Borscht is a tart soup popular in several Eastern European cuisines, including Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Belarusian, Lithuanian and Romanian, as well as Ashkenazi Jewish. It derives from an ancient soup cooked from pickled common hogweed. The variety most commonly associated with the name in English is a beetroot soup of Ukrainian origin; other varieties include sorrel, rye, and cabbage borscht. Borscht is typically made by combining meat or bone stock with sautéed vegetables, including cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes and tomatoes. It may include meat, fish or neither, may be served hot or cold, and may range from a hearty one-pot meal to a dainty clear broth or a smooth refreshing drink. Common garnishes and side-dishes include sour cream, hard-boiled eggs, potatoes, uszka dumplings and pampushky buns. Several ethnic groups claim borscht, in its variegated local guises, as their own national dish and consume it as part of ritual meals within Eastern Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, and Jewish religious traditions.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1745:

Bonnie Prince Charlie raised the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands to begin the Second Jacobite Rising. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobite_rising_of_1745

1934:

Per the results of a German referendum, the posts of Chancellor and President were merged, indicating public approval for Adolf Hitler's assumption of supreme power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_referendum,_1934

1953:

The intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom and the United States orchestrated a coup d'état of Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh and restored the absolute monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

1991:

A Hasidic man accidentally struck two Guyanese immigrant children with his car in the Crown Heights neighborhood of New York City, initiating three days of rioting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Heights_riot

2002:

The single deadliest helicopter crash took place when a team of Chechen separatists brought down a Russian Mil Mi-26 with a man-portable air-defense system, resulting in 127 deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Khankala_Mi-26_crash

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

ylem: (astronomy, cosmology, physics, now chiefly historical) In the Big Bang theory, the hot and dense plasma which made up the cosmos at the time of recombination in an early stage of its expansion and cooling, when the first atoms formed and photons decoupled. The ylem is regarded as the source of the cosmic microwave background. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ylem

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces beyond your control.   --Ogden Nash https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ogden_Nash