Russian Food

A few years back, I was in St. Petersburg, Russia, waiting to discover the new, glorious, post-glasnost Russian cooking. Waiting and waiting, as it turned out, and walking an awfully long way down vast streets -- the sort whose scope and architecture make one aware, in our puny mortality, and as only a post-Feudal, post Soviet city can, of how immaterial we are in the grand scheme of things -- to find yet another restaurant that served pancakes with floury chicken stuffing.

Feast by Nigella Lawson

That sounds just about right, doesn't it? Of course, she goes on to tell of the taxi driver who took her to a wonderful place that inspired all the lovely recipes for a Georgian feast in her book. But that description sounds like the opening shots of every movie I've ever seen that shows Moscow.