Russian Onion and Pork Kebabs

Shashlik is to Russia (and the former Soviet Republics) what shish kebab is to Turkey. They even mean the same etymologically: “sword meat”—in other words, meat grilled on a swordlike metal spit. The meat in question here is pork, marinated in grated onion and charred over charcoal. If you ever visit a dacha (weekend villa) in the countryside around Moscow on a weekend, you’ll smell shashlik before you actually see or taste it, for everyone seems to be grilling some in