The countdown has begun to the start of Russia's Lent, which begins this year on February 17.

Last year I wrote about the food served in the week immediately preceding Lent, the holiday known as Maslenitsa, or butter week. By making blini, and piling them high with things like herring and sour cream, Russian households purge their larders of the last rich foods and get body and soul ready for Lent.

But being an unabashed foodie, I would give some time in the... more

February starts off with a bang for those of you in the San Francisco Bay area. Today and tomorrow, the Russian Center of San Francisco is hosting its 20th annual celebration of Russian art, dance and music. This is a big shindig, and the event that inspired me to start a Russian cultural calendar for adoptive families last year. There is a great lineup, and even a large screen TV dedicated to the Super Bowl. Tickets are $10 for adults, but kids under 12 are free.

Also, today and tomorrow, a... more

OK, I'm going to confess to a bit of cultural prejudice today. If I were going to be stranded on a deserted island and I could take along my three favorite desserts, they would all be French. So it's probably no surprise that my favorite Russian dessert is one that was created by a French pastry chef.

The dessert is Charlotte Russe, and it was whipped up by Marie-Antoine Carême for Russia's Tsar Alexander I in the early 1800s. Wikipedia, citing a 2004 feature on Carême by National Public Radio, calls Carême the "first celebrity chef". That's... more

No, that's not a typo. Sushi may have started out in Japan, but Russians have heartily embraced it as their own. With a Russian twist, of course.

Once upon a time, I lived in New York City, near its Russian neighborhood in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. When the big influx of Soviet émigrés began in the 1980s, the first restaurants to open up on its main street were simple soup and pelmeni places. As the newcomers succeeded, entrepreneurs converted old movie theaters into big catering halls for weddings and parties. The restaurants got fancier--I still have a taste memory... more

Sure, Russian cuisine has lot of fancy foods, like caviar. But get a Russian talking about food and the conversation will quickly turn to mushrooms and a memorable moment gathering them in the woods.

Foraging is a tough concept for Americans. We have become accustomed to getting our food on plastic trays from a refrigerated counter, and have long forgotten what the real stuff tastes like. But there are lots of mushrooms out in the wild and Russians love to go find them--and... more

It's not going to be Christmas in Russia for almost another two weeks--Christmas is January 6 on the Orthodox Church's calendar. But given that a Russian Christmas feast is a twelve-course event--one course for each of the apostles--you might need to start cooking early.

Russia isn't the only place that has a large number of courses for a special occasion meal. I grew up in a household that followed the southern Italian tradition of seven fishes (and seven times as much garlic) on Christmas Eve. But planning and cooking 12 courses can be daunting,... more

When my oldest was still at his Russian-run preschool, he came home one day and told me he had eaten "fish eggs" for lunch. "Don't you mean chicken eggs?" I asked. "No, not yellow eggs," he replied. "They were brown." A check with the school's director the next day revealed that she had, indeed, served the kids a bit of caviar for lunch, which she extolled for its healthful properties.

Me, I've never been much of a fan of the stuff. Price was--and is--one big reason, but being the eco-freak that I am, I was disinclined to add demand to a market that has been seriously... more

We got a bit carried away at a cranberry festival a few weeks back. So I've been on the lookout for recipes that use them in new and interesting ways. But I was pretty surprised when, reading my favorite Russian cookbook for something else, I came upon recipes for not one, but two Russian cranberry desserts, kissel and klyukvenniy muss.

I had always thought of cranberries as being uniquely American, but it turns out that there are several different species of cranberries, and they can be found across almost the entire Northern Hemisphere, which,... more

Today's look at Russian food is for Steve and Stefanie, the proud new parents of boy born in Novosibirsk. You may remember that Steve was the creator of the snowsuit swap I wrote about back in September. He and Stef had just made their first trip to Novosibirsk and were expecting a winter court date. They went back for trip two last week and are now a family of three.

I can't post a glass of Champagne on this blog (except... more

I don't know how Russians do it, but I can only cook Russian food when the temperature dips. I've been in Russia during some of the warmer months, and I've eaten at some of the surf-side restaurants in New York City's Brighton Beach neighborhood during summer trips to the beach. But try as I might to eat those lovely beet and cucumber salads, and crisp plates of smoked fish, warm-weather dining means a Mediterranean menu to me.

Winter is what Russian cooking was made for.

And so, beginning today, I'm going to crack open the recipe box every Monday to give... more