Tasty Treat Tuesday: Piroshki
As a kid, I remember walking down long streets in San Francisco towards Golden Gate Park. We would walk past the withered city trees and I would watch my mom’s long, 70s hair swing in the wind. Sometimes, on weekends, we would go to a tiny Russian bakery near Irving Street, the street where we lived. This bakery has becomed a blurred image in my mind, but the one thing that I remember is the piroshkis. These savory, doughy treats had ground beef, cheese and spices encased in a savory, puffy doughnut-like confection. This piroshki stands out in my child’s mind as one of the glorious ends to a great day walking around in the city. We’d eat the piroshki as it steamed and the slight crunch of the bread created a perfect contrast to the rich, meaty filling.
I rediscovered these piroshki of my childhood a few weekends ago at the Mountain View farmers’ market (which has become my new foodie mecca…I will tell you about the fresh oysters a bit later). It’s so rare to find something that tastes of childhood with the sweetness of memories past. That will always be piroshki for me.
Check out these piroshki recipes:
Taylor’s Piroshki
Piroshki II from Cooks.com (not sure what happened to Piroshki I)
This recipe from Lesley Chamberlain that includes three fillings (meat, spinach and kasha)
April 7th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I came upon your site just now while looking for an authentic piroshki recipe and you threw me into a time warp, right back to SF in the 70’s. My sister and I took ballet lessons once a week and after every class my mother would take us to that shop you mentioned for a piroshki. That was always the high point of my week and now I realize that those piroshki are just what I’m looking to duplicate! Thanks for the memories!