Excellent starter book for anyone wanting to learn Russian and cooking from the Soviet Union. The recipes for Georgian cheese bread/pie and Chicken Tabaka are superb. ( )

I bought this book since it was written by two of my favorite authors, Helen and George Papashvily. I have often wondered how much of their wonderful novels were written by Helen or George, and if this book is an indication, I would say that George had much to do with the writing of his heart-warming and delightful stories. The one chapter he wrote in this cookbook has the same flavor, while those written by Helen were somewhat dry and at times remote. All of them were interesting though. I wonder how much they restricted themselves on their commentary, seeing that it was researched and written in the middle of the Communist regime. They give a nice introduction to each area of the U.S.S.R., describing the land, food grown there and the traditional preparations of that food. Then they give five or six recipes to illustrate. Lovely photographs throughout. ( )

This series consists of two book for each "region". There is a hard bound text with key recipes (usually given in a contextural format.. i.e., everything for a classic Thanksgiving dinner), demonstrations, techniques, cultural, gastronimic, and historical food facts. The second book is a spiral bound recipe book giving all of the recipes in the hard bound book plus many many more. Although techniques are usually given in the hardbound volume where the advantage of color photography can be used, sometimes techniques and now too drawing are given int he spiral bound book of recipes. This is a wonderful arrangement. The hardbound books are delightful to sit and read for entertainment and inspiration. While, when you get down to the business of cooking, you have the open flat spiral bound recipes all in one spot. All recipe names are given in English and the indigenous language.

One of the demonstration pages is a "simplified" version of Chicken Kiev; how a samovar works; and a hgh rise Georgian Cheese Bread that looks fasinating and delicious. On page 86 is a wonderful description of the various types of caviar ( and I don't just mean sturgeon) and page 87 discusses flavored Vodka - homemade. Page 60 starts the instructions on making easter eggs - Ukrainian style (known as Pysanky). ( )