Kazan — summer 2012

On the way home from Sabantui we stopped at the store for some groceries. Here's what we bought. In the upper left and far right are some bags with fruit. Then there is a bag of dried bread slices, which are called sukharí. So what do you think… more »

Post-feeding #2 After we ate, Danila and his sister Dasha took me to the banks of the Volga to walk around. My pictures there didn't turn out so great, but I'll include them anyway. Picture a river as broad as the Mississippi but not as brown.… more »

Every patriotic Murrikan owns a grill on which testosterone-gifted men grill hamburgers, steaks and brats. The Russian/Tatar equivalent of the that event is making shashlyk, i.e. shishkebabs. Every family owns a set of shampury (skewers) on which they… more »

Y'know, all this blogging takes a lot of time. While the shashlyk were cooking, the banya was being fired up. Danila's brother Sasha and I used it after dinner. The banya is sort of the Russian version of a sauna, except that they actually use it to… more »

Obviously we haven't eaten enough today, so Flyura prepared pelmeni, which are sort of a Russian ravioli equivalent. Basically they are dough wrapped around meat. Instead of tomato sauce they are usually served with butter or sour cream. These ones… more »