New from Reaktion Books: Cabbage and Caviar: A History of Food in Russia by Alison K. Smith.
About the book, from the publisher:
When people think of Russian food, they generally think either of the opulent luxury of the tsarist aristocracy or of post-Soviet elites, signified above all by caviar, or on the other hand of poverty and hunger—of cabbage and potatoes and porridge. Both of these visions have a basis in reality, but both are incomplete. The history of food and drink in Russia includes fasts and feasts, scarcity and, for some, at least, abundance. It includes dishes that came out of the northern, forested regions and ones that incorporate foods from the wider Russian Empire and later from the Soviet Union. Cabbage and Caviar places Russian food and drink in the context of Russian history and shows off the incredible (and largely unknown) variety of Russian food.Visit Alison K. Smith's webpage.
Smith is a professor and chair of history at the University of Toronto. Her books include For the Common Good and Their Own Well-Being: Social Estates in Imperial Russia and Recipes for Russia: Food and Nationhood under the Tsars.
--Marshal Zeringue
