Well, what can I say about this trip? In case you don’t know, Kharkiv is the second biggest city in Ukraine, about 300 miles east of Kiev on the Russian border. Organising the trip was really difficult but there was no way on earth I was missing it. I flew from Gatwick to Kiev then got a 6 hour minibus across Ukraine to Kharkiv.
I’d stocked up a bit on food to take with me. Even at Gatwick airport I couldn’t find any vegan food at all. Amazingly, Ukrainian International Airlines had managed to get me a vegan meal and served it to me first! It was salad, potatoes, peppers and mushrooms, then fruit salad, bread and jam. Not haute cuisine but at least it existed and was really vegan.
I’m not going to give you a full account of the trip because that’s not what this blog is about. It certainly wasn’t the healthiest few days I’ve ever spent but it was certainly some of the most fun. Fortunately I do speak rusty Russian so I could check ingredients and speak to staff. My food for the trip consisted of:
2 prebaked sausage rolls
1 Clive’s potato and pea pie
1 falafel salad pitta bread
Loads of crisps
Cabbage salad
Bread
Potatoes and mushrooms
Butterbean salad
Pistachios
Spicy Vegetable cheeseless pizza
Lots of beer
Lots of champagne
Here’s a picture of my pre-match lunch. Guess which ingredient came from home?
Result -Metalist Kharkiv 2 – Everton – 3 Man of the Match – James McFadden?
Verdict – extremely lucky unhealthy day!
Cooking the Vegan Books 