This blog is about many things – cooking, traditions, transpositions, ferments and life in new places, whether my own life or the life of the various plants that I am hoping to nurture (and that will nurture me and those I cook for). I suppose I could have several blogs, as some do, each devoted to a particular niche. but since I view most things as interconnected, I wanted to keep everything in one place. At the same time, to make things easier to read (and avoid long scrolls and searches, i hope), the blog is divided into pages (the tabs at the top or the links on the side). for now, those pages are as follows:

• suitcase cilantro: a tortilla grows in Istanbul: or the adventures of locating ingredients and preparing otherwise unfindable foods
• biologik: the chronicle, and travails, of a northern exposure urban organic garden in Istanbul
• ferments: both physical and mental – good bacteria and random rants
• tradition: tales of a displaced princess – recipes and stories from my Russian heritage, and other thoughts
• retro – good stuff to eat, some old favorites, some out of favor, or nearly forgotten, but worth remembering
• and a bit about me.