CharlieD said:Snoop, like I said, the only thing my grandma did not use were cumin seeds. Otherwise, it is the same recipe.
And velochick, sorry you did not get the humorous tone of my post.
As far as learning from somebody in Moscow, sorry to say, but I have never had a decent meal prepared by Muscovite in my entire life.(including my numerous relatieves) Whenever I went to restaurant in Moscow, I always had to order a lot of caviar and lox or other smoked type of fish. The things that they made it on premises were barely edible.
She wasn't a Muscovite. She was from St. Petersburg. And you know what... being an American in such a different culinary environment for the first time, I don't care where she was from... she was a great teacher for a young American.
So, what was the name of this Imam Biyaldi dish in Russian? I've been all over Russia, and many of the former republics, so I'm sure I'd recognize it.