www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Chicken Kiev........... or shouldn't that be Kyiv?

While we welcome Chicken Kiev to the forum, I am amazed that certain Ukrainians (Alexander Roman, Jean-Francois.. ) haven't proof-read the spelling

As the great Russian writer Taras Shevchenko stated, "Whats in a name?"




Alexandr

Taras Shevchenko? Didn't he write that line while he was in exile? I forget did he write that in Russian?

I thought the Ukrainian "Holhol" wrote that?

U

Get it right, Ung! The author's name is Mykola Hihil.

D

Although Taras Shevchenko wrote in what would be cosidered modern Ukrainian and Russian, compelling is the question of why the word "Rosiia" ("Russia" in English) is used only once in Shevchenko's poetry, namely in the poem "Neofity" where he draws an ironic parallel between Nero's violence ridden Rome and the subsequent empire of Russia ("Rosii toidi i na sviti nebulo").

Although a citizen of the Russian Empire, Shevchenko did not once use the word "rosiianyn," ("Russian" in English) but used the word "Moskovshchyna" ("Muskovy" in English) and the ethnonym "moskal" ("Muskovite" in English)in numerous variants. Is it because Shevchenko consciously and as a matter of principle rejected this (Russian) political-imperial creation with its implied effusiveness and oppression of people. The ethnonym "tsari" appears in various forms and meanings in Shevchenko's poetry: "fel'dfebel'-tsar," "tsar-prorok," "tsar-vladyka," "batiushka-tsar," "matushka-tsarytsia," "dyvo-tsarytsia" (about Catherine II) and "tsariata" in the context of "Chy bude sud! Chy bude kara! Tsariam, tsariatam na zemli? Chy bude pravda mizh liud'my?"

Finally, the words "Ukraina" and "ukrains'kyi" are used in various forms 269 times, but the lexeme "ukrainets'" is absent in Shevchenko writings.

In summary, Taras Shevchenko's poems and other literary works reject the term 'Russia' and 'Russian' and instead he used the proper and traditional Ukrainian (Rusyn) words Muskovy and Moskali / Moskals.

I.F.

Dear Tovaryshi,

"Chicken Kiev" is fine and the fact is that even Ukrainian institutes, like the Sheptytsky Institute in Ottawa, officially use "Kiev" (undoubtedly because of their love for Slavonic!).

I can't believe people get upset over "Kyiv/Kiev."

Taras Shevchenko did indeed write in Russian since Russian books sold very well.

The Ukrainian writer Panteleimon Kulish was Shevchenko's guide to modern Ukrainian. However, Kulish also held that the Russian language is not foreign to Ukrainians since Ukrainian scholars developed it and injected the principles of Ukrainian grammar into modern Russian.

And as for Chtets' comment above, the Russian for Hohol would be "Gogol" that obviously served to inspire "Google."

And as for I.F.'s reference to "Muscovy" above, he forgot to add St Peter Mohyla's favourite adjective "Barbaric Muscovy."

Alek

As far as I'm concerned it could be 'Chicken Kiev' or 'Chicken Kyiv'. What's important to me is that the meal comes as a frozen dinner and can microwaved in less than 5 minutes.

My sister in-law's maiden name is Kulish and her father told me on more than one occassion that he thought about naming their son Panteleimon in honor of the famous Ukrainian writer. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian name Panteleimon is too close to the French word 'Pantalon' which means pants in English. Of course the Ukrainians in Paris would have called him 'Schtany Kulish'.

I.F.

Dear JF,

Good point!

It is like the Ukrainian in Paris who went into a shop to buy bread.

Since he didn't speak French, he tried every hand signal he knew to try and tell the server what he wanted to buy, but to no avail.

In terrible frustration, he blurted out, "Scho za bida taka, do dupy . . ."

"Ah," smiled the French server, "Du pain!"

And he reached for the bread, to the total mystification of his Ukrainian customer . . .

Alex

Here you can't get it frozen, at least we have a whole section dedicated to the frozen pierogi.

I deleted this before I posted it last night...

I'm sorry to inform you all but Chicken Kiev is a French culinary delight.

But I still welcome Chicken Kiev to the Forum and congratulate him/her on the clever moniker.

Thanks for the info. That explains why no one in our house has ever made it. I always thought the dish maybe was an Eastern Ukrainian dish, but am glad to learn the truth.

My source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Kiev

Chicken Kyiv/Kiev when made properly (and neither frozen nor micro-waved) is quite delicious. Unfortunately, it's very tricky to get the butter inside the chicken correctly.

Fr. Serge

Was not the dish created here in an American restaurant?

Smachnoho!

Ung