Tajik Adventures, Part 3: Khujand’s Panjshanbe Bazaar
In my previous Tajik Adventures post, we looked at the more pedestrian attractions of Khujand, Tajikistan’s second largest city: decrepit hotel Leninabad, the ill-fated Lenin statue, and Café Rashvan....
View ArticleAlmaty-Style Horse Steak, with Khychin and Markovka
While there are many countries where horse meat is available and consumed occasionally (sometimes unbeknownst to the consumers), Kazakhstan is one of the few places where it’s one of the major meats in...
View ArticleRestaurant Review: Kafana
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...
View ArticleBrodet, Croatian Fish Stew
In most people’s consciousness, Eastern Europe does not evoke delicious seafood dishes. Apart from caviar or smoked fish (which most people actually eat rarely), the images that come to mind tend to be...
View ArticleKazakh Adventures, Part 2: Impressions from Almaty
Just as I did for beshbarmak, I’d like to interrupt my Tajik Adventures series to give a little bit of background about my recent horse steak post. So let’s head to Almaty, the former capital of the...
View ArticleSignature Dish: Food Perestroika’s Baklava
I love baklava. The thin, nutty layers saturated with fragrant syrup take me back to a warm night in a caravanserai in Baku’s Old City, drinking herbal tea and dark Azerbaijani cognac. Or to the...
View ArticleRestaurant Review: Doma Na Rohu
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...
View ArticleBack from Central Europe
The past 10 days saw me traveling in Hungary, Slovakia, and Czech Republic. Soon, you too will learn everything there is to know about absinthe in Moravia. Discover the little stinky cheese of Olomouc....
View ArticlePiragi, Latvia’s National Dish
The last entry in my series of national dishes was Kazakhstan’s beshbarmak. This time, we’re hopping to the Baltic to try Latvian piragi. Naming a single national dish for a whole country is a very...
View ArticleTajik Adventures, Part 4: The Painful Road to Dushanbe
At the close of my survival guide for Tajikistan, I promised you the world’s worst hotel. A place that puts to shame all of the first-world problems you might have encountered in the West, such as...
View ArticleCentral European Wild Duck, with its Potatoes and Red Cabbage
There are few places where duck is as ubiquitous a culinary staple as in Central Europe, in particular Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia (the other places would be France, China, and...
View ArticleRed Alert: Gabriel Kreuther
Red Alert! Random Eastern European dishes are invading our streets and restaurants! Should you duck and cover, or welcome the enemy? It’s been a while since my last Red Alert post, but this one’s...
View ArticleDuck Hunting on Lake Ontario
I’ve been hunting waterfowl on Lake Ontario about once a year for three years now, and of all my formative hunting trips, these are probably my favorite. These outings have also resulted in a couple of...
View ArticleCentral European Ramp Cream Soup with Wild Boar Ham
Spring has now sprung in earnest, but tell me, what foods can possibly mark the beginning of spring in a world where you can buy bad strawberries all year round, and even the wild mushroom trade has...
View ArticleTajik Adventures, Part 5: Dushanbe, Chateau Loser
Dushanbe, population 778,500, capital city of Tajikistan. Our final stop on a journey that didn’t quite go as planned, before we cross the border back to Uzbekistan. “Dushanbe” means Monday in Tajik,...
View ArticleTriple Steelhead Trout Broth with Gravlax and Pirozhki
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 go fishing in the area: Mother’s Day....
View ArticleRestaurant Review: Tony and Tina’s Pizzeria
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...
View ArticleBryndzové Halušky, Slovakia’s National Dish
Bryndzové halušky can be called Slovakia’s national dish without too much debate. This dish of potato spaetzle/gnocchi topped with a sheep’s milk cheese sauce and fried bacon is available in every...
View ArticleMedia Socialism
Now back from a series of business and vacation trips, I’ve decided to do some belated spring cleaning in my social media accounts: I’ve officially stopped linking my posts on Pinterest. This probably...
View ArticleRestaurant Review: Babushka Café
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...
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