2 comments about A Wine Journey along the Russian River.

1. . . . . which flows into the Pacific Ocean north of San Fransisco, is a marvelously varied strip of wine country. The river itself, as author Steve Heimoff makes clear, cuts its way through many different wine areas, and so this geographical feature--rather than winemaking itself--constitutes the unifying theme of the book.
   This book which is filled with the sense of place, could be just another great American travelogue. But contrary to expectation, Heimoff abandons the river for a chapter on clones and the politics of American Viticultural Areas.
   Now before your eyes glaze over, I have to agree with Heimoff that the business of creating new grape varieties and cloning them may be at the heart of the improvement in American wine for the next several decades. He is one of the first popular wine writers to recognize this and explain it all in layman's terms.
   These two achievements-making the region come alive and explaining the mystery of the clones, make this a must-read for developing students and lovers of wine.



2. Steve Heimoff has written a wine book, a geology text, and a history lesson all in one volume. A superb treatment of several complex subjects, he writes with an intense love of his subjects....and has obviously spent an enormous amount of time researching each facet of it. It should be a must for anyone interested in California wine.

No comments about The Food and Cooking of Russia (At Table).

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 The Art of Russian Cuisine.

1. Knowing Russian cooking I haven't been impressed at all...



2. It took me a long time to find a good Russian cookbook. This is the best one I discovered so far.
   I was born in Russia, however, never learned how to cook Russian food. I missed my grandmother's cooking from my childhood. So, I started looking... "Taste of Russia" & "Please to the Table" are wonderful cookbooks with great recipies. However, they are not the recipies I remember my grandmother cooking. "The Art of Russian Cuisine" includes almost all the recipies I could think of.
   I definitely recommend this book to those of you who wants to taste the real Russian food, the one that Russians cook daily or for holidays.



3. Love her quotes from Russian literature and summary of food preparation at the beginning of each chapter -- reading these intro sections makes your mouth water. In addition, most of the recipes are Russian or Franco-Russian, in contrast to certain other "Russian" cookbooks which include an overwhelming number of non-Russian ones from Commonwealth or Baltic countries (if I wanted recipes from those regions I wouldn't be shopping for a Russian cookbook, would I?)

   I have tried many recipes in this book, and most have turned out quite well (her borshch is excellent). However, i use some as a general guide and improvise, and to jog my memory of the time i used to cook with my grandmother -- they are just not up to her standards. A number of them seem "sovietized" (my opinion, i've never lived there, but i know money was tight and some unusual or expensive ingredients were difficult to find for many years).

   Example: my granny's paskha recipe calls for 5 lbs. bakers cheese, 20 yolks, 4 cups sugar, whipping cream, nearly 2 lbs. butter, lots of vanilla beans (among other things); Volokh's recipe is quite frugal in comparison.

   I realize that good food takes time, but some recipes are WAY too time consuming, particularly those in the Pirogi section due to the way the chapter is structured, which forces you to flip back and forth between pages to assemble.

   Overall, an excellent, comprehensive collection of Russian recipes (with a few from non-Russian Commonwealth regions). The Wild Game chapter is particularly impressive.




4. I grew up in Russia.
   Very good recipes, an excellent introduction to Russian cooking tradition.
   Not the most complete.
   The book is excellent at taking into account the availability (or the lack of) certain ingredients in US supermarkets.



5. From Front Jacket:
   
   "Here at last is the complete authentic Russian cuisine skillfully adapted for the American kitchen and presented in the context of its history by a Russian emigre who was formerly the food writer for the Sunday edition of 'Izvestia.'
   
   Against a rich background of culinary and historical anecdotes, enlivened by quotations from Russian literature, Anne Volokh traces the development of a classic cooking tradition shaped by both Western Europe and the Orient. Smoked fish, noodles, filled dumplings, borscht, 'vareniki,' and a number of pork dishes borrowed from Scandinavian, Mongol and Tartar, Ukranian, and Polish cuisines were absorbed and transformed into Russian specialties. In the 18th century, French chefs employed by Russians abroad and at home further refined provincial recipes and created dishes of their own a la Russe. The result of this intermingling of foreign and indigenous techniques is a uniquely Russian cuisine that is at once earthy and sophisticated, subtle and substantial.
   
   In this truly encyclopedic book, containing over 500 recipes tested by the author, containing over 500 recipes tested by the author, the emphasis is as much on technique and presentation as it is on preparation. Clear, step-by-step instructions and 125 handsome and useful line drawing quickly familiarize the cook with Russian cooking techniques and procedures, including brining, pickling, preserving, and fermenting.
   
   Includes an annotated listing of ingredients used, sources of Russian foods, a pronunciation guide, numerous recipe variations, serving suggestions, accompaniments and garnishes for every dish, and menus for all occasions-for traditional feasts and holidays, as well as for the 'zkuski' (hors d'oeuvre) and tea ceremonies."
   
   
   ******
   
   
   Sample Recipes
   
   * Sturgeon Salad * Vegetarian Sauerkraut Soup * Cabbage Soup * Kasha and Mushroom Filling for Pirogue * Halibut with Green Sauce * Poached Fish with Saffron Rice * Armenian Style Broiled Trout * Braised Veal with Caviar Sauce * Beef Stroganoff * Chicken with Gooseberry Sauce * Potato and Meat Casserole * Buckwheat Bliny * Fish Quenelles for Soups * Rabbit in Sour Cream Sauce * Pheasant, Georgian-Style * Brined Cucumbers Malossol * Braised Parsnips with Sour Cream * Bliny * Quince Preserves * Chicken Tapaka * Roast Mallard Duck with Sauerkraut * Spit-Roasted Quail * Beef Stew in Tomato Sauce * Trout Baked in White Wine and Rum * Millet and Bacon Soup * Kidney and Pickle Soup * Yaroslavl' Cheese Sochini * Meat Sochini, Archangel-Style * Potato Vareniki * Russian Court Boullion * Lamb Pilaf, Uzbek-Style * Sauteed Breaded Pork Chops * Roast Suckling Pig * Marinated Mushrooms * Basic Bliny * Cheese Crepe * Russian Style Apple Pie * Sweet Cheese Pirog * Kalachi * Black Currant Preserves * Kidneys, Russian Style * Cold Green Shchi * Vegetable Kvas Soup * Beef Tongue in Aspic * Marinated Herring * Poltava Borscht * Kiev Borscht * Hot Calf's Brains Salad * Siberian Meat Dumplings * Roast Veal with Dill * Blueberry Vereniki * Garlic Rolls * White Radish Salad * Mushroom Caviar * Salmon Backed in Parchment * Baked Bream Stuffed with Kasha * Beets with Sour Cream * Quenelles * Trout Rasstegi * Walachian Consomme * Trout Rings * Brined Watermelon * Pumpkin Porridge * Semolina * Dark Country Flat Bread * Cabbage Schnitzels

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

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

5 comments about Classic Russian Cooking: Elena Molokhovets' "A Gift to Young Housewives".

1. So far I did not have a chance to see an American version of Madame Molokhovet's, only the Russian one. But since probably nobody knows about this book in US, and I turned out to be the first one to review it, I have to "break the ground" and drop a couple of lines.

   The original version, first published at the end of the XIXth century, had a goal to help young middle-class housewives covering a wide range of issues from hiring servants to shopping for the house. The recipes were only a part of what can be called an "encyclopedia on running the house".

   During the Soviet times there was almost no opportunity to use it because it was almost impossible to buy the ingredients. However, the book was still fun to read. It gives a good picture of the Russian culture of the time.

   The recipe part (of the original version) is very thorough and understandable. However, most of the dishes require considerable time, exquisite ingredients and, in many cases, help of another person. However, trying them pays off, for they help you to discover REAL Russian cuisine, very different from "chicken-Kiev" and other tourist traps.

   I would recommend this book to those who love Russia, are interested in Russian culture and like to cook something very unconventional. Very curious to see the American version.




2. I'm really just beginning with this book, but it is already frustrating. Some reasons: Measurements are given oddly, like 1/2 pound flour, 2 glasses water. There will be an instruction to "bake" without mention of temperature or time. There will often be ingredients in the list which are not mentioned in the instructions. It seems to me that it was written as a technical reference for someone that already knew what they were doing in this cuisine. I strongly recommend that in future editions there be some editing and clarification done along with translation.



3. My grandmother immigrated to Canada from Russia well over a century ago and lived to the age of 104. With her she brought many authentic Russian recipes, but alas, they remained in her head and not on paper. This cookbook comes very close to the recipes I, as a child, can remember her preparing. Yes, it is true, that some aspects of the recipes found here are lost in the translation, particularly when it comes to measurements; however, in reality, that is how my grandmother, and many Russian homemakers in her time, prepared a meal. There was no such thing as a teaspoon of this or a cup of that. Accurate meansurements would have meant nothing to my grandmother, for like many immigrants in the 1800's she had little scholastic education. Her education came from the "school of hard knocks" and life's experiences. Measurements included "a little of this a small handful of that." I can remember her placing three fingers in a small cup and when the liquid reached the top, that was how much one used. Confusing? Yes, for the traditional chef, it would be. However, as one becomes experienced with Russian cooking, the delicious recipes found here will not seem like such a challenge to prepare - trial and error is often the best way of learning.



4. This is such a classic that it was intended, in the past, to be given to young housewives to be a much-used reference. As such, in addition to the predictable recipes for coulibiac (fish in pastry crust), sturgeon, borscht, kasha and Russian sweets, there is a wide variety of household food preservation and preparation you just don't find in today's cookbooks. Such as--butchering a pig and then portioning out, preserving and preparing the resulting meats. NOT for vegans or the fainthearted, believe me. Also, there are recipes for improving the flavor of homemade vodka (including how to make birch charcoal for the purpose.) And how to make imitation butter from mutton fat, how to get rid of the off-flavor in butter that is going rancid.

   If you are a home-brewer, this is a surprisingly good book for making such things as mead and fruit wines and liquers. One caveat for the whole book; measurements are either baffling, in Russian terminology that has no English referent, or "two wineglasses" , etc. And for brewers, it requires some basic knowledge of the process.

   For cooking, there are a lot of beef and fish recipes but the borscht recipes were disappointing as there were only of few of these and there are LOTS of ways to make borscht. However, for interesting reading on food history and technique, and for some authentic Russian cooking, this book is absolutely fascinating reading.




5. I found this book recommended to me by my Russian professor, and after eating at a Russian dinner hosted by my university's Russian club, I decided I really had to have this book. It has an excellent introduction which covers a large variety of topics on Russian cooking through the years. Another thing I like about it is that it uses mainly ingredients that are commonly available today. Although a few of the ingredients used are highly unusual today (like dried backbone of a fish), they appear in relatively few of the recipies. I am anticipating cooking recipies from it!

1 comments about The Armenian Table: More than 165 Treasured Recipes that Bring Together Ancient Flavors and 21st-Century Style.

1. Ms. Victoria Jenanyan Wise, a highly experienced cookbook author from an Armenian family has successfully blended traditional products of the Armenian terroir with modern California style and market to give us a taste of what Armenian cuisine tastes like in our American setting. As this objective is not the same as a faithful evocation of the native Armenian cuisine, it is important you do not buy this book with the intention of faithfully recreating your own Armenian culinary heritage. Ms. Wise is giving us her Armenian culinary heritage, not an anthropological document.

   She is delightfully successful in evoking the Jenanyan memory of Armenian cuisine with recreations of Armenian recipes, family interpretations of Armenian recipes, and her own deft experiments with Armenian methods and ingredients as interpreted by what is available in the California marketplace.

   Ms Wise scores her first points with me by including a map of the historical Armenia and its surrounding lands which primarily includes Asia Minor (Turkey), the Caucasus, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Armenia today is on the eastern edge of Turkey, with parts of ethnic Armenia being in Azerbaijan. One of the little mysteries of the book is how this terroir can be considered `Mediterranean' since it is a good 500 miles from the Bosporus, where the Black Sea empties into the Mediterranean. Although the author doesn't invoke this justification, she is in good company, as Paula Wolfert has included Georgia, which is north of Armenia and even further from the Mediterranean in a book of Eastern Mediterranean cuisines. Wise rationalizes the importance of Armenian cuisine by pointing out that the Armenian highlands are very fertile, a rich land for growing wheat, and possibly the historical origin of wheat culture.

   Armenia shares some major culinary elements with lands bordering the Mediterranean such as yogurt, wheat, lamb, and eggplant. On the other hand, olives and olive oil, the cornerstone of Mediterranean cuisine is less important than butter, especially clarified butter, in Armenian cooking.

   Since this is neither genuine Armenian nor purely Mediterranean, what is the attraction of this book. In a word, it is variety. If you are especially fond of the cornerstone Armenian ingredients (yogurt, lamb, eggplant, bulgar and legumes, and you are tired of your Italian, Greek, and Levantine sources, this is the book for you. The chapter subjects are a mix of the traditional and the quintessentially Armenian. These are:

   Yogurt - Ms. Wise gives us the whole picture, including a reliable recipe for making homemade yogurt, and yogurt substitutes for staples such as fresh cheese, crème fraiche, and bechamel sauce. She also gives us the important caution that although you can start a yogurt culture from a commercial yogurt, the dry yogurt starter from a health foods store will give you better results. Take that Alton Brown.

   Armenian Mazas - The Armenian take on the Greek and Turkish Meze cuisine. The stars here are eggplant, chickpeas, tomatoes, onions, pickling cucumbers, and zucchini. One surprise is in the recipe for string cheese.

   Breads and Savory Pastries - The signature product here is `Lavosh', the Armenian Cracker Bread which is dry like matzo, but leavened with yeast like pita, and baked with a covering of sesame seeds. Pita and Armenian `pizzas' are also present, along with several fillo based Greek / Turkish like savory packets.

   Salads - Old World style, but New World ingredients are emphasized here. Legumes and spinach are the stars here, along with the old war-horse Taboulleh.

   Kufta - One of the most distinctly Armenian dishes in the book. This is less a dish than a whole family of dishes, closely related to the Georgian dish, Kibbeh, described in Paula Wolfert's `The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean'. Part of what makes Wolfert's book great while this volume is merely good is the fact that Wolfert gives detailed, diagrammed instructions on techniques for making Kibbeh while Wise simply gives us many different recipes and a small sidebar of tips. Both Kufta and Kibbeh are a style of cooking which puts all sorts of different ingredients, from meats to barley to bulgar to legumes into a stuffed or not stuffed `meatball'.

   Lamb and other Meats - This is how to do Shish Kebab right, and other tales of lamb cookery. An interesting ethnic tidbit here is that while Armenians were Christian, Muslim lands surrounded them, so they had little interest in pork, even if they had no religious inhibitions against it.

   Poultry, Game, and Eggs - This is a chapter that will give relief to a tired inventory of poultry recipes.

   Fish and Seafood - Another Old World style blended with modern techniques and sensibilities. Focus is on fresh water fish and shellfish.

   Vegetables - Eggplant, Eggplant, and more Eggplant. I just wonder how okra got to Armenia from Africa.

   Pilafs - Bulgar, rice, lentils and nuts.

   Sweets - Baklava is the headliner, even though the author admits it is no more Armenian than Pizza. Filo dough, peaches, apricots, almonds, walnuts, and pistachios star here. Great source of nut nutrition here.

   Like many other ethnically oriented cookbooks by skilled culinary authors, this one offers new, nutritious, dishes to Armenians, foodies on the lookout for novelty and vegetarians on the lookout for novelty. This is a very good book that succeeds in its objective, but it is not a great book. The anecdotes of family history are pleasant, but do not have the evocative power of, for example, some of the stories told by Gennaro Contaldo in `Passione'. On the other hand, `Gourmet' magazine has declared Eastern Mediterranean cuisines as one of the next big things in eating. This book is as good a source as many.

   Highly recommended for those with an interest in this cuisine and in Eastern Mediterranean food in general. Relatively easy recipe methods. Very good price for the quality of the content.

3 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.

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. As a family of emigrants from Russia living in the US, we've been exposed to Soviet cooking all of our lives. This book has a pleasant collection of recipes coming from all over the former USSR, and it is indeed a great reference for someone who enjoys cooking and has a lot of free time to do it. However, we find that most of the recipes are over-complicated. We make "kotlety" and "bortsch" quite often, and we have tried the recipes listed in this cookbook for testing. The results were good enough, but not much better than the usual, if at all. The recipes also required much more time and attention to detail than we are used to in making these dishes, and that extra effort didn't seem to pay off. Not a good reference for someone who's into Russian cooking on a day-to-day basis.



2. You can really tell the effort that the authors of this cookbook took to research thoroughly all the various cuisines of Russia. They spent three years researching and traveled halfway around the world, interviewing, tasting, cooking. It really shows.
   
   I wish everyone else gave that kind of effort in writing every book written. The quality of world literature would skyrocket.
   
   If you have even a passing interest in Russia, or food, or cooking, or even history, look no farther. This book will entertain you.
   
   As a cookbook, though, be advised: This isn't "Russian Cooking for Dummies". Russian dishes frequently require hard to find ingredients, specialized hardware, lots of time, and a great deal of culinary skill. I consider myself a good amateur chef, and I dare not try the more complex recipes provided. Russian women evidently have lots of time to prepare meals and have a great deal of experience and skill.
   
   If you have never read a cookbook just for fun, that's about to change. You won't regret it.



3. As 1st generation Russian I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Variety of dishes is delightful. There is something for every occasion, from deserts to dinner dishes and breakfasts. Some of the favorites like pelmeni and sirniki I remember from my childhood.
   
   However, I do have 3 Big problems with this book:
   1 - most of the recipies here are NOT for traditional Russian dishes. Former Soviet Union nations like Georgia and Armenia have really tasty food but it is very different from the type of things ethnic Russians eat. If you're looking specifically for Russian dishes, this book doesn't give that many options.
   
   2 - this book is for cooks with A LOT OF TIME ON THEIR HANDS! Busy Russian women just don't spend all day to make borscht from two dozen ingredients. If you don't have all day to cook, you will get pretty frustrated with huge ingredient lists.
   
   3 - many recipies require ingredients that aren't easily found in grocery stores. If you don't live in a major city where there many ethnic and specialty grocery stores, be aware, you may have to improvise or order things on-line



4. 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.



5. 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.