Kazan — summer 2012

In that shot I was aiming for the framing of the golden cupola, plus the interesting curves of the pergola.

The following shots are from the exterior of the the Sts. Peter & Paul Church, which is quite atypical for a Russian Orthodox church in that the decoration is fairly baroque.

“Are those chocolate?” I asked.

“They are mumble mumble potato mumble,” she replied.

Potato, huh? They kind of look like yeti testicles covered in brown bread crumbs, but what the hell, I'll give 'em a try.

Home. I chomp. OMG! These are a chocolate potato candy! I swoon, I can't stop salivating. Once you go yeti, you'll never go back.

Danila's family's generosity continues: Flyura brought me produce from her garden.

In the back is a squash, which she advised me first to fry up in sunflower oil, then take some garlic, grate it on a fine grater, mix with mayonnaise, and then mix with the fried squash. In front of that is a pattypan squash. To the left are green onions, to the right garlic. To the left again is a standard Russian cucumber, very tasty fresh from the garden, eat 'em like an apple, and on the bottom is a longer low-salt pickle. Low-salt pickles are the ones that first taught me to eat pickles in Russia back in 1986. Since then I've become a pickle-holic. They also brought me some greens and a lot more of both types of pickles.

Russian students still have to learn handwriting.

It reads:

Nail,

You've got a leak. It has flooded our ceiling. The stucco is falling off. It might be from the room opposite your main entry door.

Ildar

Nail and Ildar are Tatar names, not Russian names. Nice to finally know some of the neighbors' names, even if I've never seen them.

Alas, the note has been posted on the neighbor's door for over a week...

Click on the picture if you want a larger view.

This is my new favorite cafe in Kazan. It's on the first floor of GUM. I like it because the coffee is good, it's spotlessly clean, and the music isn't so loud that you can't hear each other.

In the early part of the day I come here to read. I've gotten more Russian reading done here in the last two weeks than in the previous two years. And what do I usually order? Usually I order an Americano and a cream sherbet «сливочный шербет».

What, you may ask, is a cream sherbet? It's got nothing to do with ice cream. It's a central Asian dessert, the base of which is caramelized sugar and milk. At first it tastes exactly like a Heath Bar. The white chunks are white chocolate, which somehow don't distract from the Heathiness of it. And then the littler brown bits are raisin slices. Actually, I think it would be better without the raisins, but it's still good enough for me to order over and over.