I am often asked what Russian food I miss most. Well, Turks confident in abundance and superiority of their food may not be so curious, but everyone else always asks me this question hoping to learn more about the exotic Russian fare. Also, folks back home seem to measure my patriotic feelings by the culinary longings: during my latest visit I left someone speechless when I claimed I did not to miss a very special taste of Russian potato that must be (according to that person) impossible to find in Turkey.
More often than not I am puzzled when asked about the Russian food I miss. I used all my cross-border moves to learn more about the cuisines different from my native, and I took it to the extreme when I moved to Turkey solely for its food. I also tend to think that if you cook you can replicate most of the foods you might miss.
However the recent trip to Russia proved me wrong: I could not get enough of the foods I thought I was fine without. I guess appreciating your roots comes with age, and I am happy to have gotten there. So here is my far-from-exhaustive list of the Russian foods I miss in Istanbul.
