If anyone here lives in Portland OR...go to Kachka and have the sour cherry vareniki. Everything there is great, but those in particular are incredible.
Bonnie Frumkin Morales, The chef at Kachcka, released a cookbook recently which is a must-buy for anyone remotely interested in Russian cooking. Everything I’ve made from it has been a gem.
Ahh -- I've wanted to go for a while to try to relive some study abroad experiences, but they at one point had a really sketchy health report that soured me on going. That was long enough ago now that I'm not worried about it; thanks for reminding me that it exists!
Alas, I'm some distance from Portland. But I looked at some recipes and those sound really good, and not hard to make: