For about fifteen hundred years, borscht has been one of the foundations of Polish and, more broadly, East Slavic cuisine. Originally made from fermented leaves of Heracleum sphondylium (which gave the dish its name), it later came to mean soups prepared on various types of sour starters — that is, fermented vegetables. Today the most … Read more
On the internet, you can find everything you’re capable of imagining—and plenty of things you’re absolutely not.One of them is “culinary Marxism.” The moment I saw the phrase, it stole my heart, and I’ve since enjoyed calling myself a “culinary Marxist.” Whatever that may actually mean. And I found a very intriguing interpretation of the … Read more
In the fasting season, people didn’t necessarily eat “fasting food” in today’s sense of the word — bland, meagre, diet-friendly.Fasting could be lavish. Of course, only on the tables of the small part of society that could afford it. The fish that replaced ham during fasts had, for centuries, been unavailable to the majority of … Read more
I reached for one of the cookbooks on my shelf, looking for inspiration, and after a few minutes, I stumbled upon an onion soup recipe. This reminded me of the first soup I ever made as a teenager — onion soup with chunks of bread and grated cheese. Onion soup is a typical “poor man’s” … Read more
