Originally published in 2018, republished with a new forward in 2023, this cookbook journeys through the countries that surround the Black Sea – Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia and Russia – the stories newly relevant after Russia invaded the sovereign territory of Ukraine in 2022.
Local Foods from Countries Around the Black Sea
Eden, a travel writer, is not a chef. A self-declared lover of food, travel writer and journalist, she displays a passion for a region not often discussed around dinner tables in the United States. True, too, that this “region” represents numerous countries and myriad cultures – a cohesive identity is not what we have here. Eden wisely organizes the cookbook around the sea, the organizing identity of the cookbook. Literally. Chapters begin with Odesa (in Ukraine) and travel along with the author through Romania, Istanbul, Turkey’s Black Sea Region, and finally to Trabazon and Environs, a region in Turkey’s East.
Stories, Eden’s personal travel experiences in each of these regions, connect to recipes, helping the reader to taste the culture while larding the book with intimate details of the writer’s encounters with the people whose recipes she shares in the book.
It can be emotional. The introduction to the new 2023 text includes the devastation on the Black Sea of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine and the awful – terrifying – consequences of bombs and mines and other instruments of devastation and destruction. But within each of the chapters lies humanity in its imperfect glory. In the Odesa chapter, we meet Tatiana Zagnitnaya of Sophie’s Café and learn of the city’s literary son, Isaac Babel. We skim through the city’s history, culinary wares and synogogues. Recipes include Black Sesame Challah, Forshmak (a herring dish), and Gogol’s Marinated Mushrooms. You’ll learn that Russia’s celebrated author, Nickolai Gogol is Ukranian. His birth name– Mykola Hohl – was erased even then, just one more form of Russian imperialism.
The Istanbul chapter is most robust, with plentiful pictures and stories of the waves of immigrants from long ago and present day, some from Russia, enlivening the weft of the city’s fabric with restaurants. Recipes for Circassian Chicken, when paired with plates of Black Sea Beans and Herb-Flecked Cornbread, come together to make a meal that could come from the American South. Maybe with a little less pork and more paprika and walnuts, but still.
There are recipes for Trolley Kebabs, Baked Pistachio Halva, Cornershop Pilaf, made with bulghur and mint, and Half and Half Manti, the region’s take on a dumpling which you can make at home with gyoza wrappers. There’s even a few cocktail recipes. The Damask Cocktail in the Bulgaria chapter, is sweetened with rose liqueur. Yellow Vodka is made with Ukranian vodka and seasoned with lemon and pepper.
Recipes I Made
As a child of Czech and German immigrants, I was drawn to the sweet-sour flavors in Odesan Coleslaw, its mix of caraway, honey, vinegar and garlic a familiar one. While I skipped Italian Street Polpette for being too Western, I had to quickly throw aside my assumptions as to what that meant in Black Sea. Ardei Umpluti, or stuffed peppers, are a dish my Mom made every winter. Here stuffed with pork, rice, and seasoned with paprika, dill and chile, the dish helped me mentally bridge from Central Europe into the Black Sea’s flavors. As I am gluten-free, I swapped quinoa for the bulgur in Bulgur, Grape and Walnut Salad, a lovely summer dish for its minimal use of cooking heat. Worked just fine.
Who Would Like This Cookbook
Anyone who likes a sense of place to accompany their cooking. Eden’s stories drive the recipes in the Black Sea cookbook. I’d even venture to say that the recipes taste better for the cook’s understanding of the recipe’s place in the region’s culture. Do you know who Isaac Babel and Nickoai Gogol are? Even better. Eden sprinkles in plentiful cultural references. If learning about a region pulverized by Ottoman troops during the Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903 is your thing – great! There are plentiful nuggets of historical and culinary joy for you to unearth here.
And perhaps, like me, you can find a thread of cultural continuity between where you live (and cook) now, where your people came from, and the people of the vast region of the Black Sea. The recipes are not challenging – the idea is trial, a chance to explore the food of the people of this expansive region – but simple food can be even more delicious, especially when served with a traveler’s tales.
Grab a seat on the couch and dig into the stories. One or two of them may compel you to stand up and move into the kitchen to get cookin’.
