Get a Taste of Eastern Europe

I came across this magnificent Pinterest user: A Curious Taste.  It is a complete smorgasbord of pictures from all around the world, including the beloved CEE, and even has a board specifically for cuisine blogs.  I found a number on there that I would like to share for those interested in making authentic cuisine from these areas, and added to the list to fill in the gaps.  I had to cut so many blogs that had no English translations/translation function.  :((

This is by no means an exhaustive list.  Plenty of cooking and recipe websites have sections for regional cuisines that aren't difficult to find, but I sought for original blogs in English.  There are plenty of regional cuisine cookbooks as well, so do not feel limited to the internet (is that a limitation? I wonder...)

Chechnya: A Little Background Series, Part 2

Due to the events in Boston, Chechnya is the hot topic.  There is a lot of solid, fair information out there, but there's also really prejudiced, xenophobic information as well.  This post should hopefully condense the history of the neighboring north Caucus neighbors as well as Chechnya and give context since the name and history of this region will be tossed about for the next couple of weeks, at least.  Let me clearly state this now: it is unclear whether the conflict in Chechnya has any relevance to the Boston bombing and I am not endorsing a direct link between the two.  This is merely to give more information about a misunderstood, seldom-taught corner of the world and it's best to have more straight information out when it's being talked about.  Let us proceed.

Chechnya is right on the border of Georgia.  This borderland of the former Soviet Union/USSR has been embroiled in conflict for the past while.  Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Chechnya all occupy the Caucus between the Caspian and Black Seas.  The proximity of all these regions, their wars, and continued disputes is important when considering the state of Chechnya.  Since there is a lot going on, I've broken it down by the conflicted region.  There is a lot going on here, so I've broken it down into 3 post, culminating in Chechnya. This post is discussing South Ossetia.  Abkhazia's post is here.

 

Monday FILM Review: Serbian Hero

Today's Monday review is going to be a film, not a book!  It's time to get a little multimedia in my reviews.  For those following me on Twitter, you saw that I went to see "Slaughter Nick for President" on Friday at CIMM Fest.  I seldom get to watch movies about eastern Europe because my husband does not have the same taste, and my selections tend to be downers (which he wishes to avoid).  I have to be careful about my selections because he would not tolerate a film like "Sátántangó", which is 7 hours long.  I don't even know if I can get him to commit to "Dekalog" (which I cherish in my heart) despite that it's essentially like a TV series.  The point is, we both had to win.  I got Serbia in there and he got some feel-good.

Chechnya: A Little Background Series

Due to the events in Boston, Chechnya is the hot topic.  There is a lot of solid, fair information out there, but there's also really prejudiced, xenophobic information as well.  This post should hopefully condense the history of the neighboring north Caucus neighbors as well as Chechnya and give context since the name and history of this region will be tossed about for the next couple of weeks, at least.  Let me clearly state this now: it is unclear whether the conflict in Chechnya has any relevance to the Boston bombing and I am not endorsing a direct link between the two.  This is merely to give more information about a misunderstood, seldom-taught corner of the world and it's best to have more straight information out when it's being talked about.  Let us proceed.

Moving Forward: 4/19 Review

This past week hasn't been the flashiest in terms of news, but there has been some movement on the political scene.

Central Europe

Hungary got quite a bit of negative attention this week, and for more than solely-political reasons.  To add to the constitutional changes that Fidesz has put into action, they've decided to annoy Brussels with an ad hoc tax to pay EU fines.  Delightful.  It had one thing going in its favor: the ruling on the violent interrogation was upheld.

Romania made two big decisions this week: 1) they are abandoning their original EU target year and postponing until 2020 and 2) they are proposing a property restitution bill to settle disputes from collectivization during the Soviet era.  A Romanian daily paper is concerned that this will fuel the Romanian real estate bubble.

Germany has a new party emerging: Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which has an outline of its political stances here (in German - sorry!).  Surprise, surprise, they are not pro-EU/United States of Europe and challenging the CDU/CSU coalition that's been in power since Merkel stepped up the podium.

Katyń (Forest) Massacre

Today's focus is on a historical event that has great significance to Poles.  Poland and Russia have a long and tangled history of clashes and Katyń was among many bloody events.  The Katyń forest is just outside Smolensk, a fact that will prove interesting later in the story. The massacre occurred in April and May of 1940 and is the result of an infamous non-aggression pact.

Monday Book Review: Hasonmás

"Már túljártam életem felén, amikor egy szeles, tavaszi napon eszembe jutott Esti Kornél."  Lászlo Krasznahorkai says that it is the most beautiful sentence in Hungarian and written by Dezső Kosztolányi in Kornél Esti.  In English it reads, "I had passed the midpoint of my life, when one windy day in spring, I remembered Kornél Esti."  Thus begins the tale of two doppelgangers, or as they would say in Hungarian hasonmás, reconciling after decades apart.

Baring It All: 4/12 Recap

Welcome to the recap of the week.  There's so much to read and know that I've taken the liberty of condensing it for you.  If you want to see these things as they happen, follow me on Twitter!  You just have to click that button over to the right.  It's not far...  You can also see who I follow; I discovered that Twitter is the best place to find anything on CEE and there are fantastic, smart people to interact with.

Let's get to it.

Country Spotlight: Montenegro

It's been a long, long time since I have spotlighted a country and it's time to revive it.  Today will be focused on Montenegro!  I have completely neglected the country, but here I am to shed some light on the country, which has been popping up in the news due to some presidential problems.  Though besotted with corruption, the EU approved accession talks.  Let's dive in to Crno Gora!

via

 

Name

The name Montenegro actually comes from the Venetian word for Crna Gora (sometimes transliterated as Tsrna Gora): Monte Negro.  It means "black mountain".

Monday Book Review: Surviving Communism, Possibly Laughing

Though I had discussed this book in an earlier post and reference it often enough, I have never done an official review on the book: How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulić.  I bought this during my internship in Hungary (oh no, was that really 3 years ago?!) in a cool English bookstore on Hercegprima utca, right by Szent István [St Stephen].  I also bought Anna Édes while seriously bemoaning my lack of Hungarian fluency.  The title of the book was all I needed to buy it and I immediately started reading it in Szabagság tér during lunch with some zsemle and kolbász to munch on.  Those were good times for lunch, I'm telling you because she transported me into another world, though in many ways I was living with a little toe in that world.

Risen Again - 4/5 Recap & Rants

It was Easter this past Sunday and it was a good time to indulge in the east European traditions, some of which seemed a little more cruel than unusual.  Particularly when it involves whipping women.  There were lovely eggs to make up for it, though.  Though Europe had it tough because snow, not flowers, came to greet them on the symbolic holiday of rebirth.  It's like winter reborn.

The cat's out of the bag. Orbán is the most sought after television personality in Hungary.  No, I'm kidding, he's stealing all the airtime available.  I want graphs on the Politburo air times for comparison, just for kicks.

April Fool's!  I thought this was a pretty USA-centric holiday, but it turns out that Odessa is the OG of pranks.  The best part was that Humorina started during the Soviet rule. That's one way to let off steam about the endless droning of ideology!

The Art of the Impossible

I have unrestrained admiration for Václav Havel.  When I married my husband, I began a campaign to name one of our future sons Havel in his honor (he's tentatively committed - yes!).  That is not a joke.  Why do I admire him so much?  Is it because he was a famous Czech dissident? a playwright? a playwright who then became the first democratically elected president of Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic)? Or was it because his words have inspired me and given me a new way of thinking? Ding ding ding ding.