Scrolling through the Times‘ list of the most read stories from 2008, I stumbled upon “The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating.”
Here in Russia, I’m certainly getting my fill of beets and cabbage. When it’s growing season, I can even buy them straight from the source–babushkas stake out street corners with the goods from their gardens in the country, displaying them on overturned crates. And even now, when it’s cold and slushy, they’re still out there, peddling the preserved remains of last year’s harvest–pickled cabbage, tiny heads of dried garlic. They also sell tvorog, one of those magical, innumerable Russian milk products. (Tvorog is the source of the sirniki I wrote about in my last entry.)
Back to the Times article–surprisingly, you can find almost all of the 11 foods in Russia, even here in the provinces. Just not canned pumpkin or swiss chard. (Leafy greens are incredibly hard to come by here, and a tiny bunch of lettuce will cost you about a dollar.)
