Carpathian cuisine: dishes worth trying

Carpathian cuisine is food built around a short mountain summer and a long winter. There was never abundance here, so the dishes have a simple job: to warm, to fill and to preserve whatever the lake, the forest and the mountain meadow gave. In the resort's kitchen we cook with the same seasonal local produce — cheese comes from neighbouring farmsteads, mushrooms and berries are picked in the surrounding forests, and trout caught in the lake reaches the kitchen the same day.

Bohrach and banosh — the two pillars of the table

Bohrach is a thick Transcarpathian goulash soup, closer to a stew than to a first course. The base is beef or pork, plenty of sweet paprika, onion, potato and peppers. It is cooked slowly in a cauldron, sometimes over an open fire; in a proper bohrach the spoon stands up rather than floats. The heat depends on the variety of pepper, so in different villages you will taste completely different bohrach.

Banosh is a maize porridge cooked in cream or sour cream rather than water. It is stirred slowly until the butterfat comes through, and served with brynza and crackling. This is shepherds' food: filling, rich, with the distinctive tang of sheep's cheese. Banosh and bohrach often stand side by side on the table — one light and milky, the other rich and meaty.

Trout, mushrooms and homemade cheese

Mountain trout is a fish of cold, clean water, with delicate flesh and almost none of the sharp fishy smell. It needs no complicated cooking: salt, a few herbs, a grill or a pan — and the taste of the water and the mountains speaks for itself. Fish caught in our lake goes to the kitchen fresh, without freezing or long storage — how fishing on the resort's lake works is described separately.

Mushrooms in the Carpathians are a culture of their own. Ceps, chanterelles and orange-cap boletes are dried for winter, pickled and fried with sour cream and onion. A dried cep gives broth a deep forest flavour that cannot be faked — there is a separate piece on ceps about the season itself and where to pick them. The autumn mushroom window is short, so in season they are served fresh, and for the rest of the year preserved.

Homemade cheese — brynza and budz — is made from sheep's or cow's milk by a method several centuries old. Brynza is salty and crumbly, budz softer and milder. Both hold their flavour well and are used everywhere: from banosh to a filling for deruny or a simple starter with fresh herbs.

Deruny, uzvar and other simple dishes

Deruny, or deruntsi, are potato pancakes made from grated raw potato with onion. Their strength is the contrast: a crisp fried crust and a soft centre. The classic way to serve them is with sour cream, but in the Carpathian version they are often filled with mushrooms or meat and stewed in a pot with gravy.

Uzvar is a compote of dried fruit: apples, pears, plums, sometimes with rosehip or berries added. It is not boiled for long and barely sweetened with sugar — the sweetness comes from the dried fruit itself. It is a drink that closes a heavy meal lightly and refreshes, and in winter it stands in for fresh fruit. Together with herbal teas made from mountain blends, uzvar follows the same principle: use what the season gave, and keep the rest for later.

Seasonality as the main rule

One thing unites all these dishes: they follow the calendar. In spring there are more greens and young cheese on the table, in summer fresh fish and garden vegetables, in autumn mushrooms, berries and preserves, in winter uzvar, pickles and slow meat dishes from the cauldron. We keep to the same rhythm: the menu in our restaurant at the resort changes with the season rather than against it.

Carpathian food goes well with an active day — after the wood-fired Carpathian hot tubs or a walk, bohrach and banosh are received exactly as the shepherds and farmers intended: as earned, generous, honest food. If you are planning a trip around the food, it is worth looking at the seasonal offers — the kitchen is at its most interesting when the produce is at its peak.

Frequently asked questions

How many restaurants does the resort have and is breakfast included?

The main Carpathian cuisine restaurant is open all year; in the warm season a pizzeria and a bar by the outdoor pool join in. The menu has more than 80 items — Transcarpathian classics, Ukrainian and European cuisine. Breakfast is included in the price of the stay.

Can I have my own catch cooked for me?

Yes, that is the main fishing scenario here. The catch is cleaned and cooked in the restaurant kitchen.

Can we cook on the barbecue ourselves?

A gazebo with a barbecue is included in the price of the stay. The grill kolyba stands on the far shore of the lake, next to the sauna and the Carpathian hot tub.

Is the produce really local?

The meat, fish, milk and cheese come from the resort's own farm, and the honey from its own apiary. Trout goes from the lake to the kitchen the same day, without freezing or long storage.