Ukraine Market

Awesome perogies and meats.
Very attentive owner & service.

2012 Review #365:
I can’t count the number of times I drove by this place and wanted to go in for the advertised $ 1 cake slices. I am a sucker for cake. Finally on the way home we stopped in after a friend said how good the pierogis were.
As others have mentioned, this is basically like walking into another country; most items are labeled in Cyrillic and there isn’t much translation, if any. I really liked looking at the butters, cheeses, and meats. We picked up a container of homemade pickles, which was labeled at $ 3.96.
While we were perusing, the owner was deep in conversation in Ukrainian with some other customers. Once they left though he sort of disappeared. I was interested in some of the prepared items which aren’t labeled, but the owners’ attitude did not seem open to telling us what was in the case. He was pretty curt and I was surprised because I wanted to ask if we could get a smaller amount of pierogis, since the only ones we found were in huge 5 pound bags.
We got a cream horn and a cake slice along with our pickles, and based on the prices in the case it should have been around $ 7, but somehow when everything got rang up it was only $ 3.08. I have no idea how that happened but it was nice. The pickles are half-​sours, with some flavor I can’t figure out, but I like them. My husband’s cream horn was really good, flaky, and had a sticky glaze. My cake slice seemed to have a really course crumb so I was expecting it to be dry. It was very course but relatively moist, although it had some strange chemical flavor that would probably make me get something else next time.
Be advised that they sell several items labeled as made by the «Royal Sweet Bakery.» Don’t be confused, these are not from Royal Bakery down the street but are actually made and shipped from Brooklyn, so pass on those items. There’s several Russian-​type bakeries and groceries on this street so I will probably exhaust those options before I come back, but I know we’ll come back in the future.

My partner tells me this place used to be called (in Russian) The Russian Store before it was changed to the Ukraine Market. She’s told me time and time again that Russia has some of the most AMAZING chocolate in the world but it is not well known by Americans (go figure). They had big bins of all different types of individually wrapped Russian and Ukrainian chocolates along the front window/​wall and I could see my girls eyes widen with every step we took closer to them. I thought they were going to start convulsing with excitement as we approached the treat bins. They had TONS and TONS of different types of bottled Russian and Ukrainian soft drinks (a popular one being a fermented bread drink called kvass), the requisite pickles, borsch soup, marinated tomatoes and the most AMAZING selection of cured meats, cheeses and PASTRIES I think I have ever seen for such a small market! My kids were in hog heaven with all the sweets behind the glass and the big bags of Russian cookies/​biscuits that I let them buy for $ 2.99. I guess a cookie is a cookie when you’re a kid… doesn’t matter if it comes from US, Russian, Poland, Mexico, the Czech Republic, etc.
I found my newly favorite European Rye Sourdough bread (gawd that stuff is amazing!!) in much bigger quantities (they didn’t have just a few loaves left!), so I snagged another one (my second for the day, lol) as well as some Amish farmer’s cheese (to make my kolaches with!!), a big bag of mixed up Russian cookies, a HUGE bag of pork/​beef pierogis, the bag of Russian chocolates my partner picked out for us to each try out, Russian dill pickles… this place is freaking awesome! We will be back!
Bonus for those down on their luck: Ukraine Market accepts SNAP benefit cards (formerly called Food Stamps). They are the ONLY specialty market of this type that I’ve been to that DOES accept food stamp cards, which is awesome!

It was our anniversary, but this year the budget was a little tight. I still wanted something sweet to enjoy with my husband at home and share the memories of the past few years.
So off we go, Ukraine Market has cake by the slice! We each got a slice of White cake with Almond frosting and a filling that was close to bavarian, but not as custardy (is that a word? I dont know!). It was so moist! We also picked up a couple of pastries (totally blew my diet this weekend!), it had a whipped filling and the pastry was flaky.
There are so many treasures here, I find something new each time!

I was driving by this place a while back and just had to stop.
I picked out some pierogi, sausage and a few other things. However, when I went to pay, I realized they didn’t take AmEx, my debit card had just expired and I didn’t have any cash. I felt terrible because the lady behind the counter had spent so much time with me trying translate everything and to pick out a particular type of sausage for Shawn. I was shocked to hear her tell me to write down my name and phone number on a pad and then come back to pay them another day. Now THAT is excellent service!!!

I drove by here when I was in the area for work and HAD to stop. While I know regretfully little of my heritage (and I’m half Ukrainian at that), I grew up with the deliciousness of my grandma’s pierogi, cabbage rolls, sauerkraut, and kielbasa. It was meant to be a quick stop — but I was so overwhelmed I was there at least 15 – 20 minutes. So many wonderful things in that little store! I managed to leave with some delicious kielbasa and a bag of frozen potato and cheese pierogi.
The only thing I’m a little disappointed with is that the pierogi is a bit dry for me. Perhaps it was this batch, or perhaps they haven’t been boiled yet. I will ask if i need to boil them when I go back.
And I will be back, oh I will be back.

We wandered in here on Sunday, completely for no reason other than we were driving by and they were open. I was all queasy with a migraine and it was cold and I didn’t feel like gardening (read= weeding)… me, me, me.
Oh.
My.
Golly.
First off, can I just again say what slackers we are in this country? I whine, I moan about my long days and all the stuff I do, and how short my weekends seem and wahhh poor me another migraine blah blah blah… and then I walk into a little tiny store like this, run by people who came to this country and are working themselves to DEATH and I feel like a complete shrew.
Pierogi? Yes, they’re homemade.
Salami? Yes, it’s homemade.
Kielbasa? Yes, homemade.
Sauerkraut that will make your heart sing a tune you never knew it knew? Yes. Homemade.
Pastries and cake and these cabbage and cheese potatoey goodness all baked in a bready yummy pockets … yes, yes, yes. All homemade. That’s not even half the stuff this kind, incredibly hard working couple is putting together every single dang day. Let alone all the cool stuff they import. My husband was chirping happy yips from his Skandahoovian heritage because of all the fishy stuff like caviar spread and herring, but for me, it was incredible rye bread that they had baked, with some of that wonderful freshly made kielbasa and HOMEMADE saurkraut… (Have you ever had it homemade? I sort of freaked out for a second, because I realized I will never be able to have the canned kind again. Even the refrigerated «fresh» kind doesn’t hold a candle to this) …and then bites of some dessert she referred to as «potato» which was creamy chocolate mousse rolled in chocolate cake crumbs (I think to resemble a potato)… there were so many little things tucked here and there that my head started to swim and I truly felt ashamed of myself for having complained at all earlier in the day watching these two scurry around.
We struggled out of there with several grocery bags and have been counting our blessings ever since, that in this goofy country of ours even in funky strip-​mall Arvada, exists an amazing example of melting pot fabulousness to inspire us.
I immediately cleaned the house and did laundry and stopped complaining about my head. After all, I had fresh saurkraut, rye bread, kielbasa and a whole bunch more, waiting in the fridge for supper…
;)