Beets Me

"Everything I do, I do on the principle of Russian borscht."

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet 

Some people think that borscht is just beets. I for one, love beets but an entire pot of the blood red root vegetables might put me over the edge. You would think that spending a year in Russia would make a person never want to eat a beet or a potato again, but I found that while on exchange in Khabarovsk, Russia, Russian food is repetitive but can be quite delicious depending on who makes it. 

I have a friend from Canada that I met while on exchange, and he happened to live with a pensioner that was quite the Ruski chef. I learned to ask for "just chai" when she offered us after school snacks on cold winter days, otherwise the table would double over with pies, salads, soups, fish, and meat dishes- we were commanded to finish it ALL because she had no place to store it. Her name was Evelina and she had a small apartment in the city center, and she was also a recent widow. I think the fact that she hosted my friend gave her a sense of purpose. When my mom and uncle came for a visit, she fed them lunch. To this day, I remember my uncle rolling around on her carpet holding his full belly and groaning. 

One of the things Evelina made quite excellently was borscht. It had carrots, wild garlic, and chunks of beef as well as rich beets. She would serve it with dill and sour cream, and hunks of brown bread that she got at the local market. I should have asked her for a recipe- it was amazing stuff. Last night I decided to see how close I could come to recreating Evelina's prize borscht. I cut up plenty of fresh beets, added cabbage, and carrots, onions, beef stock and garlic, and boiled and simmered it until became a thick stew. I toasted some bread, and put it on an authentic Russian plate that Evelina had given me as a gift years ago. I also sprinkled some dill over some sour cream, and called my parents in for dinner. It tasted pretty good. Russian food is typically not spicey and the flavors are usually pretty dull to mild- it usually needs a bit of salt and pepper, and as I ate I thought of Evelina in her kitchen on the other side of the world.