Borscht

Borschts are wonderful cold-weather soups, replete with winter vegetables, dense with flavor, and rich with aroma. They are almost paradigmatic of Russian cooking and yet the very name is confusing, covering as it does a large group of soups with slightly different names. There are Russian soups, originally from Ukraine, called borshch and Polish ones called barszcz. The Polish connection is easily understood because of the floating border between Ukraine and Poland. The Russian venue seems a clear case of adoption. Each area has a wide variety of recipes.