Manic Bookstore Cafe

So I was talking with a friend today whose grandmother grew up in Russia ... or Ukraine. With Americans, you never really know which. The important thing is that her grandmother was extremely proud to have never eaten a raw vegetable. Ever. In her life. She ate cabbage, beets, potatoes, turnips, onions, even cucumbers -- but only in soup, or pickled, or in some way processed. This is a fascinating thing about Russian (and often Ukrainian) cooking. In some of the research I've been doing I have noticed a tendency to preserve everything. Tomato sauce, fresh salsa, jams and jellies -- and apple pie. I think it must be a genetic fear of the long, cold winter. And it's not limited to those living in the former tsarist lands. I felt it myself this autumn when I arrived back to my house from a half-year of sojourning through Europe and the east coast -- my shelves were empty, and I needed to fill them. So we canned about 12 quarts of tomato sauce, pints of raspberry and bl...

Some of the best Georgian cuisine I've ever eaten was at Tbilisi restaurant in Warsaw (ul. Pulawska, 24) last April. On Yelp there is a helpful review that uses one of my favorite expressions in Russian (and, I guess, in Polish):  teoretycznie. Theoretically, says Amelia K., the restaurant opens at noon. Restauracja Gruzińska  Tbilisi, Warsaw [photo by Amelia K.] Theoretically they also have everything on the menu. But after our absolutely fantastic evening there in April -- when our friend Babs was visiting from the States -- my husband and I went back again for a romantic lunch. Not. Almost everything we ordered was not available that day, including the amazing spinach balls we had been dreaming about for weeks. Recently I've begun preparing the Russian cuisine course I'm offering in spring semester, and it has me thinking about my experiences in Soviet restaurants and cafes. Of course there weren't many options for dining out when I lived in Moscow in the l...