Walnut rolls are common in many cuisines of Eastern Europe. Hungarians eat bejgli, Slovenians have potica, and Croatians make povitica, generally for Christmas and Easter. The dessert counts many variations: the layers can be thick or thin, the roll can be baked as a log or folded in a loaf pan, and poppy seeds can replace walnuts. […]
Many Europeans countries share the tradition of preparing a kind of sweet bread, often with dried fruits, for religious holidays. Germany has Stollen and Italy eats panettone, while Russia makes kulich and Poland and Ukraine bake babka. In Czech Republic (and Slovakia), there’s vánočka, a rich plaited bread served for Christmas (vánoce means Christmas in Czech). A […]
Several years ago, I blogged my very first Croatian dessert, the Dalmatian fritters, little balls of fried dough coated in flavored confectioner’s sugar. That’s not, however, the sweet dish you’ll come across the most in Croatia. Instead, based on my scientific survey using a representative sample of 1 person, the title of Croatia’s favorite dessert should go […]
The island of Vis, the farthest inhabited off the Dalmatian coast, has long been known for its fishing and its fishermen. Some go so far as to claim that the inventions of these fishermen changed the world. The first fish cannery on the Mediterranean was set right in Komiža, the island’s second largest settlement. In the early 20th […]
I know what some of you must be thinking after my reindeer tartare post: “He’s completely lost touch with reality! He expects us to take a plane to Scandinavia just to buy salami. He thinks Sweden is in Eastern Europe, that every Russian keeps glycerin flakes in their pantry (next to a dozen jars of […]
Everybody knows what a bagel is, but what about a bialy? “It’s like a bagel without a hole,” will say people who’ve had one. And these people have a point: bialys are generally sold in bagel shops, they’re good vehicles for cream cheese, they’re round, and their centers aren’t hollow. Both bialys and bagels come from […]
When I blogged about the cheese debauchery that’s the Mingrelian khachapuri, some may have thought (hoped?) that I was finally putting the khachapuri topic to rest, having now covered the most popular variations at great length. Big mistake: the subject is far from being exhausted. So I hope you like cheese, because there are gonna be more […]
While Blini and Oladi, Russian Pancakes remains the most visited post on this blog, things are slowly changing. The top post for the past few months has been the Imeretian Khachapuri, followed by the Lángos (another greasy bread!) and the exotic Tajik Qurutob. So in the continued spirit of giving people more of what they want, I’m happy to bring you another […]
You might remember the story of the Nesselrode Pudding; or, how Paris’ best pastry chef created a dessert for the Russian occupants while working for that turncoat Talleyrand. But perhaps your senile great-grandparents have fondly reminisced about a popular dessert of their New York youth, a symbol of a bygone era, in a slightly different format: the Nesselrode […]
I’ve written countless times about khachapuri. This cheese bread is featured in each of my Georgian restaurant reviews at least once, if not more, and it appears on the menus of many Russian restaurants too. I’ve posted my Adjaran version, but I’ve never posted an Imeretian khachapuri, the simplest kind, which consists of a round bread stuffed […]