Easter breads such as kulich, paska, choreg, and nazuki are delicious Easter traditions. Easter is by far the most important religious holiday for those practicing Eastern Christianity. In addition to church services and egg dying, the holiday is also marked across the cultures by ritual bread baking. Despite the wide geographic area covered by Eastern […]

Russia’s Olivier Salad (Салат «Оливье») and Latvia’s rasols are well-known staples of their respective cuisines and common additions to holiday tables. Today, the recipes for both are quite similar, with chopped vegetables, egg, and meat dressed with mayonnaise. Olivier is now eaten throughout the former USSR and has even become common as “Russian Salad” in […]

Blini (блины) are a breakfast favorite in many Eurasian countries. The most basic recipe involves just flour, milk, and eggs. The resulting very thin pancake can be enjoyed in a variety of ways from sweet to savory. Although the recipe is quite simple, they are somewhat labor intensive to make and thus are often associated […]

Potato pancakes dominate coffee shop menus in Riga, Latvia—and for good reason! Meticulously prepared using grated potatoes, eggs, and flour, these pancakes are crisped to a brilliant golden hue, reaching a level of perfection that rivals the shining sun itself. The mouthwatering allure of this delightful dish is recognized worldwide. Following their inception in Eastern […]

Medovukha (медовуха) is a Slavic honey-based alcoholic beverage. It is one of the most recent and perhaps the best known iteration of a long evolutionary tree of Russian honey-based beverages that can be traced all the way back to the Old Slavs. In Russia today, some argue that a return to these honey drinks, which […]

Kartoshka cake, known as in Russian as “пирожное картошка” (Pirozhnoe kartoshka – literally “cake potato”), or sometimes more affectionately just картошка (kartoshka – “potato”), is a mouthwatering pastry that takes many people from the former USSR back to their childhood. Once used to prevent food loss and combat shortages, kartoshka cake spread widely in the […]

Pelmeni (Пельмени) are Russian dumplings: small portions of ground meat and onion wrapped in a thin, unleavened dough and boiled. While Russians prize pelmeni as a Siberian dish, “рецепт русских пельменей может на самом являться измененной версией китайских пельменей” (the recipe may actually be an adaptation of Chinese pot-stickers). Other ancient foods such as manti, […]

Borsch (Борщ) is one of the most popular soups in Central and Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is sweet and sour, healthy and can be eaten at any time of year. It has a complicated and very long history, with the soup changing over time within various geographic regions. Today, the broadly recognized “standard” borsch […]

Solyanka (Солянка), is made from pickled vegetables, meat, and sour cream. It is considered traditionally Russian but is today enjoyed across the former Soviet space and Eastern Bloc, and particularly in East Germany. Having been served for hundreds of years in several countries, solyanka has gone through a lot of modifications and now has many different […]