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Pishechnaya
Bolyshaya Konyushennaya 25
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Map

This fried dough cake is called “pishka” in Russian. Whenever I have them or even think about them, Guy de Maupassaunt’s sad novella, which was translated into Russian with the same name (in French it’s Boule de Suif), pops into my mind. The novella disturbed me in my youth with the apparent injustice its other characters do the plump prostitute nicknamed Boule de Suif. This, however, had not stopped me from consuming a large quantity of pishkas covered in powdered sugar between the ages of 13 and 16. A trip to a Pishechnaya on Bolshaya Konushennaya off of Nevsky Prospect is mandatory during any visit to Saint Petersburg. Apparently, this particular cafe is an acclaimed Soviet antic.