My family is traveling around the globe, I am traveling around the city that reflects the globe like a drop of water reflects the salt of the ocean.
League of Kitchens cooking class in Elmhurst, Queens — Ukrainian Russian borscht and pampushki.
Larisa’s apartment door swings open right into the coffee table covered with zakuski to greet her guests: herring, pickled mushrooms, eggplant caviar, cabbage pie — all the things I missed from the time way back when. Walls lined up with bookshelves, pictures framed and not, photographs. Small kitchen packed with tools to make magic.
I met Larisa about two years ago at a book signing and was struck by how much she looked like my mother, talked like my mother, felt like my mother. It took that much for the stars to line up and me get courage to make it to her workshop.
Under her kind guidance we made an excellent vegetarian borsch, garlicky herby dinner rolls, and finished the evening with a conversation around Larisa’s dining table. Just like it was around my parents’ kitchen table in Moscow light years ago.
#food #cooking #cookingclass #borscht #soup #dinner #dinnerrolls #elmhurstqueens #nationaldish #cookingwithfriends