There's a fascinating dichotomy at Taste of Russia, the kind that should happen more often when we're eating out.
The restaurant is in one of Cool Springs' myriad dolled-up strip malls with parking right out front: about as suburban as it gets, right? But once the plates start hitting the table, you can't help but feel like a farmer, regardless of whether you've ever piloted a combine across a pan-flat field of barley before. This is food that will make you thick and strong, and, refreshingly, it's not the least bit fashionable.
Yet so many dishes employ familiar ingredients like potatoes and cabbage to create new tastes that you feel transported to another place altogether. I'll ring an oft-rung bell and say that sitting down to a meal here really is like taking a trip somewhere far away.
Instead we're going to talk about appetizers. Or rather, how to approach the menu as one long list of them. I found the best way to proceed is just to order scattershot across all categories. Prices are low enough so that you can order several appetizers, an entrée or two and some soup, and suddenly you've got quite the princely spread for a bargain price.
Where possible, pick cabbage. Inside a buttery, piping hot fried pastry called a piroshki I found a filling of delicious minced leaves sautéed with a bit of vinegar and onions. It had the brightness needed to cut through the delicious crust, giving each bite balance. Also try the golubzi, cabbage rolls stuffed with spiced meat. Impossibly tender, expertly seasoned — I could have eaten those alone and been happy, or at least until I discovered more of the menu.
Soups in particular were excellent, especially the solianka, which combined smoked sausage, olives and onions in a spicy beef broth. The borscht also is very good; it's more meaty than beet-laden and comes off well-balanced. It's easy to over-salt these kinds of dishes, especially when olives are involved, but I didn't detect that on any of my visits.
Aside from the borscht, you'll find beef stroganoff and a couple other recognizable dishes. The draniki, or potato pancakes, were heavy, golden and anointed with a smooth, tangy gravy. They only get better with a dollop of full-fat sour cream. The blintzes, while greasy, also are worth ordering, whether you opt for a filling of meat, cheese or sweetened fruit.
Assuming you don't have to do any kissing later on, I'd recommend the herring plate. You want to taste the ocean? Well, here it is. What you do is you take a filet of the briny fish, put a bit of raw onion on it, wrap it in a leaf of lettuce and presto, you've become a stink-breathing dragon. It's pleasurable in the chewing, but somewhat antisocial.
I enjoyed covering it all up by exploring the variety of vodkas served; the Nemiroff honey-pepper variety was a particularly good palate cleanser/aperitif. There are also a lot of unusual Russian beers to choose from that you usually only see in liquor stores, as well as a couple from the Appalachian Brewing Company in . . . Pennsylvania. Bit of a geographical technicality there, but their pale ale is very crisp and bright.
Fresh parsley comes dusted atop nearly everything at Taste of Russia, and it's a good foil for many of the doughty plates that come heavy on the cheese and beef. Take the Kiev cutlet, whose molten core of cheese and tomatoes was really helped along by a sprinkling of the herb. The thin-pounded chicken breast surrounding was moist and unbelievably hot, and the ensemble is one of the better choices you can make for an entrée.
With every main dish you have your choice of side, and every time I recommend getting the home-fried potatoes with garlic. They epitomize golden crispness and are one of the restaurant's signature dishes. That the kitchen can make something so simple so mysteriously appealing is impressive.
Dessert isn't so enchanting for the most part. A plate of stuffed prunes sounded wonderful, but what arrived was a so-so grouping of grocery store ingredients, right down to the jet-blasted whipped cream. The chocolate cake was also lacking; it, too, wasn't any better than something out of the grocery aisle. Blintzes or the vareniki (stuffed dumplings brushed with butter) can do creditable service as dessert, especially when filled with sweet farmer's cheese.
You might say doubling up on them in one meal, once savory and once sweet, can be a little much. Isn't that a lot of fried stuff and dairy for one day? Shouldn't we be concerned about drinking too much vodka? Well, yes, but farmers don't count calories or how many shots are on the table. Just where do you think we are, anyway — Cool Springs?
