Found a cookbook, picked it up
I found this old, soaked cookbook sitting on the sidewalk in Park Slope. The cover of it caught my eye. Though I was loaded down with tomatoes and squash from the farmer's market, I stopped to take a look.
Is this key lime pie served with bologna and caviar on the pink plate?
The bouquet of leaves is sweet. Makes me wonder what the text says. Does anyone know what language this is? I'm thinking Russian.
Looks like a dog is chasing a pig holding cheese on the plate. See how water stained the book is? And it smelled and had moldy spots, or I would have taken it home.
Looks like meatloaf with a hard boiled egg inside. There's toast though, so maybe it's breakfast?
Does anyone know how old this cookbook might be or know what it's about?
posted by Chris at 11:07 PM
5 Comments:
Your hunch was right - this is definitely Russian. According to the built-in translator in Mac OS X, "Детское Питание" means "Children's Nourishment", so I suspect this book is half cookbook, half theory and guidelines. From what I know of Russian cuisine, the key lime pie is likely to be something pickled (or maybe a decorative doily, to make the plate a little more ostentatious?), and might be breakfast, and the meatloaf is probably dinner. I didn't have a single meal in Russia that didn't include good dark bread (untoasted) - they eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Too bad this book was ruined by water. It looks like it would be a fun thing to own.
O wow!!
We're Russian, and my mother had this exact same book when I was growing up!! "Detskoe Pitanie" means children's food, and it has all sorts of nourishing foods for mothers to prepare for their kids. The first photo has 2 kinds of caviar, salami and pickled herring on the pink plate. There is no such thing in Russian cuisine as a "Key Lime Pie" - it's just a piece of lettuce :) The caption for the second photo says "Milk soup with assorted vegetables will be even more filling and delicious if served with wheat french toast or wheat flakes." The two recipes below are for "Potato Soup" and "Oat Soup". The next recipe is spinach salad with nuts. The "meatloaf with hard boiled egg" is called a "Kotleta", and is usually served at lunchtime. These are a common meal served at the Russian table - about the size of a fist, and usually served with spaghetti, mashed potatos, or MY favorite - "zharennaya kartoshka" - skillet-fried potato wedges.
I used to love flipping through the pages of this book when I was a child!! You just brought back some great memories.
Just found your website off of Food S'cool. What a funny peculiar book. I'll be curious what you find out about it.
that´s really amazing, that somebody saw this and had the actual book. Sometime the internet spooks me.
The book looks very sweet, and I love that you start your blog off with a quotation from Laurie Colwin.
Dasha, thanks so much for sharing your memory of this beautiful cookbook.
Mr.S, thanks for the translation.
Of course I continue to think about this cook book -- since I left it on the street I think back to it all the time. Glad I have the pictures though.
Today I took a picture of a sink found on the street and will post about that soon too.
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