One of the worst things about being a French major was having to read Proust. But I've been thinking some lately about the food and memory issues raised by Remembrance Of Things Past because of the foods my children, who were adopted from Russia, gravitate to.

In my house, we seem to always have on hand inordinate quantities of potatoes, beets and cucumbers--the staples of the Russian diet. If it is summer when you travel to your child's orphanage, look at what's growing in the garden plots: potatoes, beets and cucumbers. When you sit down at a Russian restaurant, look what's on the menu: potatoes, beets and cucumbers.

We eat potatoes baked, mashed, roasted, oven-fried, hashed. Asked for their choice for a mid-morning school snack, my kids will pick sliced cucumbers. If they go grocery shopping with me, they put the beets in the cart. Not quite the standard American taste palate, as I've seen quite clearly when we have their friends over for dinner.

I don't know why my kids' taste buds run this way, but I find it amusing.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin treated our president and his wife to a meal during their visit last November, beet salad was reportedly on the menu. I wasn't among the invited guests, but I'm guessing it was vinegret, a Russian classic. It is a cold appetizer that contains both beets and potatoes, and you will find a version of it at the prepared cold food counter of any Russian supermarket you visit on your travels. I've tried a few different takes on it over the years, but this recipe that recently popped up on the food blog "Beyond Salmon" puts them all to shame.

My older son attended a preschool run by a Russian émigré and you can guess what the menu staples were. But one day, when I picked him up, he told me that he had had something new for lunch: "fish eggs." I said, "Honey, don't you mean chicken eggs, like you have for breakfast?" "No mommy, not white and yellow eggs," he said. "They were little and brown."

I don't expect that will be on the menu at IHOP any time soon.