While Americans were honing their hamburgers, Soviets learnt the art of eating chebureks.

The cheburek was enormously popular during the Soviet era, and specifically after 1989, when a decree was issued, allowing Crimean Tatars to freely settle throughout the USSR. They brought with them their favourite delicacy – a deep-fried turnover stuffed with seasoned mince or finely chopped meat and fried in vegetable oil or animal fat (according to the traditional recipe). One might say cheburek is to Easter Europe what a pastie is to the  Cornish.

As chebureks gained in popularity, more and more places selling them started to appear. Cheburechnye places had never ending lines of people waiting for their cheburek. The thing about chebureks is that, even in its most fancy incarnation, this ‘pie’ is cheap and extremely tasty. Therefore, you could say cheburechnaya places serve as a place where the boundaries of social-economic inequality are almost completely non-existent.

For some people, a cheburek is considered fast food, for others it’s a delicious gourmet treat. You could take a girl out on a date to eat chebureks or you could snack on chebureks while drinking vodka with friends.

The only ‘problem’ with chebureks is that they are very uncomfortable to eat and there’s often a risk of getting your hands, clothes and face smothered with fatty oil! In fact, it’s considered art to eat a cheburek, because that bullion is almost the most valuable and tasty part of a cheburek!

While traditional, Uzbek or Turkish versions are usually filled with lamb, our chebureki are filled with pork, butter, fresh herbs and some broth to make them even juicier.