4 comments about The Russian Heritage Cookbook: A Culinary Heritage Preserved in 360 Authentic Recipes.

1. I love this cookbook -- I actually own an earlier edition, which is well worn by now. The recipes were gathered from Russian emigres while the cold war was still raging. Back then, this book was something of a revelation: written proof that Russian food is a lot more than Borscht and the "Bleenies and caviar" that were served daily at the (now gone) Russian Tea Room in NYC. (For Russians, Blini are a seasonal treat!)

   The only drawback to this book, in my experience, is that one or two of the recipes seem to be a bit vague or off the mark regarding specified quantities. Maybe it's me, but I always find myself with too much filling for the allotted amount of dough in some of the pirozhki recipes. Fortunately, the dough is easy enough to make more of, and you can't make too many pirozhki (once you're on a roll!); they freeze and re-heat beautifully. (Try the Nabokova recipes - the cabbage filled pirozhki are especially delicious!) This problem may be a result of the book being - essentially - a collection of recipes from various sources, and perhaps this new edition has tested the recipes anew and solved this infrequent problem.

   Other than finding myself with too much cabbage filling, my results have been consistently good and extremely tasty!

   In addition to the great zakuski section, and the classic dishes (try 'Pozharski Kotlety'), I highly recommend the sweets! The Trifunovich Napoleon is divine, the flourless, vodka-infused Apricot cake is fabulous, and the Paskha and Kisel' desserts are uniquely Russian and quite delicious.

   Other Russian cookbooks I have seen offer more cultural commentary, though this book has some of that, too. Some are also broader in scope, covering more cultures and cuisines that were encompassed by the Soviet Union (i.e. Georgian, Ukrainian, Mongolian, etc.). But this is the book I turn to most frequently when I want to make something that's traditional and delicious. "The Russian Heritage Cookbook" is a must-have if you like Russian food, or are looking for some inspiration for party food (appetizers AND desserts).




2. Almost four hundred recipes are packed in a culinary discussion of Russian traditions gathered from the Russian émigré community of New York City. Russian Heritage Cookbook goes far beyond the familiar dishes of Borscht and Stroganoff to explore other classic dishes such as Mushroom Solianka and a wealth of veal dishes, introducing each chapter with cultural insights and including variations on dish themes. An outstanding guide for any fan of Russian culture and cuisine.



3. I have seen several cookbooks covering eastern European cuisines that are nothing more than collections of relatively simple recipes, where the primary objective is number of recipes and the secondary objective is a reasonable faithfulness to their sources. These books give no insights into the wellsprings of these cuisines and typically give only the simplest versions of classic recipes. This book does not fit this description. It is a rich evocation of 19th century Russian cuisine and it's influences, and those things it has influenced.

   While the current edition is being published in 2004, this is the second edition of a book the author states was originally published 20 years ago, although the copyright page does not state the date of the first edition. The only reason for this I can see is that this is the first edition to be published in the United States. I bring this up for three reasons. First, if a book survives to a second edition, it means the first edition was well received and worthy of an update. Second, this means this worthy book was probably improved in the reissue. Third, and most interesting, is the fact that the two editions straddle the fall of the USSR, and the author has several interesting observations on this fact.

   The author's introduction and the discussion of Russian cuisine in the USSR is an interesting take on Paula Wolfert's contention that one of the requirements for a sustenance of a great cuisine is an aristocracy which can support a class of creative chefs. This was certainly true of Czarist Russia, and it was certainly not true of Russia in the USSR. In spite of how immediate these events are to us, it is still surprising to read that even up to the very end of the Soviet regime, access to fresh or gourmet foods was difficult even in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and, this access is much greater today.

   It is common knowledge that in the 19th century, Russia was enamored of all things French, especially of French cuisine. Many French chefs were brought in to cook for noble and wealthy families and many Russian chefs were sent to Paris to learn to cook the French cuisine (Some failed to use their return ticket). What may be less commonly known is that many French chefs returned from Russia and opened Russian cuisine restaurants in Paris. Other than France, the greatest foreign influence on Russian cuisine seems to be Scandinavia and fish from the Baltic and northern Atlantic. The most prominent local ingredients are, of course, caviar, vodka, eggs, dairy (yogurt and sour cream), rye, and kasha (buckwheat). The preservation method of choice is pickling. Root vegetables and mushrooms seem to play a very large part of this cuisine. The prominence of mushrooms seems surprising, as I most commonly associate them with temperate forests, not frozen steppes, but then again, Russia is a very large country.

   The division of dishes into chapters gives us:

   Zakuski, the Russian take on hors d'ourves and antipasti. I do not take the author seriously when she says this is a distinctly Russian custom after hearing stories of Italian Trattoria tables groaning under the weight of heaping antipasti. The stars of Zakuski are pickled herring, mushrooms, cucumbers, cottage cheese, and hard cooked eggs. In fact, I was surprised to find hard-cooked eggs with filling from spiced yolks so common, as it is also such an American stable.
   Soups, or, borshch, borshch, and more borshch, and potatoes and onions (All spellings are Russian, not necessarily the most familiar spelling to American eyes, as in borshch for borscht).
   Pirogs and pancakes includes the famous Russian platform for caviar, the blini.
   Fish, primarily salmon, cod, pike, carp, and trout. A large number of recipes are simply for `fish'. It is probably not surprising that there are no recipes for salt cod, as it was probably cold enough to naturally refrigerate the fish for half the year. I suspect also that salt was not as plentiful as it was on the temperate Atlantic coast or certainly not as common as in the Mediterranean.
   Meat and poultry features beef with many traditional Russian ingredients, as in Beef Stroganoff made with sour cream and served on noodles.
   Vegetables, a classic intersection of Russian ingredients and French preparations. Potatoes and cabbage are the stars here, with a strong showing by mushrooms and other root vegetables and cabbage family members.
   Desserts feature cakes and tortes. There are few tropical fruits here, but bananas and pineapple do make an appearance. Chocolate is common and cherries are very big along with kasha and dairy.
   Sauces, jams, and drinks provides the usual pantry items, starring horseradish, beets, and sour cream.

   The author is more of a scholar and writer than a chef and almost every recipe is attributed to a contributor who was born in Russia or born of Russian parents. The culinary cautions are a bit slim and an experienced amateur cook may have much more success with them than a total newbie.

   The background writing approaches the quality found in works by Claudia Roden but not quite up to the breathless immediacy you can get from Paula Wolfert or the freshness you get from Patricia Wells or some of the better Italian regional cuisine specialists. Most of this is due to the fact that the subject is so clearly in the past, so some dryness may be expected. I did miss a recipe for Easter bread, but I did get four different recipes for the Russian Easter cheese dish, Pashka.

   Highly recommended source on eastern European food.




4. I grew up in a home filled with Russian cooking: the cuisine frozen in time that Lynn Visson captures in the Russian Heritage Cookbook. We tend to know just a few dishes that have some loose association with Russia: Chicken Kiev, and Beef Stroganoff, for example, which both have significant French influences, or Borscht, a simple dish indeed. With the fall of that awful wall Russian cuisine has enjoyed a renaissance, even in Russia herself. Visson exploits today's new interest in this world cuisine with her exhaustive coverage of every conceivable course, all based on authentic, pre-revolutionary recipes. As an example, for kotelety alone she gives us five different family recipes. (It's a shame she didn't consult my mother, former professor of Russian, for another five). For shashlyk (Georgian meat on skewers similar to shish kebab) she gives no fewer than three possible marinades. Real cooking by real people demands such variety and depth. Bravo!

   Food writer Elliot Essman's other reviews and food articles are available at www.stylegourmet.com

2 comments about Restaurant Service Basics.

1. The book explains how a restaurant is operated thoroughly. The book has pictures to allow easy comprehension. The roles of the entire team from Owner to buss, they're all in there. Explains everyone's task and gives projects to practice on to get a first hand experience. I recommend this book to all business owners and managers. Great book even for waiter/waitress wanting to improve their service.



2. I bought this book based on the editorial and customer review. Service basics is an overstatement. Do not buy this book unless you have never dined in a restaurant. It will not help you at all if you know anything about the business. The book is filled with helpful gems like "The course that is usually served first is the appetizer. The appetizer is a food item served before the meal..." Wow thanks! What's a Napkin? The computerized service system is at least 10 years behind industry standards and serving from the left with the left hand is not the way it is always done. Stick with the Culinary Arts Institutes "Remarkable Service" It is by far the best there is.

5 comments about Russian, German&Polish Food&Cooking.

1. I spent over two years studying in Russia and Poland. I've spent a couple months in Germany. I've been looking for recipes from this region for quite awhile. This is a great collection. It has many of the dishes that I became familiar with while I was there.
   
   In particular, I recommend:
   Hungarian Gulyas (pg 119)
   Fish baked in Dough (pg 210)
   Pampushki (pg 63)
   Lamb Plov (pg 43)



2. I really love this cookbook! I bought it for the countries mentioned in the title, but it actually covers a wider geographical range that touches on the Greek-ish foods of the Adriatic Sea. The recipes range from simple and easy to very labor-intensive dishes that take hours to prepare. In all cases, the instructions are thorough and easy to follow, and the work-in-process photographs are extremely helpful. I'm no expert in the kitchen, so that level of clarity is important to me. Another thing I like about this book is that, unlike other books in this international series, the recipes do not contain a lot of difficult-to-find ingredients or obscure cuts of meat. With very few exceptions, the components to these dishes can be found at any supermarket. So far I have personally cooked about 30 of the recipes in the book. My favorites are the Torte Varazdin (magnificent!), Bigos (a Polish classic), and Hungarian Goulash (delicious and easy to make). It's particularly strong on stews and desserts. There are also a lot of fish dishes, which I have not tried. Not every dish in the book is a winner, but the masterpieces far outnumber the disasters.



3. I have got this book as a BD present and was sceptical at first - I am a very strict cook-book critic. But this book is amazing! Not only it's full of pictures and very clear instructions, but also all recipes I've tried so far worked wonderfully.
   Just as mentioned in an earlier review, ingredients are very reasonable - and you get amazing taste from very basic products. It's also nice that in each of three parts there is a special section on Vegetable dishes - for those, who strive for healthy lifestyles.
   I'm buying a copy for my friend's BD today!



4. "Russian, German & Polish Food & Cooking" is an absolutely excellent cookbook. It gives traditional food recipes from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Included are, about, 185 recipes from Germany, Austria, Poland, The Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the east Adrriatic Sea, and other countries in a huge area of central and eastern Europe. Published in 2005, it has 256 pages and 750 pages.
   
   The recipes are fully described and the photos are beautiful. This is a terrific book for cooks who may want to expore a different set of cusines than most Americans know. The dishes are beautiful and taste great. If you cook your way through this cookbook, you may want to concentrate on one or more specific nationalities. Each of these countries has hundreds or, even, thousands of food recipes from which to choose.
   
   However, start with this terrific book. Choose a simple set of dishes to start. Then work your way into the more difficult dishes. Do you want a nice, simple, dessert for a fancy pot luck? Try the Polish Honey Cake.
   
   I recommend this book, highly. I hope the publisher offers a new printing, soon.



5. My MIL is Polish and has taught me some of her family recipes which my husband loves. I just received this book today and am so impressed. It has beautiful pictures and great sounding recipes. Can't wait to get into the kitchen and create.

3 comments about A Taste of Russia: A Cookbook of Russian Hospitality.

1. This is a great book on the food of Russia and the culture also. All to many times we seem to channel Russian cuisine into a few simple dishes. Granted the few simple dishes we view as "Russian" are grand and quite tasty, we tend to shove aside the rich culinary history this country has and the peoples grand capacity to share and truly enjoy food and life. Many times it has been written of the sharing and emphasis of food and being together to enjoy it in other european cuisines, however Russia tends to be overlooked in the cloud of past paranoia of the political state of the land. Ms. Goldstein gets beyond that and makes it clear that food is the binding stuff of a country and of people just as it is in this country and all around this globe.



2. Having spent a lot of time working in the former Soviet Union, and trying to reconstruct many of the wonderful and interesting dishes from various republics, I was delighted to find a book that "translated", "a pinch of this and a gram of that" into something I could understand and make with products available to me here in the US. I recommend this cookbook to anyone who has tried food from Eastern Europe, enjoyed it and wants to bring it up to our standards. The book is so popular with my friends that I keep giving it as a gift. However, I do feel the title "A Taste of Russia" is not "politically correct", since the dishes are from many of the 17 former republics of the Soviet Union, Russia being only one of them.



3. This is a great cookbook. A lot of time & work was put into it. However, some of my favorite Russian recipies are missing from this book. I would recommend "The Art of Russian Cuisine" for those of you who are interested in food that Russians cook daily or for holidays.

5 comments about A Year of Russian Feasts.

1. Catherine not only captures the essence of the food, but also gives us a most intimate glance into the country, it's culture, and it's people. Living there for a time and having a Russian mother (and grandmother) on hand has given her an edge that almost no one else can duplicate! Her descriptions are interesting, the recipes are clear and easy to follow, and the insights and traditions on the food are priceless, making it an absolute "must" for the serious "foodie."



2. Jones's memoir-cookbook takes the reader on a personal journey to Russia, the land of Jones's ancestors. It's full of interesting stories about the people she encountered there, with a focus on culinary topics. Each chapter deals with a single theme: springtime in Russia, tea and birthday parties, home-canning, mushroom hunting, weddings, Christmas and New Year's celebrations--all from the personal perspective of the author and her experiences in Russia. The 40 recipes she includes are accurate and can be easily reproduced in American home kitchens. A "must-buy" book for anyone interested in Russian cuisine.



3. I've been interested in all things Russia since adopting my son two years ago from the Voronezh region, and this book has helped to keep that interest going. It's not just a basic cookbook, but more a travelogue and cultural history with recipes added in.
   
   I like how the author explains social and family traditions along with her seasonal exploration of Russian food. After all, our special foods aren't made and consumed in a vacuum - tradition and custom dictate many of our special menus. If you read this book you will get a better understanding of how and why the Russians do what they do. It makes me wish I'd tried harder to eat real Russian food when I was there.



4. I love this book. I originally checked it out from my library but, decided that the recipes were too good and the story of this family was too endearing to not have my own copy. I have shared it with many people since I got my own copy!



5. The stories about the recipes are great, as are
   the recipes themselves. This is a superb book,
   small enough to take in my shopping bag and wonderful
   as a gift for my Russian family and friends.

5 comments about Festive Ukrainian Cooking.

1. If you enjoy Ukrainian food, this is the book to get. Most repipes use easy-to-get ingridients. The meals pleased many a Ukrainian homesick for native food.



2. Used to drive me crazy when my mother cooked Ukrainian foods and never had a recipe. Well, with this book all that has changed. I use it for those recipes where "a little of this and a little of that and then you mix it together" mean little to me. Also has excellent explanations of the different holidays and foods appropriate for the holiday.



3. For any Ukrainian food/holiday tradition enthusiast tired of struggling through encoded recipes from "babtsia," this is the book for you!!! It provides simple recipes and introductions to the mysterious art of Ukrainian cooking -- "borshcht kvas," "pravdyviy hryby," et. al. -- as well as modern versions of the old traditions. Makes a traditional Ukrainian Christmas a reality.



4. Festive Ukrainian Cooking has easy to follow recipes. While all of our grandmothers had their own variations, this is a good starting point to get back to our beginnings.



5. This book is GREAT! It not only gives you the recipes but it also explains all the old time traditions and the current traditions that come from them.
   The author has translated recipes into English and modern cooking terms (like using a food processor). Many good cooks can "tweak" the recipes to duplicate how mama or baba specifically made them but this book is a GREAT way to preserve those recipes that they never wrote down! Many thanks to the author.

5 comments about The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia.

1. As someone who was born and grew up in Tbilisi, I was very happy to find this book -- it captures all of my favorite recipes, and when I prepare them according to this book, they taste just like my grandma's cooking.
   
   More than just a recipe book, this is also an exploration into the rich history and culture of Georgia, and how the history shaped the cuisine. I suggest this book to everyone who would like to add some interesting preparations to their cooking. For vegetarians, Georgians have plenty of healthful and filling ways to prepare veggies and beans, and also some mouth watering sauces that will enliven any dish (veg or not).
   
   I enjoy this book both as a cook book, and as a historical book!



2. I've already written a review of this great book. I have only one suggestion: the basic khmeli suneli recipe can be augmented further to reach the authentic smell and taste. The wikipedia article on khmeli suneli has additional ingredients that can be added to the recipe. I tried that, about 2 teaspoons of each ingredient that's not already in Darra's recipe (less for black and chili pepper), and it came closer to the authentic smell and taste. I think the author of the wikipedia article might have meant safflower (marigold) instead of saffron though, so I didn't add that.



3. This is a marvelous, utterly authentic encyclopedia of Georgian cooking. I tried some of the recipes before leaving for Georgia in summer 2006, and they were great, and gave me a good idea of what to expect. Once in Georgia, the book was an invaluable reference that I constantly turned to whenever I tried something new. Just about *everything* I had is in here, along with many things I didn't get around to sampling.
   
   This book also helped me learn the correct Georgian names for the dishes and many of the ingredients. A significant portion of the book is devoted to providing cultural background on Georgia and Georgian food, such the elaborate rules for a _tamada_, or Georgian toastmaster. With its charming photos of representative paintings scattered generously throughout its pages, it also made me a Pirosmani fan, and better able to appreciate the originals when I saw them for myself.
   
   Most importantly, as the other reviewers say, the recipes *work*. We just made the potato salad with walnut paste (p. 172), and it was delectable. Other dishes we have tried and like include tomato soup with walnuts and vermicelli (p. 73) and green beans with egg (p. 130). Pkhali was one of my favorite dishes in Georgia, and I'm glad to have the recipe for when I get around to making it myself. There is a recipe for beets with cherry sauce, a dish a travel companion had tried but that even some of our Georgian hosts weren't familiar with. For the few recipes that seem to be missing from this book, like eggplant with walnut paste, try Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook, another excellent collection of delicious recipes from all the former Soviet republics.
   
   _The Georgian Feast_ is well worth having even if you don't eat meat - many of the recipes are completely vegetarian. This book is a real treasure.



4. This is an ok effort by Ms. Goldstein but unfortunately the recipes don't quite result in the amazing flavors that Georgian cuisine is known for. Perhaps it is Ms. Goldstein's substitutions of less authentic ingredients as some ingredients in the "real" dish are hard to find. Perhaps it is something else. (Her "adjika" is REALLY bad/wrong for instance....)
   
   OK book if you want an idea of what Georgian cuisine is like. Not good if you REALLY want the real thing...



5. Book: "The Georgian Feast", by Darra Goldstein
   
   Winner of the IACP Book of the Year for 1999, Professor Darra Goldstein's "The Georgian Feast" offers English speaking Westerners an interesting and well researched peek at the cuisine of the Georgia. Not the State of Georgia in the Southeastern United States, mind you, but rather THE GEORGIA, as in the (formerly Soviet) Republic of Georgia, which spans the lands between the Black and Caspian seas, north of Turkey, and South of Russia. The veritable crossroads of the ancient world, through which much of the trade between Europe, Greece, Rome, Russia, India, the Mid East, and China flowed.
   
   LIKES:
   
   * INTRODUCTION: For me, the single biggest joy of this book is the in-depth introduction to Georgian history, geography, and culture ... something I wish more authors would attempt, but which all too often is limited to only the most capable, motivated, and historically erudite authors, few of whom bother to turn their attentions to the culinary genre. In this case, we are blessed with a Russian Professor who labored to assemble an engrossing overview of Georgian feast cuisine. The 25 page introduction and 57 page cultural excursion chapters are gems, and are worth the cover price of the book, all by themselves.
   
   * HEAD NOTES: Many of the recipes in part 2 also include indepth and informative head notes on the ethnic origin and cultural contexts of a given recipe, sometimes replete with cultural vignettes and famous quotes. Again, something I wish more authors would include. To me, a recipe is a participatory story in which you commune with those who created and enjoyed the recipe before you ... and those who will go on making the recipe after you are gone.
   
   * ETHNIC BREADTH: The author covers a wide smattering of the styles present in the cuisine ... grilled fare, pilafs, stews, salads, pickles, soups, desserts, and goes to considerable effort to identify the ethnic and geographical origins behind selections from each. She also spends a little time covering things like `feast' etiquette, and hospitality, that many Westerners will find interesting.
   
   
   MINOR NITS:
   
   * UNPOLISHED RECIPES: The author does an excellent job relating historical and cultural tidbits, but her recipe documentation skills are a bit uneven and unpolished ... walking a meandering line between antique/rustic, and (in a few places) modern. Personally, I don't mind unpolished free-form historical recipes that omit helpful things like the optimum size/shape of vegetable dice (and meat fabrication), size/type of pan, suggested cooking times, optimal sequencing of steps, comforting photos, and tips on making ahead or leftovers management. However, those who DO feel a strong need for such things may be disappointed by their absence.
   
   * MINOR NON-AUTHENTIC SLIPS: The author does a fine job in most of the book giving slightly modernized adaptation of authentic recipes. However, in several instances, some recipes are over modernized, to their detriment. For example, the recipe for "Cold Jellied Pork" on p.96, the authoress indicates the use of pigs feet and a little pork shoulder, but in deference to modern sensibilities, calls for the feet to be discarded after simmering (prior to straining and reducing the stock to a jelly into which the meat is set). I'm pretty certain, sight unseen, that period recipes would likely have called for the feet to be simply deboned and coarsely chopped along with the shoulder, rather than discarded ... such waste is only common to modern cuisine.
   
   * MINOR ERRORS: Minor errors abound - such as the yeast bread on p.138 that appears to call for too much yeast.
   
   * IMPRECISE TERMINOLOGY: In addition to the frequent lack of things like dice size, the author sometimes uses terms in a somewhat vague fashion ... such as "Salt" (is it fine table salt, medium salt, or coarse salt ?), yeast (baker's ? instant rise ?) or "Dried Fenugreek", the latter of which the reader must hunt around to confirm that it refers to dried ground leaves, not dried ground seeds. The helpful introductory chapter on ingredients covers some (but not all) of these, but the editor could and should have clarified the recipes on such points.
   
   All in all, I was very happy with this book, and I'm looking forward to exploring some flavors and techniques that are a bit new to me (walnut sauces, pomegranate juice, etc.).
   
   Despite the lack of polish in the recipe section, I highly recommend this book for the culinarily inquisitive who like to cook exploratively, without the comforting training wheels of precise measures and photos.

5 comments about Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook.

1. If you like Russian food, this one is a winner! I've only tried about a half-dozen or so recipes so far, but they were all very good and relatively simple. The instructions are clear, and serving sizes are accurate.



2. First of all, it should be noted that this book goes way beyond Russia into all of the former USSR, so recipes from Uzbekistan and Estonia are featured right alongside recipes from Ukraine and Georgia. It is possible that someone who wants only Russian recipes may be disappointed by this, but for the rest of us it is very refreshing. This was my first Russian cookbook, but since this I have come to own an Armenian, Georgian, Ukrainian, and Uzbek cookbook simply because I wanted more of the recipes I tried in here. And on top of that, scattered throughout the book are informational sections on the different regional cuisines and food cultures. There is also information on holidays and food customs, and small anecdotes about the author's stories scattered throughout the book.
   
   I have tried many recipes in here and they are all quite good. It is true that the ingredients are changed in many cases, for example there is no recipe that includes khmeli-suneli, a Georgian spice mix and one of the main ingredients in their cuisine. However, khmeli-suneli is hard to find, and if you do have khmeli-suneli on hand you probably already know how to substitute it in for the individual spices called for in the recipe anyway. Another thing which is nice is the chapters on canned foods and basics like stock and dough. Many of these recipes can be used for other recipes, so it is nice that it is all in one book.
   
   There are two major drawbacks to this book. The first is, obviously, the USSR is now defunct and this book may need some serious updates on information and customs, as a lot has changed since the time of this book. The other pitfall is that there is no table of contents, and to find a certain recipe or informational segment you will simply have to flip through or try the index, which is unfortunately incorrect in many cases. However, the good outweighs the bad by far when it comes to this book, and even if you don't need an introduction to Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian cuisine as I did, you will find a lot to like about this book.



3. Excellent introduction to Russian food. I have known Russian cuisine at first hand, in homes from the first and second emigrations, and in private homes in Russia in the Soviet and post Soviet periods. 'Please to the Table' provides clear guidance and instructions -well adapted for the N American market -and the results are often delicious. NML



4. What a great cookbook. I first borrowed it from the public library, then after I had slapped several post it notes onto the pages with recipies I wanted to try, I realized that I must own the book! The two recipies I've done so far have turned out great, and I'm looking forward to recreating several more dishes from Russia and its old republics during the winter months.



5. About five years ago I met and started to date a young Russian woman. When my birthday came around, she gave me a copy of PLEASE TO THE TABLE: THE RUSSIAN COOKBOOK. It was quite a tome. Not only did it have 100 recipes from all of Russia (actually, not only Russia but also all the other countries of the old Soviet Union), it also had interesting information about the various regions, the food and the people. It presented rather interesting information for me in that the parents of my mother immigrated to the U.S. from Russia (now known as Ukraine) in the early 1900s. Many of the recipes resemble many of my mothers favorite dishes that I remember fondly from my childhood. All in all, I would say that this cookbook was a bit overwhelming, but a rather high quality paperback book.
   
   I was single for over 50 years beyond the time of leaving home. Of course, I could do a certain amount of basic cooking (i.e., frying eggs, Crock Pot casseroles, bar-b-cue, sandwiches and other simple fare), but this cookbook stretched my talents and required ingredients and procedures I have never used. In short, it presented a great variety of wonderful recipes, but was a bit intimidating. Well, we got around this hurdle by having my Russian friend prepare a number of fine Russian dishes from the book for me to sample and enjoy. I aided in the preparation, but she was a much better cook than me. To greatly shorten a much longer story, she is now my wife and we have a wonderful year-old baby boy. The Please to the Table cookbook now occupies a prominent place in our kitchen area and my wife puts it to good use from time to time.
   
   Gary Peterson

5 comments about Culinaria Russia: Ukraine-georgia-armenia-azerbaijan (Cooking).

1. I bought this book from a Russian vendor at a special vendor night at the US Embassy in Moscow, Russia. I was hesitant at first, but as soon as I opened the book I discovered it was filled with many colorful photos, detailed descriptions , recipes, maps, scenery, indexes, etc. (ALL IN ENGLISH!) Every page of the book has color photos. This book would be suitable for a coffee table book, for tourists, or just to learn about the culture, history, and foods in Russia and it's neighboring countries. I'm very satisfied with this purchase.



2. I have all the books from Culinaria and just bought this Russia one...
   Its a dream, looking in this book, you find yourself back on a dining table somewhere in Russia with all the good foods, all the rich traditions and wonderful culture of that country...
   You learn how those people live in the cold winters and warm summers..
   This book is more then a book, its a trip in history, traditions and looking at all the beautiful pictures make you hungry and before you know it, you are cooking and eating all those goodies, the recipes are easy to follow.



3. An amazing book with loots of good recipes and nice pictures. Unlike many other cook books the food on the pictures look like real food. The book also has other nice information about Russia and the nearby areas which add value to it. A very nice book with great value. Highly recommended.



4. It is always interesting to me when reviews ignores an obvious problem. I think the font was as small as 8 for the picture captions and not much larger for many of the full pages? Maybe 7 in some places. It is tiny. Even the best eyesight has to work to read more than a few words in tiny font that is over a picture and has no contrasting background. Sure, the photography is beautiful and the content is broad is very interesting, but publishers know very well that small font is hard to read. An interesting story does me little good if in 9 or less font. I know it saves paper, but at some point a line is crossed and quality suffers too much.



5. It is a very good source on the topic. The book has great illustrations, too. I haven't seen anything as good as this book in English.

5 comments about The Veselka Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Landmark Restaurant in New York's East Village.

1. The thing about a cookbook like this is that it portrays a way of life, home-cooking representative of a personal and collective philosophy. I picked this up after looking it over and knew that I had almost all of these recipes in multitudes. However, collection-wise, this is a warm winner. There's heart behind these recipes and I think that's what makes this cookbook special. Sweet potato perogis, five kinds of borscht... they probably work up fabulously, but the blinz is the harder-to-get-right recipe I tried first. It's perfect in taste and consistency. And for those of us for whom the phrase "serve with sour cream" has a poetic ring, then this deli-coffeshop cookbook is a book of poetry.



2. The comfort foods of my childhood were pierogi, filled cabbage, kasha, varnishkas, and cabbage soup. My mother cooked without recipes and over the years some of my attempts to duplicate these foods have been successful, some not. Then my sister told me about Veselka and its cookbook. This tome is my call home to check on a recipe. It brings back memories of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings gathered around long tables on Christmas or Easter, or around the kitchen table in my grandmother's kitchen. This food tastes like it does in my memory. A visit to Veselka is on the itinerary during a trip to New York City.
   
   This cookbook definitely needs to be in the kitchen of anyone interested in Eastern European cooking.



3. 
   My sister and her family always dine at Veselka when travelling to NYC. They were thrilled to receive this at Christmas! Lucky for me they were unaware that this cookbook even existed! Mmmmmmmmm... time to borrow it come to think of it!



4. My husband introduced me to Veselka shortly after we started dating. We took a trip to New York so he could show me all of his old haunts from his undergraduate days. This restaurant was on the list of places. He recommended the raspberry blintzes, and he was right. They were delicious. I was so sorry we only got to go there once during our trip. This cookbook was a present for Valentine's Day. Growing up in an Eastern European family pierogies, halupki (stuffed cabbage), and kielbasa were staples of every family gathering. With some of these recipes to add to our ethnic arsenal we're thinking of having a Ukrainian Independence Day party. Bring on the borscht and the polkas!



5. This book was a wonderful and evocative trip back to the days when I went to school at St George's in the East Village. The recipes are reminiscent of my own Ukrainian family traditions. Just reviewing them brought back memories of my father cooking in our kitchen at major holidays, recreating the dishes from his childhood for us to savor. This book gets as close as it's possible to living with these traditions through food. Loved it!