Category: Life

Pirogi (pies) have always held a place of honor on the Russian table. Fish pies have come down to us from ancient times barely influenced by foreign culinary traditions, making them a truly national…

“Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruins of Empire” is Howard Amos’s debut book, but it doesn’t read like one. That’s not surprising. He is a seasoned journalist and editor who has…

Do you think you know everything there is to know about pancakes and blinis? Well, think again; here’s something you might not have heard of. No one knows if Stepan Bandera liked this dish, but today…

It’s murder on the dancefloor.

In the propulsive opening track to exiled electronic duo AIGEL’s new album, vocalist Aigel Gaisina inhabits the role of a DJ whose beats kill a “fool old man” on…

Despite Russian propaganda’s repeated claims that Russian culture is being “canceled” in the West, the most popular playwright in New York right now is — somewhat surprisingly — Anton…

Can you tell us about your “color trilogy”?
Green Mountains, my new book, is the final book in my ‘color trilogy’, following on from Black Sea: Dispatches and Recipes — Through Darkness and…

Everyone loves gingerbread. Unlike okroshka, Lenten buckwheat with mushrooms or steamed turnips, this mainstay of old Russian cuisine does not have nay-sayers.

Gingerbread is a universal favorite —…

Soups have been a mainstay in Russian cuisine for all of recorded history. In other countries young people might skip soup at lunch, but not in Russia. At home or at work, soup is an essential part of…