JOURNALIST needs help on nostalgic E.European products!

Hi,
I'm a journalist researching on article on the resurgence of E. European products, such as Cockta Cola (Slovenia). I'm American but live in Vienna, and in Europe, there is a growing nostalgia for old products that were available during the Communist regime. I'm interested in stores in the Chicago area that are selling these products. Most of them would be food items, but some are clothing, too.
The ones I know of are Cockta Cola, Kofola Kola, Tisza tennis shoes., etc.

Does anyone know where these products are for sale in Chicago? Does anyone have other nostalgic, E. Europe/Balkan products they can add to the list? I'm very interested in hearing about as many products as possible, as long as they're available in Chicago or at least online.

Please help as soon as possible, since I'm on a deadline.


Many, many, many thanks.

Cheers,
Patti McCracken

I spied onein this post

Right. That's how I found this website, via that post. But I need more info. More details about some of these old products. If anyone has any idea for stores in Chicagoland or online selling these old products, please let me know! I'd love to hear from you!

There are several very large Polish grocery stores/butchers/importers here, including Bobak's, Andy's and Wally's. When walking through a huge store stocked solely with products from Eastern Europe, it's hard for me to know which of the brands or products are quirky, nostalgic, etc. as opposed to commonplace.

Here's a link to Andy's for starters.

http://www.andysdeli.com/shop/contact_us.php

With the recent and impressive influx of Balkan people to Chicago (to be clear, Chicago has always been a significant destination, but there has been a post-war wave of immigration) has led to a boom in interesting new products in our Polish and "multicultural" supermarkets (there are a fair number of large, independent groceries in Chicago and suburbs that focus on recent immigrant groups from East and South Asia, Mexico, Eastern Europe, and Africa, often with a good stock of Italian things from the independent bakeries and packers here; examples are Devon Market, Marketplace on Oakton, and Westbrook Market). Most of my Balkan purchases have involved avjar, sausages, and red wines from Craotia, Molodavia etc. The wines have been hit or miss, mostly miss.

there's a little balkan butcher shop on granville near brodway that carries all manner of items from the former yugoslavia, I don't have info on it right now, but maybe somebody else remembers the place - little help?

anyway, both oakton market and village market in skokie might carry some items, I'd give 'em a call and ask about particular items you are looking for

also the Balkan restuarant carries some items for sale, I particularly remember a chocolate bar where the milk chocolate or cocoa butter (i'm guessing) was translated as "milk greasy fat"


Balkan Restaurant
2321 W. Lawrence
Chicago
(773) 878-7764

Village Market Place
4034 Dempster
Skokie
(847) 933-0900

Marketplace on Oakton
4817 Oakton
Skokie
(847) 677-9330
http://www.marketplaceonoakton.com

JeffB wrote:There are several very large Polish grocery stores/butchers/importers here, including Bobak's, Andy's and Wally's. When walking through a huge store stocked solely with products from Eastern Europe, it's hard for me to know which of the brands or products are quirky, nostalgic, etc. as opposed to commonplace.

Ditto here about which brands are which. But another Polish grocery with a wide selection of packaged goods from Europe is Kurowski's (link).

Antonius

Thank you. This is all very helpful information.

I don't know about specific 'nostalgic' items, but a Russian couple I know turned me onto Eurostyle deli. A lot of places sell Kvass (various brands), but I'm told few are reminiscent of the stuff of old (and none are 'fermented'). I've also seen a lot of similar East European food items at Three Sister Deli on Devon. There are also grocery stores on Golf Rd. (Niles - Schaumburg) that I've stepped into which may carry such items; I'm guessing to cater to the ethinicty in that area.


Eurostyle Deli
4861 Oakton
Skokie, IL
847-329-1430

Three Sisters Delicatessen & Gift Shop
2854 W. Devon Ave.
773-973-1919

Hi,

A lot of Russian products sold in Chicago, if not imported from the Motherland seem to come heavily from Brooklyn and Brighton Beach areas of New York. These range from frozen pelmeni to candies whose recipes and wrappers are very, very close to the products purchased in Russia. I sent several pounds of Russian candies to Russian ex-pat's in Hamburg, Germany. They said, "It was close ..." I said it was nearly exact with differences I could not detect. If and when I am back in that region, I am bringing the American produced for side-by-side comparisons.

In the last few years, I have been able to buy Russian black bread very close to what I purchased in Moscow.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:In the last few years, I have been able to buy Russian black bread very close to what I purchased in Moscow.

Could you please say where? My Russian friends would like to know; I don't think they've been entirely satisfied on the bread... TIA

Having spent several months in Romania in the early 70's, I have to say that I remember only one actual brand: Mamaia fruit nectars. Some products at the time were imported from China, and there was great Czech beer (Pilsner Urquell) and cheap Stolichnaya or the Romanian plum eau-de-vie, tuica. The Romanian beer tended to be a bit flat, and was often drunk with a line of salt on the rim of the mug. Many of the ingredients for Romanian standbys like sarmale (stuffed pickled cabbage) and gogosari (sweet and sour pickled red peppers) are available at Devon Market. Also available there is freshly made cheese pie-- I think it's Bosnian-- but very much like Turkish burek and Romanian cheese palacinta. They have a pretty wide selection of Romanian and Georgian wine as well. Especially nostaligic for me are jams made from rose petals or tomatoes. i have not found any tomato jam here, but Marketplace on Oakton has rose petal jam form Greece and Bulgarian Kashkaval. I would love to find the sausages called cirnati oltenesti, if anyone knows where they can be found in Chicago.

In Bucharest I remember spending lots of time waiting for authentic turkish coffee-- cafea turceasca-- to be brewed in cafes. The barman would mix the finely ground coffee with cold water in a copper beaker and then bury the beaker halfway in an electrified tray of heated sand. In a few minutes, the coffee would foam up, boiling. Then the thick mud would be poured into a waiting cup to settle and cool a bit before drinking. I always liked to jump the gun and taste some of the foam--a kind of gritty crema, really.

In the fall they would set up temporary outdoor restaurants to celebrate the newly pressed grape must--they were called Mustarias, I think. They would serve a very salty lamb pastrami and mamaliga (polenta) with gogosari.I also remember a couple of fantastic konditorei-like patisseries, one by the Athenee Palace Hotel-that made wonderful profiteroles. Another treat was a half pound of fresh beluga that I ate with four other penny-pinching students at a restaurant only open to party members, called Minion (Don't aske me how we got in), What I do remember is the incredible size of the beads of caviar and the price: $14 a person!

For true Soviet era nostalgia, though, I would have to go with the pack of Sputnik brand cigarettes that I have in a box somewhere. They are truly beautiful, if unsmokeable. The box itself is a work of art: a rigid cardboard case about 5 inches square with a deep blue paper cover featuring a gilded Sputnik apparently barrelling through the stars-- a vision in red and gold. The other cool thing is that the box is not ruined when you open it, but functions as a case. The cigarettes themselves are unfiltered but fitted with long carboard tubes like cigarette holders that you are supposed to pinch before you smoke them. I also have a box of smokes that has a folkloric theme --think nesting dolls, of a village scene in black, yellow, red and green. Very striking.