samovar

The city’s history was on sale at a market on the pavement — old coins, samovars, a Ural bike, spinning bobbins and pocket watches.

Ivan Shabelnyk left home with a friend on March 23 to collect pine cones so the family could light the samovar and have tea.

Amid the musicians are suitcases, a samovar and other keepsakes from the lives of central characters Chaim and Chaya, who meet in Halifax and go on to have a rocky romance.

Over the samovar’s chimney, the waiter had draped a string festooned with bublitchki, small bagel-shaped rolls baked to a glossy sheen.

After dinners, the family would sit in the open terrace with bowls of dried apricots, and pistachios, sugar candies, and a big samovar of black tea.