What is this salo you speak of?

I heard stories that it existed. Oftentimes, the story was followed with shock and horror if someone actually had a personal experience to add. I didn’t know what to think. Would I ever encounter this thing myself? Would I one day have my own story to tell?

Thanks to one of Tanya’s students, I now have my own story to tell. On the night of a party at our apartment – one we decided to throw when we thought we were moving apartments… go figure we got a phone call that very day that we were no longer moving! – Vitaly brought a nice big container full of the infamous SALO.

You’re probably wondering what exactly this salo stuff is, right? Well, Wikipedia says the following:

Salo (Russian and Ukrainian: са́ло) is a traditional Central and Eastern European food: slabs of pork underskin fat, with or without skin.

Mmmm…

The Slavic word “salo” as applied to this type of food (it has other meanings as well) is often mistranslated to English as “bacon” or “lard”. Unlike lard, salo is non-rendered pork fat

Double mmmm…

Anyways, the Ukrainians love this stuff. Apparently what you do is put a slab on a piece of black bread, maybe with some onion, and eat with vodka. So, that’s what Tanya and I bravely did. I think these pictures explain all:

salo

salo 01

salo 02

salo 03

salo 04

salo 05

salo 06

salo 07

salo 08

Pretty good, huh? Yeah, it gets better…

I don’t know how many times in this one night Ukrainian people told me how HEALTHY salo is. Yes, healthy! I even had one guy tell me that he was so fit while showing his abs because he ate salo every day. And, in case you are fearing a nuclear war or explosion, it is also helpful to know that salo helps protect your body from radiation. Imagine that!

Posted December 28, 2008 in: Soviet Travel, Ukraine

Tags: , , ,

By on December 28, 2008 in Soviet Travel, Ukraine

About Brooke

Brooke is a thrifty traveler and experience collector with a love for language learning, history and cannoli. She is the creator of the female travel focused FTU Newsletter and Her Packing List website. Other thrifty travelers can gain from her years of worldly travel experience by subscribing to the RSS feed. See also: Twitter, Facebook, Google+.

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8 Responses to What is this salo you speak of?

  1. nick February 24, 2009 at 2:43 pm #

    poor Brooke! if salo lied more then 30 minuets outside of refrigerator, it would test terrible!!!!

    Reply
  2. nick February 24, 2009 at 7:43 am #

    poor Brooke! if salo lied more then 30 minuets outside of refrigerator, it would test terrible!!!!

    Reply
  3. Brooke February 24, 2009 at 3:24 pm #

    Haha, for some reason, I don’t think that matters much…

    Reply
    • Evgeniy Kondratuk December 5, 2009 at 10:49 pm #

      frozen salo is more eatable

      Reply
  4. andrey June 24, 2010 at 2:30 pm #

    Hi Brook!

    Yeah i remember that night when you tried a salo!!

    I just wanna say ukrainian also use salo to fry it with egg, because when salo melt it become crispy.

    Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Brooke vs. the World | A Round the World Travelog » Blog Archive » Fat, Unhealthy Americans - February 24, 2009

    [...] meant, and it is a word commonly translated into English as lard. Remember that little party we had where we tasted salo and was told repeatedly how HEALTHY it is? Are you laughing a little [...]
  2. What has been the best year of your life? | Brooke vs. the World - July 17, 2011

    [...] I tasted some traditional, Ukrainian food. [...]
  3. Fruit is the Last Thing I Want as a Beer Snack (a Ukraine memory) - January 17, 2012

    [...] involved seeing what everyone would bring to the party. It could have been a bottle of vodka, some disgusting salo, cookies and cakes or my favorite: fruit. Because that’s what everyone wants at a party, [...]

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