Do not worry, mommy!

Euromaidan these days features funny posters, like one saying: “Mommy, I have eaten and am wearing my hat.” This is the message for all mothers whose children are now protesting on the main square of the country. There is really no reason to worry about food and warm clothes, as the protesters are well supplied with food and receive a lot of warm clothes. Moreover, they have more than just some food, one can expand one’s personal cuisine selection there daily. Burger-lovers and vegetarians alike can find something for their taste there. For example, writer and singer Irena Karpa is regularly preparing vegetarian meals and reporting on her Facebook page where and when she gives them away. “So, today on the menu: pancakes of whole meal with apple, brazil nuts, ginger and cinnamon, pancakes with cottage cheese, raisins and spices, thick Indian soup of lentils and sesame seeds, curry and pumpkin seeds. Vegetarians! Come to the barrel standing at the beginning of Instytutska Street, near the stationary flagpole...,” the singer wrote on December 14, and appreciating feedback from those who had tasted these meals appeared on Facebook that evening.

Euromaidan tea deserves some coverage of its own. It is not just steeped tea bags, but an art form. One can easily find drinks for every taste there, just going where the aroma is strongest. Large cauldrons where lime blossoms, apple, orange and ginger slices are floating are highly attractive, as is hot stewed fruit drink mixed with hibiscus tea. Those who daily stand on Euromaidan have already created their own map of delicious teas. For example, the Volynian tent offers the best herbal tea, the Maltese relief agency tent brews tea with ginger and honey, while a tent near a fountain has tea with apple and orange... Journalist and writer Artem Zakharchenko wrote recently on Facebook:  “Ginger tea has become one of our cultural achievements over the past nine years. We had lemon at best in 2004...”

Black, smoky teakettles steam in the cold as are porridge pots, while female volunteers distribute sandwiches. These latter, too, come in the most interesting combinations, like bread with honey, walnuts, apples and lemon... The kitchen in the House of Trade Unions stores long lines of cans, as people bring jam, marmalade, and salty canned food... Some bring hot soup in large pots, others stuffed pies of various kinds... The protesters, however, like hot meals prepared by smoky field kitchens of Euromaidan more than anything else. Incidentally, foreign journalists and visitors, too, pay attention to this phenomenon of open air kitchens. They have been offering not just any meals, but delicious and generous ones to everyone, even those who came to Euromaidan from Anti-Maidan held in European Square on December 14-15, and even those who have accidentally wandered to the barricades. Ukrainian hospitality and striving to have everyone well-fed survive even under these extreme conditions. Moreover, they blossom, because, as characters of Tove Jansson Moomin books said, “No pancake-lover can be dangerous.”

The protest has been going on for almost a month. It developed its own menu in this time, including only healthy, nutritious and delicious meals, but lacking even a drop of alcohol.