Or perhaps it’s just the way the deli case, abounding in comfort food, can make anyone feel at home. Eggplant slip-slides its way through a number of unexpectedly versatile salads. The deep purple vegetable is a picnicker’s dream when broiled and topped with an herb-mayo-based sauce ($3.99 per pound), but my favorite is the Greek-style eggplant ($4.99 per pound), mixed with walnuts in a brown sauce whose recipe co-owner Vladimir Shekhel insists is a secret. Mashed-potato and ground-chicken patties are surprisingly moist and judiciously peppered ($3.99 per pound), and the half-sours, pickled on the premises, are habit-forming ($1.59 per pound). You can’t go wrong with either the smoked trout ($4.50 per pound) — suave and subtly sweet — or the hoki (xek in Russian, $2.99 per pound), which has a sausage-like bite. (There are also a slew of real sausages, as well as other cold cuts, to choose from.) And charming as the large array of sweets may be, don’t fall for the becoming, yet bland, bakery items before you’ve laid eyes on the display of candy ($1.99 to $5.50 per pound) hailing from Poland, Latvia, and the Ukraine. The chocolates in particular tend toward the unusual, with sophisticated fillings and a dark edge.