I like to think that I made a smashing impression on my Russian in-laws when I met them — at the time, I didn’t eat meat or, more importantly, smoked fish. I remain staunch in my dislike of beets. And shortly after we got married I started talking about quitting my day job to… blog full time. But I took a liking to pickles immediately. I make a pretty solid eggplant caviar, because I learned from the best. I’ve since figured out Honey Cake and Russian Napoleon. And although the vegetarian options were limited at the time when we first met at the Russian Vodka Room, I quickly discovered my favorite Russian comfort food, fried potatoes and mushrooms (kartoshka s’gribami).

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