The Village House Kalina -Ukrainian and Russian (La Mesa)

mmm-yoso!!! is where Kirk and Cathy write about food.  Today, Cathy is writing while Kirk finishes up some important things at his job.

The first paragraph of Kirk's "Back to the Routine" post was true for The Mister and myself in a lot of ways; the past half year has been filled with changes in schedules and habits and jobs.  The Mister and I have been wondering when we could get back to having a 'regular' day.  For us, this means driving and stopping when we see signage that looks interesting.  We dropped in to The Village House Kalina one afternoon a few weeks ago.  "Ukrainian and Russian Cuisine", reads the signage.  I had read about The Village House Kalina  in 2012, on cc's blog and am glad we finally got around to trying it.  (She wrote another post in 2012 also.)

A few tables, eclectic decor, friendly greeting when you walk in and lunch specials( Pick a soup, a salad and an entree for $10.99)
 Soft crusted fresh bread, heavy thin slices of rye and garlic butter is brought out. 
 There are three soups to choose from- this vegetarian borscht is wonderful with its beet/celery/cabbage/ carrot/onion/bell pepper/potato base flavored with fresh herbs.
 The Ukrainian borscht is has the same ingredients plus beef and is also wonderful.  The third soup, a sour cabbage vegetable based choice has smoked sausage and beef in it.  No photo, but I heard it was excellent.  
There are five salads to choose from and the Vesna is the 'plainest'.  Cabbage, carrots, onions, cranberries and apples with fresh dill make this a flavorful simple salad.
 Kavkaz salad: Beets, walnuts, garlic and mayonnaise.  This was my favorite.
The Olivier, a traditional Russian potato salad with chicken, potatoes, carrot and mayonnaise could be a meal...  it’s refreshing and a perfect blend of texture and flavors.
  For the main course, Ukrainian Vareniky (Pirogy) was chosen by our guest. Hand made dough filled with mashed potato  and cheese then boiled.  Just a topping of sour cream is needed; these were light, fluffy and delicious.  Chicken stroganoff: mushrooms, onions, creamy sauce, mashed potatoes.  Such comfort food. 
"Georgian Eagle" - skinless chicken cooked with onions and tomatoes, basil and mint and a few other herbs.  So much flavor.  The noodles went well with this. 

We want to go back to try the other salads and entrees.  This was a great stop I wish we had made sooner. 

The Village House Kalina 8302 Parkway Drive La Mesa, CA 91942 (619) 461-1100 Website Open Monday-Friday 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat-Sun noon-10 p.m.

Comments

[caninecologne]

Great post Cathy! Haven't been here since my last post. Time for a revisit. Really like their salads, especially the beets with walnuts, pierogi and stroganoff. These are flavors I didn't grow up with so they are "exotic" to me.

[Cathy]

Thanks, cc. A revisit would be good; so nice that you try flavors you didn't grow up with-the world has so much to offer and it's fun to learn new things. Our houseguest wanted something 'normal' that day...we'd been showing her 'different' and that wasn't working any more.

[kat]

that beet salad sounds so good!

[Cathy]

It was just so surprisingly tasty, Kat. We usually eat plain roasted beets at home and now the quest to duplicate this simple recipe has begun.