Hi Jessica, my Baba always called them pedehey and the whole family calls cabbage rolls holubtsi however most of the rest of the world knows them as perogies or pierogies and cabbage rolls so Micki used that term. That said, I did add the terms to the post so travelers heading to Ukraine know what they’re called locally.

Thanks for the tips!

Oh PS.. Ukrainians don’t call “pierogies” pierogies. It’s the polish name. Our word that my family brought over from their region with our recipe is pedehey. It is known as the national dish of Ukraine and accepted countrywide as Varenyky. Also, stuffed cabbage is known as Holuptsi. An edit would be nice so visitors don’t call it pierogies if ordering. Always nice to use phrases or words the country uses. Always gets a nice response because they appreciate you trying, even if you get it wrong.

Anyways, every place I want to visit is on your list! My family’s from Lviv area (Lvov up until recently..it’s had several names throughout history based on occupation..Lvov’s the polish name) and Odessa for sure that we know of, so those are musts for me (we kept in contact til the 90s when the last speaker in my family passed). THANK YOU for mentioning the difference of “the ukraine” and “Ukraine”. Excellent summary. It always irks me when people refer to it as the former, even though I know it’s out of ignorance.

there are a couple other must sees..like the tunnel made of tamed greenery, or another mountain range with a well known lake (cant think of name) ..or the traditional village you can walk around to see how we used to live…and also the couple of viking settlements still used today.