The flavors of the Caucasus region (it includes Russia, Georgia, Turkey and Armenia) are in ample supply around the Sheepshead Bay B train station at E. 16th St. in Brooklyn, where many people from those countries have settled. These three friendly outlets — small, family-style, and good for food-to-go — offer a great introduction to the region’s food.
Russian tea room
It’s hard not to be charmed by the 16-year-oldCoffee Spot Cafe, Igor Bartashoff’s pleasingly mismatched Russian coffeehouse filled with Tiffany lamps, framed artwork and antique teapots.
It helps that you’re greeted by a shelf stacked with trays of homey crumbles, cobblers and dessert bars sold by the $2 square, some of the beautiful sweets made by Bartashoff’s wife Lada. Her handiwork also includes flaky, layered babka filled with cheese and dried fruit, or chilled yogurt cake studded with fresh berries (both $2.75 a slice).
Grab this Turkish-style 'pizza' on the way to Brighton Beach
The rest of their homemade Russian food is equally as endearing, served in-house on funky patterned china. Favorites include sweet cheese blintzes ($6.50); chicken stroganoff with potatoes and pickled vegetables ($8.90); or a bowl of the butter-topped Russian ravioli called pelmeni ($5.50). In summer, there are also two kinds of cold soup, including a spinach borscht made with herbs and hard-boiled eggs ($4.50).
Coffee Spot Cafe: 1617 Jerome Ave., at Sheepshead Bay Road, Brooklyn; (718) 769-6666
Georgian on my mind
Lucky are those commuting through the Sheepshead Bay B train station, which is just steps from the tiny takeout shop called Apani. Run by Ivane Shaishmelashvili and chef Nina Gendzekhadze, it offers an impressively rich menu of Georgian food, including several $2.50 versions of the cheese-stuffed breads called khachapuri that are currently taking foodies by storm. (Made with mainly organic ingredients, Apani’s are some of the city’s best versions, too.)
Here's where to get cannoli cream French toast with strawberries
Breads may be the foundation of the shop’s takeout business — there are many kinds of stuffed savory pies and the belt-shaped loaves called shoti — but they’re just the start. You can get a tub of one of many varieties of vegetables, including thin slices of eggplant rolled around crushed walnuts and topped with olive oil and pomegranate seeds ($6.99 a pound) or a pretty hot pink salad with cubed potato and beets ($5.99 a pound).
For dinner, tote home chakhokhbili, or chicken stewed with tomatoes and handfuls of fresh herbs ($5.99 a pound); or sacivi, which Shaishmelashvili says is “Georgia’s most famous dish.” It’s chicken in a lustrous sauce of pureed walnuts, slicked with golden drops of walnut oil Gendzekhadze makes herself ($6.99 per pound).
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/russian-ravioli-armenian-flatbread-spice-sheepshead-bay-article-1.3260545