Whether I plan on it or not, every one of my trips to New York somehow brings me to Brighton Beach – an area in Brooklyn populated by the Soviet immigrants. Known in popular culture as “Little Odessa” it looks nothing like the original Odessa – a beautiful sunny city on the Black Sea in Ukraine. As a matter of fact it looks just the opposite: tight, crowded,dirty and located under the subway which periodically rattles everyone and everything underneath. Russian is the language around here, Russian stores, Russian food, Russian shows, Russian newsstands, Russian, Russian, Russian… I am not used to people understanding me on the street. I feel out of place. I am from Kansas, I don’t belong, so I have to grab my favorite foods – pirozhki, vareniki, chocolates and quickly return back to sanity.
I’ll be back…
You can read more about it here, here and here.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
I love pirozhki. I had them in Moscow and St. Petersburg – the one with potato was great, followed by the apricot. Can you make these?? I’d love a recipe if you can.
Sure I can make these, but then I’ll have to eat them by myself and I am fat enough already. This recipe looks about right.
I just saw a show on the history channel about little odessa and the Russian Mafia. Interesting place