fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

View From Your Table

Moscow, Russia
IMG_0044

 

That’s my Moscow translator Matt Casserly on the other side of the table at Saperavi, a Georgian restaurant in Moscow. We’re about to tuck into pkhali, a kind of Georgian dish described thus by Wikipedia:

Pkhali (Georgian: ფხალი) is a traditional Georgian dish of chopped and minced vegetables, made of cabbage, eggplant, spinach, beans, beets and combined with ground walnuts, vinegar, onions, garlic, and herbs. Pkhali is also called mkhali. The common ingredient of all variations of pkhali is pureed walnut sauce. In Georgian restaurants, pkhali is usually served in three types: spinach, beetroot and white beans.

UPDATE: Just tasted something I brought back from Russia: pine cone preserves. They’re made from tiny young pine cones, harvested before they grow hard. They’re cooked down in syrup. This sounds like the kind of thing I would like, so I brought a jar home from a gourmet food shop in St. Petersburg.

Well, they’re beautiful … but I can’t say that they’re my favorite. They taste like caramels made from sugar and pine tar.

Advertisement

Comments

Want to join the conversation?

Subscribe for as little as $5/mo to start commenting on Rod’s blog.

Join Now

View From Your Table

Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio

Skyline Chili: a three-way, and a cheese coney. Sublime. Last night, J.D. Vance took a group of us out to eat at Orchids At Palm Court. We had the tasting menu, with wine pairings, and it was really terrific. But I honestly can’t decide which of these two great meals I enjoyed more.

UPDATE: J.D. (pictured left) took me and his friend Sam Rudman, who flew in from Boston for the baptism and confirmation, to Graeter’s on the way to the airport. It’s a Cincinnati institution, I’m told. Such delicious ice cream! I only wish Johnny Bench could have been there to serve me my scoop. When I was a kid in the mid-70s, the Reds were my favorite team. As far as I’m concerned, Joe Morgan is always playing second base (my position on my peewee baseball team).

 

Advertisement

Comments

Want to join the conversation?

Subscribe for as little as $5/mo to start commenting on Rod’s blog.

Join Now