Kazan — summer 2012

I registered with flamp.ru, a website that specializes in restaurant/cafe reviews. I posted my review of Приют холостяка here. Kind of fun. Of course, you have to read Russian to get it.

It's kind of funny, really. I wouldn't usually bother posting a review on an American website, but here I kind of like it.

Just for fun I ran my Russian original through Google Translate (notorious for its errors). Here's what it came up with.

We wanted to have dinner early. They came at 17:00 on a hot summer day. Salad with marinated pear and pine nuts - that's exactly what we need in a sultry day. A friend ordered the caesar salad with chicken, delicious. We both ordered the filet mignon, the second option, marinated for two hours. Oh, my God, so soft and delicious. A friend was drinking mineral water, and I'm cabernet Sunrise. It is like a rose, but the taste is still cabernet.

The atmosphere is good. Music played softly, so we chatted with a friend without loud voices. For the other two tables, smoking hookahs, a terrible habit, but the movement of air did not bring any tobacco smell, so can not complain.

Service is normal. On the table, wireless button that calls the waitress. No significant delays were not. I'll be back.

Actually, for a machine translation, that's not too bad. Russian has no words for a/an/the, so each time you see those, the machine has supplied them.

I'm doing the same recipe, although this time with white squash патиссон. Smells so good as it cooks!

A cool, quiet day in Kazan. The US is currently distracted by the shootings in CO. I find myself wondering if anyone is paying attention to:

• The bus bombing of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria on the 19th
• Today's bombing in Orakzai, Pakistan
• The alleged bombing of Rumaker by North Sudan on the 20th
• Continued fighting in Syria and exodus of Syrians into Lebanon

Also of interest are the slow development of civil society in Russia, which I view as a very good sign, and Russia's continued attempts to limit NGOs, which I view as generally bad.

Ugh. How depressing most of that is. I need some good news. Ah! How about this? On Facebook I see that two of my incoming students are already in Moscow. They should all be here by tomorrow evening.

Today I had chipotle cauliflower... with mayonnaise. Yesterday was chipotle broccoli with mayonnaise. The day before was cucumber and onion salad with mayonnaise. And the day before that was fried squash and onion with mayonnaise.

I wonder why I'm suddenly out of mayonnaise.

I was snickering to myself yesterday about how very different attitudes towards food can be. When Danila's brother Sasha came home from work, he sat down to eat manty, which for the moment we'll say are like large hemispherical ravioli. He pulled out of the fridge a small plate with a lot of butter on it. He stuck a teaspoon in the butter, came up with a teaspoon sized chunk, combined it with a third of one of the ravioli, and then wolfed down the mess with gusto. He did this for each one of the manty.

Back in the States people would be gasping in horror. Oh, the obesity! Oh, the heart disease! But Sasha at 30 doesn't have an ounce of fat on him. (We hit the banya together a couple weeks ago, and I can guarantee this is true. He is one of only three people I can say I have beaten me with birch branches while naked...)

Danila and his brother and his sister are all as thin as rails, which I'm sure is very much genetic. But it also has to do with portion sizes; Russian portion sizes are more reasonable than American. And it has to do with walking... they walk a lot more than Americans.

I currently buy the line of thought that says that high cholesterol issues have nothing to do with fat and eveything to do with carbohydrates, so once I return to the States, I'm definitely returning to the mostly meat and fat diet, and no carbs outside of green leafy vegetables.

Manty

Last night Marina and her family spent with the Osipovs. This evening they have come back. So what snacks have I laid out on the table for their arrival? Here is the short version.

From the top going counterclockwise:

1. Pistachios from Arizona
2. Mazapan (peanut marzipan) wafers from Mexico
3. Sunflower seed halva from Russia
4. Red-white-green Mexican flag coconut candy from Mexico
5. Dates
6. Cashews
7. Bananas
8. Chocolate potatoes
9. Candy: Миша косолапый (Pigeon-Toed Bear, which is a wafer cookie covered in a chocolate) and Сливочная (Buttery, a melt-in your mouth caramel, much less chewy than the Brach's version)

This ignores the following bits that were eaten before the picture was taken:

• Two types of white cheese from the Ukraine
• Fresh herring
• Pastrami with marvelous fat
• Beef with marvelous fat
• Brown bread
• Garnishes: hot Chinese mustard, hot horseradish, Adzhika (red pepper and garlic spread)
• Tea
• Coffee
• Coca-cola
• Cold water (very non-Russian)
• Dried apricots