Zakuski: Small bites for all!

Zakuski, a Russian tradition dating from Tolstoy's time, is food made for drinkers, although teetotalers would have a hard time resisting temptation. The usual array laid out to pick and choose from includes savory, salty or highly seasoned snacks such as smoked salmon, stuffed eggs, meatballs, vegetable "caviars," small servings of salad or big wedges of hot cheese or mushroom pie. The flavors are always dramatic but complementary, and the contrasting textures only amplify the experience of playing with food.

Zakuski translates as "small bites," and the mix of one- or two-morsel choices on a single table or tray -- hot and cold, homemade and store bought, aggressively seasoned and totally mellow -- is what makes the classic idea so appealing.

Anya von Bremzen, an émigré from Moscow who literally wrote the book on zakuski with her 1990 "Please to the Table," describes them as "another spin on meze, tapas and antipasto" and says they are comparable to smorgasbord in that "for the most part you can make a meal of them." But you can't do that without vodka -- at least not in her birthplace, where they drink straight shots.

"The main reason Russians love zakuski is that they can't drink vodka without eating," Von Bremzen says. "It's always: Toast, bottoms up, then eat zakuski, then have another vodka."

Zakuski can be served for lunch or dinner, she added, or "whenever they're ready to drink vodka, which for Russians is between 4 and 5." Not for nothing are zakuski always eaten sitting down.

Unlike tapas, or Italian aperitivo, zakuski are always served on small plates with forks. A selection can be the start of a meal, followed by borscht, an entree and dessert, she says, but "a main course seems anticlimactic."

Crossing borders

NO one knows how zakuski originated, although the concept may have come from Scandinavia and was well established by the 19th century, "especially among the landed gentry, who lived on estates where everyone had to travel far; when people came over they served zakuski and vodka."