Kazan — summer 2014

The student who went to the doctor the day before yesterday is back in class. The antibiotic kicked in nicely. Glad to see him there. He's a talented kid.

Today I gave my yearly lecture on Russian intonation to the students. I love that lecture. But every time I do it, I find myself wishing I could return to Moscow State and do some more study myself to improve my own Russian. Of course just being in Russia I learn things, but I find it much easier to learn in a classroom with a good teacher than to self-teach.

Massive weather change. Monday was still cool. Tuesday appeared cloudless with an Arizona-blue sky. Now it's as muggy as a bear's armpit. Bleah. I hope it gets cold and rainy again. The Russians don't sympathize with that thought at all. Their summer is so very short that they treasure each sunny day.

Aargh! My favorite quick meal place in Kazan has vanished. It was called “Meat House.”

Here is one of the many testaments to the place posted by former students of mine on Facebook.

Энтони Грасси: Their burgers were cheap and their flies many. I shall grieve of its passing and pray to the Holy Russian bovine that it is reincarnated.

Now it has been replaced by the entirely colorless рокнроллы.рф, a place specializing in pizza and sushi rolls. The Russians are currently undergoing a sushimania that seems to focus on rolls. (Click for larger picture)

I've decided to try cooking something with whole oats. Asked the locals where to buy them. Zero luck, even in the expensive food stores. Didn't spot them at the local farmer's market.

So today I decided to try again. Behind the main farmer's market there are additional shops. I had previously noted one of them that had quite a few comestibles, and it seemed to me that the locals rather favored this particular shop; it kind of has the feel of a place where local culinary savvy might be gathered. They didn't have whole oats, but I asked the lady at the counter, and she advised me to talk to old Irina in the shop across the sidewalk.

Irina had whole oats. I mean *really* whole oats, ones that had not even had the husk removed. It turns out that the Russians make a drink from unhusked oats. Sorry, I don't want that kind of peasant crapola. But she directed me to the main market and said to look in the area that had tea and sugar.

So I went back to the main market and suddenly recalled that in the fish row of the market there was a vendor who seemed to have lots of grains and pasta products. I checked there, and sure enough, she had hulled whole oats. Success!

I was amused that the brand name on the oats was Гудвулл ("Goodwill"). Apparently these oats are grown in the Altai. I'll give them a try tomorrow.

Several people in my family have Celiac disease, so I'm always interested in cooking with grains that aren't wheat. The other day I ended up pillaging the shelf for whatever ingredients where handy and ended up making a sweet curried pilaf with millet. Turned out really well. So I decided to try it again with oats. I used oat flakes, which turned out fine, but I wanted a version with whole oats instead. This was my first attempt at cooking with whole oats. For a first attempt it turned out great. You can see the details on my cooking blog.

Wow, I just learned something new. The phrase жёлтый имбирь, which literally means ‘yellow ginger,’ is the Russian word for turmeric.

Y'know, back in the States it has never seemed to me that turmeric has much of a flavor. I wonder if that's because a) it doesn't have much of a flavor; or b) I'm not sensitive to it (there are some smells I'm not sensitive to).

Why did I learn this? I'm up late watching youtube videos about how to make Uzbek pilaf. The Uzbeks are known for making the best pilaf, followed perhaps by the Tadzhiks.