Tales and Tastes from East Europe and Central Asia
I don’t remember one holiday celebration without herring in the fur coat. This festive starter salad is made of diced pickled herring mixed with layers of boiled potatoes, carrots and beets. As with many other old favorites, there are dozens of recipes and many strong …
Potato pancakes made with grated raw potatoes can be found in many cuisines, and each has its own cooking methods and uses local potatoes, which has an impact on the taste. Unlike latkes, in which the potatoes are grated on a coarse grater or through the …
I still remember my first-ever bite of French Comte cheese. It was buttery and nutty, melting in my mouth, cut fresh off half a wheel measuring about 3 feet. The cheese came from Salone del Gusto in Torino, Italy, an international food fair organized by …
Most of us have some childhood desserts we remember forever, a grandma’s cake, cookies baked for holidays or a hidden jar of jam. Mine is a special treat I tasted only a few times. On the ground floor of my apartment building in Minsk there …
Almonds are thought to have originated somewhere along the Silk Road in Central Asia. Uzbekistan, at the heart of the Silk Road, is one of the few places in the world where wild almonds still grow and almond trees cover mountaintops. While there are still …
Compote in France is a sauce, like apple sauce or pear or fruit purée, or any type of fruit purée either eaten by kids from a pouch bought at a supermarket or served as an accompaniment to meats. You can also come across compote as …
This dish is called Greek fish in Russian, Belarusian, Latvian and Polish cuisines. It is possible there is a Greek influence as it is similar to psari plaki, a whole fish baked with onions, peppers and tomatoes. No matter the origin, it’s a fish dish like …
When I was growing up, my family always made lots of jam. I mean really a lot, gallons and gallons of jars covering an entire wall in the kitchen, floor to ceiling. By summertime a 100 pound sack of sugar appeared in the kitchen to …
I went back home to Belarus last summer and found a half-century old enamel salad plate which I remember using since forever. A green plate with chipped white enamel. I remember it with green salads made by my grandmother using all the weeds she could …
