I know this recipe title is a bit hard to parse. You might be wondering if I’m talking about a new Russian Spring movement aiming to depose Tsar Vlad, or if Lactone is …

Over six years ago, I started asking myself this seemingly simple question: “What does Vladimir Putin eat?” If the man’s every move is covered by a small army of reporters, surely his …

This is exciting! After nearly eight years of blogging about Eastern Europe, I’m finally writing my first travel series about Russia, albeit the distances physically traveled are relatively small — mostly from …

I know, I know, this blog is already filled with plov recipes. I published my first Uzbek plov entry almost eight years ago here, then I used it as stuffing for a roasted …

Kakheti, its wineries and monasteries; Alexander Chavchavadze; qvevri wines; Sighnaghi.

Nearly every country counts some kind of sweet fried dough among its desserts. Americans eat doughnuts, Indians have gulab jamun, the French make beignets, and I’ve already written about fritule, Dalmatian fritters. Lithuanians …

In my last Uzbek Adventures post, we caught a glimpse of Samarkand’s restaurants. We had lunch by the Registan and tasted exotic kebabs and wines in the Russian part of town. The …

Every year around Easter, I invariably muse that it would be nice to post an Eastern European lamb recipe on these pages, and then realize that lamb isn’t really eaten with any …

One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia, Samarkand is just a short ride from Bukhara, whether by road or by rail, thanks to the new super fast Afrosiyob trains. …

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 …