Cooking in Russia

So, it's my first day cooking for the faculty of the New York Institute in St. Petersburg Russia. I spent a few days trying to figure out how to read the labels of things in the supermarket (key is knowing the alphabet and taking some chances). Spices are especially tough, but I am doing okay thus far with pictures (distiguishing a bay leaf from a basil leaf on a tiny bag is quite a feat!).

Tonight as the sun went down at midnight I made a leek, celery root and potato soup. I had no stock and so used the peels and rinds of potatoes, celery root, onion, parsley and garlic (along with a lot of salt, pepper and the ubiquitous bay leaf) to make a veggie stock and I thought it tasted pretty okay. I made a roux with potato flour and regular (I think??Again using pictures) flour with sunflower oil (big here for some reason).

I am sure someone has made a coffee table book entitled "kitchen tools from around the world" and i certainly could have used it before coming here. I am finding some pretty different utensils and vessels, but am having a good time trying to figure out how they work. Well, so that's a start. Hope they like the soup. Next I'm making an Asian slaw and will try to make a pie without an oven thermometer. Hmmmm

Leda