(Kiev, Ukraine)

I’m enjoying traveling very much – I enjoy the adventure of it, the new sights, and the interesting people I meet along the way; and believe or not, the smells. Each place we’ve been to smells different. Maybe it’s the soap scents that are common to a place, or maybe it’s the scent of the local foliage. There is just something unique to each town or city we’ve been to right down to the different scents. But I digress. What I want to get across with this post is that even though Grant and I are enjoying are travels, we do miss aspects of Hawaii once in a while.

Aside from seeing our friends and family and missing them, Grant and I get pangs of craving for the food that’s common in Hawaii (sorry manapuas, this post isn’t about you!). Don’t get me wrong, we love trying out the local cuisine and the fresh foods that we’ve been able to find everywhere… but we do on occasion miss Thai food, Vietnamese food, Korean food etc. For the most part, we have been able to find good Japanese and Chinese food wherever we’ve been. Harder still has it been to find good Thai, Korean, or Vietnamese food.

So, on the 2nd day after arriving in Kiev, we discovered a sign pointing the way for a Vietnamese restaurant. We decided to give it a go, and we are so glad we did! The food here has been very good, they serve Thai as well, and it’s been delicious. And the prices are half what they would be in the states!

They have a killer tom ka khai (written on the menu as coconut soup with chicken and mushrooms) and we’ve enjoyed their “rice noodles with shrimp and chicken” which is pretty much a pad thai. I’ve also ordered their pho. Some of the spices have been lacking, such as thai basil, but they do substitute it for other herbs. Honestly, nothing beats a big bowl of steaming tom ka khai after walking around in knee-deep snow.

If you are in Kiev city center and have a craving for Thai/Vietnamese food, we suggest trying Viet Bar. It seems that in the evening the place turns into a bar. We haven’t been here late at night but it might be fun. Also don’t be alarmed that you have to go through an alleyway to get there; there are many cafes and shops that are hidden behind alleyways that I’m convinced half of Kiev city is hidden in these courtyards.

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