Want to try something different this weekend? Check out the St. Nicholas Church Russian/Slavic Food Festival in Brookside, Nov. 6 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Nov. 7 from noon to 5 p.m.

As Jason Horn reports on the Magic City Post blog, the Brookside coal mines drew hundreds of immigrants from Russia and eastern Europe. Those newcomers founded St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in 1894. The festival takes place each year on the first full weekend of November.

You can sample Russian and Slavic specialties such as:

• Stuffed holupki (cabbage)
• Baked Piroshki (meat pit)
• Borscht (vegetarian beet soup)
• Schi (cabbage and meat soup)
• Halushki (dumplings)
• Blini with savory filling
• Pigachi (cheese/potato bread)

And desserts such as Imperial squares, Czar's gems, Russian tea cakes, krendel, kulich, Medivnyk and others.

More info at http://www.stnicholasbrookside.org/foodfestivalmenu.html.