Russian dumplings & more

The 'babushkas' (grandmothers) of Europe's far northern climes have long been famous for their home-cooking of sustaining pies and pasties - hot pockets of food to be taken to work and school for snacks - and dumplings.

Pirogies or pirozhkies are the boiled dumplings not unlike a Chinese dumpling, eaten in steaming piles with dollops of sour cream. Pelmeni are the baked dumplings made with a yeast-bread dough.

Dumplings, pelmeni, vareniki , blinchiki and fresh golubski - stuffed cabbage rolls -  are made locally for European Bazaar, 1488-I Rockville Pike, 301 230 9371. Owners Phil Kats or Avi Charnis travel to New York each week to stock up on products like smoked sturgeon, smelts, selyodka, keilbasa, moskovskaya and other sausages, pickles and Bardavinski bread. 

For frozen Russian dumplings and ready-cooked dishes, cured meats, cakes and breads, as well as canned Polish and Hungarian goods, talk to the brothers from Minsk who run the International Food & Deli, 912 East-West Highway, Takoma Park, 301 891 1316. If you are looking for Russian cheese and yogurt products like ryazanka, prostokvasha and tvorog, here is where you'll find them.

Millie's Pierogi, 800 743 7641 will ship home-made, preservative-free, Polish pierogi with a choice of different stuffings.

The pierogies served at Brickseller brewhouse in the Dupont area have a wide fan base. 

In Gaithersburg, Taste of Europe, 630 Quince Orchard Rd, 301 590 9094 is the place.

Russian Gourmet, which began in Rockville on Nicholson Lane and Rockville Pike at 11431-B Rockville Pike, MD, 301 816 0550, has now become a growing chain, with a branch in Germantown, MD, at 13077 Wisteria Dr, and another in Gaithersburg at 19110 Montgomery Village Ave coming soon. Meanwhile, there are now stores at Langley Shopping Center, 1396 Chain Bridge Rd, McLean, VA, 703 760 0411, a little hard to find stuck behind a Three Pigs Restaurant at Big K-Mart Plaza, 468 Elden St, Herndon, VA, 703 707 8181 (that also does catering), and at 907 Slater's Lane, Alexandria, VA, 703 299 4627. In the freezer you'll find different varieties of pierogies along with blintzes. Pirozhki fillings include meat, farmer's cheese and raisin, cabbage, and potato flavored with a little dill) and fabulous rogaliki.

If you don't want to cook yourself, The Russia House restaurant in Herndon, 703 787 8880, produces authentic Russian food.

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