On Thursday Feb. 27, the Russian Club hosted a cuisine night at the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies building. The tiny building was standing room only as many students and professors gathered to share in the experience of learning and cooking some Russian dishes.

Russian Club president, Sami Dunlap ‘21 explained “We have a lot of different foods here… traditional Ukranian and Russian sweets, as well as some traditional Ukranian and Russian food, and some homemade Uzbeck pastries by the lady who owns the Russian store.” As she pointed to a platter of cookies and pieces of cake, she went on, saying  “A lot of cakes and cookies are traditionally served at the end of meals and as little breakfast treats.” 

On the savory side, the pierogis were by far the crowd favorite. Solstice Backus-Little ‘20 said, “the pierogies are fantastic! Also, this cheese is kind of weird, but it’s good; they said it was a mixture of swiss and cheddar and I’m kinda digging it.” For others, the pierogies offered a taste of home, Ashton Craig (‘20) “my mom is eastern european… and growing up, it’s been a tradition that they made pierogies, so I was really excited when I saw that they were serving pierogis here tonight.”

Within an hour of the event starting, all of the food was gone. Dunlap was happy with the turnout, and said, “Our turnout has been really great. Usually we get a pretty steady flow of people, but this is definitely much bigger than normal and I’m really happy!” 

Russian Club has four to five events a semester, each centered on food but with different themes and food, often with film, language, and dance, so be sure to keep an eye out for the next event! Be sure to check out their social media, @sprees_club on Instagram!