The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food

99% Invisible

SiriusXM Podcasts and Roman Mars

Design, Arts

4.8 • 28.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Officially titled The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food, it was often known simply as “Kniga” (translated: "book") because it was one of the only cookbooks to exist in the Soviet Union. The volume is peppered with glossy photographs of really lavish spreads and packed with text as well. There are recipes for lentils and crab salad and how to cook buckwheat nine different ways. But this book was meant to do so much more than show people how to make certain dishes — it's a Stalinist document aimed at addressing hunger itself in the USSR.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Bawishka. I'm Roman Mars.
0:05.0	And this is 99 Pia producer, Lasha Madan.
0:08.0	Hi, I'm Lasha.
0:10.0	And this is Babushka.
0:13.0	Trust me, she's about to be your favorite Russian grandma.
0:19.0	If there's one thing you need to know about Babushka, it's this. If you exist in her orbit, she will make sure you are fed.
0:29.0	Even if you show up at her home unannounced, Babushka will find a way to assemble a table full of offerings.
0:36.0	Because like many immigrants of the former Soviet Union, her small apartment is brimming with enough food and supplies to last months, you know, just in case.
0:45.4	Babushka's full name is Yelena Shuyer, and she is the grandmother of my partner, Mark.
0:52.4	At 83, she's got this boisterous laugh, and she's
0:56.2	unwavering in her love for bread, though technically it's been years since her doctor
1:01.2	has allowed her to eat any.
1:03.0	What kind of foods did you grow up eating?
1:07.0	Like what kind of meals do you remember eating?
1:12.0	I was born in 1938.
1:16.0	In 1941, start second war.
1:24.0	Yeah.
1:25.0	And we leave Ukraine and go to Kazakhstan, like refugee.
1:33.8	They could only grow one thing in that dry Kazakh soil,
1:37.6	melons.
1:38.5	For a time, melons were Babushka's only source
1:41.4	for anything sweet.
	...

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