I started trying new kinds of food in Helsinki, when I bought a jar of marinated fish (mackerel?) on a whim.  The hostel receptionist taught me to eat it with boiled potatoes.  Per instruction I got a pound  of potatoes from the outdoors market by the harbor and started cooking.  It tasted great and I was hooked!

In Russia I moved tried other marinated fish--salmon, shark and ones that I could not identify, some of which tasted like sushi in olive oil .  Fried salmon tasted really good by itself, but even better with Greek dolmas.  Fried sea bass was delicate and creamy, yummm.  Then came the experimentation of adding mashed spinach balls (the only form of spinach I could find) to the boiled potatoes.  Hats off to the culinary genius of yours truly .

Ukraine was a land of discovery for borsch and pancakes.  The pancakes wrapped with cabbage and prunes were so good that I ate four in a row, right in front of the lady who made them fresh.  She must have thought I just got released from the prison .  Even though borsch has lots of ingredients that I normally do not care for--beets, dill, and sour cream, the combination of them tasted heavenly!  Hmm, what the chance of me making a good borsch back in the States?