Kalina Russian Restaurant

Congratulations to Chef Natasha Kalina on the grand opening of her new restaurant in Tucson featuring what she calls “Russian luxuries.” If you were lucky to visit the Russian food booth at TMY’s festival this year, you know that the borscht and pelmeni served were delicious. New cultural entrepreneurs keep coming to Tucson and they carry with them the enduring recipes of homemade cooking. Now the same TMY Russian food can be taste year-round at the new Kalina Russian Restaurant.

In case you missed it, the 2012 TMY Festival Magazine included a feature story about Natasha’s cooking. You can download a copy of that story here to learn more about the traditions that inspire and sustain this young, dynamic Chef.

One of the classic Russian dishes prepared by Chef Natasha are Pelmeni — dumplings consisting of a filling wrapped in thin, unleavened dough; it is believed that they originated in Siberia. Pelmeni are common in Russia and have similar names in other languages such as Belarusian, Tatar, Ukrainian, and Latvian. This little food morsel is a classic example of the kind of cross-cultural food that can be found, in slight variations, in other parts of the worlds. Globalization is a process that has been more than 500 years in the making and foods that appear and re-appear in different cultural contexts is evidence of how it works. The pelmeni is similar to the Polish pierogi; the Mongolian buuz; the Chinese jiaozi and Cantonese won ton.

Curious? TMY invites you to visit Kalina Restaurant this holiday season.

Open: Tuesday through Saturday 9:30 am – 9:30 pm
Closed: Sunday and Monday

Lunch/Dinner menu and High tea menu available all day long

Address:
8969 E. Tanque Verde #209
Tucson, AZ 85749

Due to a small and cozy dinning room
PLEASE call 520-360-4040 to reserve a table.