A feature story interviewing Vadim Zoubovski and Alena Zubovska, who after 16 years in Singapore opened Dumplings.ru to share their Slavic comfort food. The piece, written in first-person perspective (Tanya Ong), recounts how the writer visited the Maxwell restaurant upon seeing an ad for Russian dumplings on Instagram mothership.sg . It describes the eatery’s homey, vintage vibe – warm lighting, Cyrillic posters, a heavy-metal skeleton “mascot” for Halloween mothership.sg mothership.sg . Vadim (born in Ukraine, now a Russian citizen) narrates the backstory: he moved to SG in 2004 for a shipping job, and he and Alena (now PRs with two SG-educated kids) longed for the taste of home mothership.sg . Alena initially cooked family dishes for friends who missed Russian cuisine, which led them to start a dumpling kiosk and eventually the restaurant mothership.sg . The couple poured their hearts (and life savings) into this venture to introduce pelmeni, borscht, chebureki, and other “every Russian household” dishes to Singaporeans stringssg.com . Vadim shares cultural tidbits, treating the writer to traditional kvass (fermented bread drink) and kompot (fruit punch) while discussing how food brings people together mothership.sg mothership.sg . This profile highlights Vadim’s passion for showcasing Slavic hospitality and creating a “little piece of home” in Singapore – a timely venture when pandemic travel was impossible and locals were eager to “travel through food.”