West Side Flavors: Re-interpreting “You are what you eat”

I never really bought into the phrase “you are what you eat.” My 12-year-old self always thought it was pretty clear that I was not human compost.

By Valeriya Safronova | Apr 23 09:50 pm ET

A Fabio to grace covers of Italian cookbooks

It wasn’t the delicious, comforting food that reminded me of late nights in Rome, nor was it the Limoncello of which I’d had a few too many sips. What really won me over at Fabio Piccolo Fiore, an Italian restaurant in Midtown, was the owner’s entrance into the dining room.

By Valeriya Safronova | Apr 9 10:49 pm ET

West Side Flavors: Pio Pio Brings Peruvian Sabor

At the ripe age of 14, I discovered the truth about borscht. For longer than a decade, this brightly colored, delicious soup had been a symbol of my Russian heritage. But as it turned out, borscht is not Russian after all. It is Ukrainian.

To most people, this realization probably seems minor. To me, however, this cultural mix-up is symbolic of the state of the world. Cultures that a few hundred years ago would have never even dreamed of intersecting, are mingling, connecting, and changing constantly today.

By Valeriya Safronova | Feb 20 03:17 am ET