March 2012

Here’s an easy first recipe to mark the arrival of spring: buy every possible variety of spring onions, shallots, and garlic (including garlic scapes) at your local farmers’ market and turn them into …

Restaurants in Baku; caravanserais; dolma, kutab, chikhirtma, plov, kebabs and other pakhlavas; the infamous watermelon hookah.

Wishing you all a happy Novruz! I am including some pictures of President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva taking part in the festivities in Baku, eating plov (above) or drinking tea …

With this recipe, I’m killing two old Eastern European birds with one stone. The combination isn’t just a gimmick, though; the two dishes actually work really well together! The venison goulash uses …

Here’s a recipe that perfectly illustrates Food Perestroika’s mission. Its Eastern European character is visible in the ingredients and the preparation: with the Mangalica lardo, the chanterelles, the corn, and the faux …

As you may have read in the media, Vladimir Putin invited foreign journalists for a dinner-interview at his dacha near Moscow last week. We got the usual report of his highly predictable …

A note about my restaurant reviews: New York City counts many Eastern European restaurants scattered across the five boroughs, most of them ignored by restaurant critics and diners alike. I intend to visit …