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I didn’t have a chance to visit Italy… yet. So I am compensating for my non-existing experience of this country as best I can. Making pasta Bolognese at home, ordering aperol spritz wherever I manage to find it, and reading…
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In the time of winter holidays the two most common questions I get are “Why New Year in Russia is more popular than Christmas?” and “Why Christmas in Russia is celebrated on January 7th?” I tried my best to give…
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Don’t we all love to find hidden gems in the city, keep it to ourselves and enjoy the privacy of our accidental discoveries? In a city where you live your whole life it happens organically: you know all the tiny…
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With New Year just around the corner I thought I will share with you some of Russian New Year traditions! I have already explained why New Year is way bigger and more popular in Russia than Christmas, so the excitement and anticipation…
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While for most of the world Christmas craze is finally over and you can breathe a sigh of relief, for most of Russians the whole shopping-till-you drop, cooking-so-much-it’s-enough-for-the-next-two-weeks, and getting-a-nervous-breakdown-in-the-last-days-rush experience is still ahead of them. Are you wondering why?…
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Let me start by saying that I had no idea there is such a thing as the official dessert of the state. Let me also further embarrass myself by saying it took me just a little over a year to…
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“I am cooking Sri Lankan, you are ok with Sri Lankan, right?” That’s how I met Shashika. Over lunch of rice and curry at her apartment which is so similar to our own you can play a game “find 10 differences”….
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I am back on the streets of Brighton Beach, a small neighborhood in Coney Island. If you want to try Russian food in New York, there’s no better place than Brighton Beach Avenue to satisfy your cravings. I have started my story about…
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The first time I’ve heard the name Brighton Beach was in a popular Russian comedy called (bear with me here) “Weather is good on Deribasovskaya, it rains again on Brighton Beach”. The movie is set in the years following the…
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Let me start by saying, that if you want people to pronounce a city’s name as Port-SMITH and not Ports-MOUTH, please, spell it that way. I don’t see any other reason behind this spelling but to confuse unsuspecting visitors and…
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