Russia

Quite logically, being the first to send a man to space, the Soviet Union invented space food. During his historic flight in 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin ate from toothpaste-style tubes containing servings…

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…

Recently, while writing my post on shanga, the bread roll from the Great Russian North, I came across the Tasty Map of Russia. The project, started in 2012, aims to promote and develop…

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…

Last month, during a short business trip to Sweden, I visited Stockholm’s venerable Östermalms Saluhall, a food market operating since 1888. While the historic hall is currently closed for renovation, the market…

After all my years of trying them at restaurants and reporting on them in these pages, I sure hope you know what pelmeni are. One of Russian cuisine’s most famous dishes, eaten…

This is one of my recurring ramblings: why do we see so little shellfish in Russian restaurants outside of Russia? Oh sure, you can have seafood fettuccine, lobster bisque, snails in garlic sauce,…

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…

I’ve said in the past that if you want to avoid crowds, the Monday after Thanksgiving is a good day to fish on the Salmon River. Well, here’s another quiet day to…

Over the past decade or so, kefir, a kind of cultured milk sometimes described as a “tangy milk smoothie,” has gained popularity and conquered the shelves of American supermarkets. “Probiotic,” the labels…