Kazan — summer 2010

Sometimes Russians seem insane, particularly in their desire to drink hot tea and eat hot soup for lunch in the middle of summer. But they have one soup that is cold that they also like, and it is called okroshka. Essentially it is a cold vegetable soup for which the base is kvas, a beerish liquid made of a very mildly fermented bread mash, which has almost no alcohol content. If you are going to have soup in summer, you may as well have this relatively light and cool one:

So as I was sitting at the Capital Cafe this morning, I noted the ad on the table that said they had 15 varieties of okroshka, and get this, they will make it for you either with kvas, kefir (runny yogurt) or beer. That's right, beer. You can have it made with light beer, dark beer, or honey beer. Beer soup for lunch. Sounds like redneck heaven.

I was half-tempted to try it were it not for two things. 1-- I'm not a big fan of beer. 2-- My giardia medication contraindicates alcohol, and the potential results are pretty unpleasant.