Kazan — summer 2014

From Sunday dinner Flyura sent me home with a batch of pelmeni, which are the Russian equivalent of ravioli. She also gave me a gift for Marina back in Tempe, specifically a form called a pelmennitsa which is used to make pelmeni. I had no idea there was such a thing. Using it you can make 36 pelmeni at a time. Roll out a thin layer of dough. Put in on the pelmennitsa. Put a teasponful of filling on each depression. Put on another layer of dough, and then run your rolling pin over it. That makes it not nearly as hard as I thought.

Notice all the little starry flashes in the middle of each whole? That's due to the fact that when I took the picture my heart was radiant with universal love.

As I've read various recipes about how to make plov, I've come across the word шумовка (shoom-OHV-kah), which I would probably have translated as ‘slotted spoon,’ but I think that skimmer is the better word.

The recipes said to slap the rice with a шумовка, and if it makes the right noise, your rice is done. The word for noise in Russian is шум (shoom). Seriously? Are those two things related?

Turns out that they're not. Шумовка comes from the Polish verb szumovać (shoom-OH-vach) ‘to skim.’ That makes lots more sense.

Tomorrow is a holiday for Russian paratroopers. It's the scariest day of summer. All sorts of former paratroopers hit the streets, drinking like crazy, acting like crazy. The violence sometimes includes beating up immigrants, turning over cars and setting them on fire, screaming until the wee hours.

This weekend some of our students are also headed to Moscow for the weekend, so I gave them the security briefing about what to watch out for. Even the US embassy sent out the following warning:

Paratroopers’ Day

Saturday, August 2, 2014, marks the 84th anniversary of Paratroopers’ Day in Russia. The event will be celebrated in Moscow and throughout Russia. In Moscow, Paratroopers’ Day will begin with a ceremony at Suvorovskaya Square. Other locations for commemorative gatherings in Moscow include Alexandrovsky Garden, Gorky Park, Kievskaya Square, Pushkinskaya Square, Red Square, Victory Park at Kutuzovsky Prospekt, VVC Exhibition Center, and local markets. Participants will include current and ex-paratroopers wearing traditional light blue berets and light blue and white striped shirts, singing patriotic songs, and toasting their legacy.

Although the majority of these gatherings are jovial and peaceful, past years have witnessed incidents of violence instigated by ultranationalists and directed against foreigners, particularly Central Asians and those from the Caucasus region. Large-scale brawls and other incidents of public disorder have also been reported during previous Paratroopers’ Day celebrations.

And even though the holiday isn't until tomorrow, and even though it is only 1:00 p.m. on Friday, the police and special forces security are out in droves all over Kazan. Pretty amazing, and pretty scary. I can't think of any holiday in the US that requires this kind of national precaution.

A couple of the more picturesque photos of the holiday...

I watched "Guardians of the Galaxy" today in Russian. Smallest theater I've ever been in, with maybe the exception of the theater in St. George, UT, back in '77 or '78. I sat next to a family with a couple of kids in th 5-6 year old range. A lot of the dialog is quite colloquial, and the kids would often laugh at places that I totally didn't get. One can get discouraged when five- and six-year olds get things that you don't get after studying for 30 years...

At first I thought the lead male actor was Kellan Lutz, but it turns out to be an actor named Chris Pratt. Pratt was quite the tub of lard not all that long ago, but he did some serious working out to get shirtless is this film without being an embarrassment. Inspiring, actually.

Before

After