Welcome!
In this blog we’ll be exploring the cuisines of Eastern Europe. Most of my culinary specialities, the things I make that no one else in my circle prepares, are almost all from Eastern Europe. I spent considerable time in two Eastern European countries–Russia and Bulgaria–but I also visited several others, even if all too briefly. My travels have taken me to the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria and Latvia, the only non-Slavic one in the bunch.
I will start with sharing the recipes I know and love the best, some of them perhaps familiar to you though many I suspect will be, understandably, foreign. Then we will begin together a journey across the region trying things that are new to me as well. Whenever possible I will seek insight from cultural natives to add depth and authenticity to the recipes and information presented.
As with any regional cuisine there will be similarities across countries–recipes do not necessarily know borders. And there will be important national distinctions. For instance you probably know the famous beet soup called borscht. But did you know there is a Russian borscht and a Ukrainian one (and a Polish one)? And Polish kapusta means something quite a bit different than it does in other counties. Over time I’m sure we’ll all learn from commenters who undoubtedly will have very strong opinions about the origins, ingredients and procedures for the recipes we explore!
Inspiration from other blogs
In searching for good online sources for many of these recipes, I realized there aren’t a lot of great options. There are a handful of blogs for these cuisines, many produced by cultural natives though they aren’t always updated frequently and sometimes suffer from language barriers. I’ve had the idea to start this project for over five years now. One blog I stumbled upon recently inspired me to get going. The blog cookinglsl.com, written by a Bulgarian expat living in the Chicago suburbs near me, isn’t a regional cuisine blog per se, but the author Mira includes a few Bulgarian recipes. It’s a beautifully designed site with really nice photos. The cuisines of Eastern Europe.
Another really good, active blog for the cuisines of Eastern Europe is foodperestroika.com. Like Feastern Europe, it’s written by a non-native aficionado of the region. It’s a very informative blog with a lot of detail in the recipes. Florian, the author, is a trained chef and he really knows what he’s doing in the kitchen. His food looks amazing, too!
Above all I want to make the recipes approachable, if not simple, and easier to understand than you might find searching for recipes online or in foreign-language cookbooks. And of course my goal is that they will all be delicious!