Aaaah, the pleasures of visiting a distillery! The idyllic setting in the rugged countryside, the yeasty aroma of fermenting grain, the majestic copper stills, the boozy smell in the warehouse, sampling tasty…

My Moscow restaurant series is over for the time being, but before summer arrives and we switch to cuisines more evocative of warmer climates, I’d like to give you a glimpse of…

Restaurants Pirogi Vino i Gus and Russian Pub, which I just reviewed, both feature “Stroganoff Pie” on their menus. In a sense, the combination is to be expected: pies and classic Russian…

In May 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev introduces the Law on Cooperatives, a new policy that allows for the creation of limited cooperative businesses within the Soviet Union. The term “cooperative” in this context…

In my previous post on Soviet Nostalgia and Varenichnaya №1, one of the dishes I tried was forshmak, a sort of herring pâté that was common in the USSR. It’s not just…

Soviet nostalgia is nothing new – it probably started on December 26, 1991, if not earlier. And it’s somewhat understandable, too. Back in the USSR, there was a feeling of guaranteed stability,…

During my tour of Moscow’s Danilovsky Market, I stopped at a small fast casual restaurant called Dagestanskaya Lavka to try khinkal, the main dish in Dagestani cuisine. Most of Dagestan’s territory is…

When you read these lines, I will be on my way to the Great North: after a few days in Moscow, I plan to cross the Arctic Circle aboard the Arktika train…

In my last post, we toured the food stalls of the Danilovksy Market, Moscow’s oldest marketplace, newly renovated. But looking for quality products to prepare for dinner isn’t the only reason to…

Back in the USSR, markets offered a variety of fresh produce, meat, cured fish, and other foods, whether from the nearby countryside or the other end of the country, that you’d have…