Our local community college, Laney, has a culinary program and they've recently opened a bistro on campus. We discovered this through our neighbor Joyce, who is a fount of information. Two days a week the bistro serves international food for lunch. We decided to try it out. This was Russian week so we dined on Chicken Kiev and Beef Stroganoff. My Chicken Kiev came with kasha and roasted vegetables. Bob's Beef Stroganoff was accompanied by egg noodles and pickled mushrooms. It was a real treat for us since the Bay Area is scarce on Eastern European cuisine. We have every type of Asian and Mexican, a lot of Italian, some French and Middle Eastern plus the nouvelle cuisine/ local /sustainable/ California-type stuff, but hardly any German, Polish, Scandinavian or Russian restaurants. (There used to be a wonderful Scandinavian deli near the Castro, but alas, it's gone.)
There's a Russian community in San Francisco. I remember delis out on the avenues that featured piroshkis as well as tinned caviar, Russian Orthodox icons and nesting dolls, but I don't remember many, if any, actual restaurants. So it felt quite exotic to be eating the Kiev and Stroganoff while looking out the cafe window at the estuary that connects Lake Merritt to the Bay.
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