PRIDE OF PORTLAND

In Oregon, a vibrant-and genre-defying-culinary scene is being forged by immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

- Naomi Tomky

BEFORE FATIMA MAGOMADOVA let a new employee stir the kidney beans into her borscht, roll crêpes filled with mushrooms, and caramelize carrots for a rice pilaf, she would ask a simple question: "What do you cook at home for New Year's?" The answers came in a rainbow of salads, soups, and entrées representing a swath of the former Soviet Union. For many of the staff at Roman Russian Market (romanrussianmarket.com) and its adjoining sibling, Rough Russian Café (roughrussian-cafe.business.site; entrées $7-$11 per pound), in Southeast Portland, this was their first gig in the U.S. If they got this food, they got the job.

Magomadova arrived in Portland in 1996 after fleeing the war in Chechnya, and her team-which includes a number of recent immigrants from Ukraine-speak Russian: Oregon's third most-spoken language, after English and Spanish. Early- to mid-20th-century immigrants escaping religious persecution or civil war in Eastern Europe transited through other places (Jews through New York City, Orthodox Christians through China, and then San Francisco or Seattle) before arriving in Oregon.