Come here to celebrate Odessa, affectionately called 'mama' by the residents of this port city. What mama cooks is a wild fusion of Jewish, Ukrainian and Balkan foods, with a strong emphasis on Black Sea fish. It's like island hopping – from forshmak (Jewish herring pate) to Ukrainian borsch and eventually to fried Odessa gobies.
If seafood is not your thing, try Ukrainian Vareniki dumplings or Greek meatballs. Also worth checking out – for cultural as much as gastronomical reasons – are makarony po-flotski (navy-style pasta), a classic Soviet staple, filling locals with nostalgia for the good old times.
