Here’s a fun little advert campaign going on in Russia at present. Click here for the company’s site on it… buy salmon! Save the penguins! Smile, son (think of Foghorn Leghorn)… not everything in life is SERIOUS …
BMD
Doughnuts three for a buck… sausage in dough (“pigs in a blanket“) or pirozhki, a buck apiece… chicken legs for four bucks… pork shashlyk for five bucks… a “gamburger” or a “sendvich” for a buck and a half… betcha the bus drivers hang out here...
Got a yen for something sweet and not-so-good-for-you? Yes, Virginia, you CAN find halfway-decent doughnuts in the Rodina. In Moscow, they’re known as ponchiki… in Piter, they’re pyshki… no, I do NOT know why there’s a difference! They’re good eats, whatever you call them… the images are from a pyshki shop near Piter in Murino.
Click here for an audio presentation of the In Between programme from VOR talking about doughnuts and fast food. It can take a minute or two to load… some good stuff (24 minutes) on ordinary life. Doughnuts… not bombs… pastries… not demonstrations. Sit back and enjoy Donna and Julia… it’s in English, guys…
BMD
Of course, some of the best links that I know for Russian cooking are in Russian, but that doesn’t help those of you who don’t have facility in it. Therefore, I went off in Search of the Lost Chord… where, oh where, had my little recipe gone? I found some good links… I hope that you find them useful.
BMD
http://russianchef.blogspot.com/
http://www.russianfoods.com/recipes/view/default.asp
http://www.russianrecipes.co.nz/
http://www.russlandjournal.de/en/recipes/
http://www.pitt.edu/~slavic/sli/admin/cookbook.html
http://www.food.com/recipes/russian
The little animation below was a gift from my late friend Denise Bohush Ryan… spare a prayer for her, won’t you? It’s been almost a year… I miss you so, dear… damn, it’s not fair! Younger than I am… and a free spirit, like the wind. Memory eternal…
RIA-Novosti has a nice presentation on five different forms of borshch here:
http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20110814/165704649.html
Couldn’t download it in a form that could be posted, so, I’m doing the next best thing.
BMD
Tsar Pyotr Veliki decreed that the owners of Russian post house inns had to have at least 5 quarts (a little less than 5 litres) of this traditional drink available in the cellar for frozen travellers.
Many people think that horseradish is the archetypical Russian spicy-aromatic plant. From 1500 BC, people used it to make the strongest and most spicy condiments. Most folks believed that it not only stimulated the appetite, but also activated vital forces (that is, it was “randy goat weed”). Doctors used it to make rheumatism ointments as well.
Horseradish was the most popular condiment amongst all the Slavic peoples. Gradually, it moved throughout Europe. At first, only the simple people ate it, workers and peasants, then, the “better” people started to add it to daintier dishes such as oysters and meat. Besides this, people used horseradish to flavour strong drinks; they often mixed it with wormwood and costmary. Innkeepers gave it to tired travellers to help them recover from the rigours of their journeys.
Horseradish Vodka is easy to prepare at home. For this simple process, one will need:
Wash and slice the horseradish, and warm the honey in a small pot over low heat. Put the horseradish into a bottle, then, pour the warm honey over the horseradish. Add the cloves and the peppercorns. Pour in half of the vodka and shake the corked bottle thoroughly to thoroughly mix the ingredients.
When the vodka and honey are well mixed together, pour the rest of the vodka into the bottle. Shake the bottle a bit more to combine everything, and place it in a dark cool place for at least three months. Good proper horseradish vodka should even be aged for at least six months, for such a period is required for the drink to become smooth, transparent, and very healthy. Zalpom!
English Russia
http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2010/11/17/home-made-horseradish-vodka-cheers/#more-25152
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