Russian Evolution

The mall at the busy corner of Van Nuys and Ventura boulevards seems poised to become the Valley’s own Little Russia. First came Tagarka, a Russian newsstand. Now Tsarina, a pretty little six-table deli run by transplanted Muscovites Mark and Nadya Gekht, has moved in next-door.

Russian will get you further than English here; they answer the telephone “Dobryi den,” rather than “Hello.”

The counter clerks will probably understand pointing better than your attempt to pronounce the names of the dishes.

Most of the appetizers, and a good many specialty items, are displayed in deli cases.

If you want hot dishes, those are served from the back kitchen. Whatever you order, the price will range from inexpensive to laughably inexpensive.

Take pelmeni, labor-intensive kreplach-like dumplings with minced chicken or beef in the middle. They’re $5.99 for 50!

When I asked for 10, the proprietor merely shrugged, went in the back and produced them in a little chicken broth for the mathematically correct but incredibly low price of $1.20.

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Eggplant caviar, creamy Russian potato salad, salad Olivier (with chicken and peas) and a sensationally good beet salad in vinaigrette are sold by weight, in prices ranging from $2.99 a pound (coleslaw) to $7.99 (marinated tongue salad).

You just tell them how much of each salad you want. They’ll make up a plate and charge accordingly.

Among the specialties, try zraz, a mashed potato cutlet with a light, flavorful stuffing of ground chicken or chopped liver.

Cabbage is stuffed with ground chicken, rather than beef, and is quite good. Another player in the ground chicken symphony is the chicken blintz, although the Gekhts also serve their eggy blintzes with the more familiar farmer’s cheese or spiced cabbage fillings.

Naturally there is a fairly classic borscht, the Russian beet and potato soup topped with sour cream, and also rassolnik, a thick soup of cabbage, beef and cucumber pickles.

The best soup (not listed on the menu) is kharcho, a hearty, exotically spiced lamb and rice soup of the Republic of Georgia.

You can wash all this down with Gerolsteiner mineral water from Germany, the saltier Russian water Borjomi or kvass, a molasses-flavored soft drink made from rye bread. For dessert, there are thick squares of devastatingly rich makovye pirozhki, a poppy seed strudel.

The Russian lessons are on the house.

BE THERE

Tsarina, 14445 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Open 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. No alcohol. Parking lot. All major cards. Suggested dishes: beet salad vinaigrette, $2.99/pound; chicken cutlet zraz, $1.99; pelmeni, $5.99/50; chicken blintz, 99 cents. Call (818) 986-8889.