Well, it depends who you’re asking. If you’re talking to a Russian, then blini are thin, crepe-like pancakes often made with buckwheat. They’re eaten with sour cream or cottage cheese or butter or ...

If you haven’t thought about blini lately, please may we have your full attention? Let’s say you have some caviar, and let’s say that caviar is not triple O beluga or something just as good. (If you ...

According to Alice Waters in the “Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook,” whenever legendary chef Jeremiah Tower made blini at Chez Panisse, he’d recount how his Russian uncle felt about butter. You had enough ...

For this recipe, Food & Wine's Justin Chapple cooks a shredded potato mixture in a waffle iron until a crisp, golden blini forms, and then tops it with smoked salmon and a generous dollop of sour ...

In a food processor, combine all of the ingredients except the seltzer and canola oil and puree until smooth. Scrape the batter into a large bowl and let stand for 15 minutes. Whisk 1/3 cup of the ...

Beluga lentils are so named because they resemble beluga caviar, and some creative vegetarian cooks have used them in recipes that play off the resemblance. This treatment uses kombu, a type of dried ...

In November, I offered to make blini as an hors d’oeuvre for a Thanksgiving dinner. The hostess liked the idea, and I liked her reason: “They are instant festivity,” she wrote in an e-mail. So they ...

Nothing says "special" like a wine that dances seductively in your mouth and on your tongue -- tantalizing, tickling, tempting you with luscious fruit, bright acidity and yeasty, bready aromas and ...

There's a reason Zagat has named Gary Danko the most popular Bay Area restaurant for the past seven years. You can attribute it to the comfortable special-occasion atmosphere, flawless service and, ...

Americans have pancakes, the French have crepes and Mexicans have tortillas. What about Russians? “Blinis. They’re a traditional food,” said Arnold Kotlyarevsky, 16. Mention the fluffy, fried dish to ...