The very first meal

Ethnographical-culinary research in the lyrical space and time
(The End. The beginning at № № 15—16 and 17 of 2012)

However, in spite of all democracy and tolerance of the borsch pottage it always tries to keep its front going, the inherent nourishing base of it, and its special taste. The borsch under any conditions always remains borsch. And only it is. There is no alternative. And this is, by the way, one of its mysteries, magical attractiveness.

There is no need to argue upon the tastes and colors of the borsch pottage – there is no classical borsch all over the world and for all times. Every court has its own traditional belief and its borsch. Whose court is that truth is – it is about borsch, and in general about the whole surrounding world. However, this topic can’t be completely ignored. So after all let us try to describe clearly the image of borsch in the eternity of the lyrical time and space, to define its essence as the first national meal, to see into the motley of its qualities.

Volodymyr SUPRUNENKO