Russia

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 …

It all started with Irina Chadeyeva’s Vypechka po GOSTu, a compilation of Soviet era baking hits, from the Kiev cake to the kartoshka (each of which I’ve encountered here and here, respectively). …