONOFREY
Veselka
144 2nd Avenue
East Village
212-228-9682/veselka.com
Veselka appeared before me as an inviting Ukrainian diner. Specializing in Ukrainian comfort food, Veselka was filled to the brim on a Tuesday night with families relaxing over a heaping plate of stuffed cabbage and pierogies or a bowl of borscht.
Vegetarian Plate at Veselka
I sat down with a few good friends that I don’t see nearly as often as I should in the lofty, uninspiring space. I ordered their Vegetarian Plate ($12.95) from our pretty young waitress who was clearly straight off the boat, only making the experience more authentic. The order came with a vegetable soup and a house salad and a plate with four pierogis and a portion of cabbage stuffed with rice and mushrooms, topped with a mushroom gravy.
Vegetable Soup at Veselka
While dill is not one of my favorite flavors in the world, I thoroughly enjoyed the soup and salad which both had dill based components. The salad dressing, a hoseradish dill cream, was an especially pleasant surprise with a clear dill presence but nothing overwhelming. It was sweet yet spicy and made the otherwise unexciting iceberg salad a treat.
Vegetarian Plate at Veselka
When my dinner plate was placed in front of me I couldn’t wait to dive in. The boiled pierogis came in two variations: cheese and potato (although many other varieties are available, including meat and saurkraut and mushroom). The cheese pierogis were sweet and doughy and with a shmere of sour cream to balance the sweetness they were truly comforting, reminding me of the homecooked meals of years past. I was slightly weary of the stuffed cabbage, jumping to the conclusion that it would be a flavorless grey blob. Thankfully, my premature jugdement was far from the truth as I easily devoured possibly the most flavorful stuffed cabbage I have ever had. The subtle flavor of the mushroom was complemented and enhanced by the slight essence of dill present in every bite and the gravy which was a creamy addition to the boiled cabbage and dry inside.
