Russian food

There’s a sort of joke commonly accepted among students, which is: your babushka will stuff you until you hide under the table or basically yell, “достаточно!!” I have not encountered this yet with Natasha. She has fed me very reasonable portions, and very reasonable foods. As long as I don’t watch her put the mayonnaise in the potato salad. But here are my top 10 surprises regarding Russian food (so far):

1. cheese. The definition of cheese seems very loose here. For breakfast the first day, I had to order something quickly from the dorm shop, and I went for something called “cheese with ham.” I assumed, like anyone else might, that it was in fact cheese and ham. No, it was some strangely-textured block (some white stuff that was more like a very thick Kraft single than a block of Monterey Jack), with chunks of ham sprinkled through it. Never again.
2. tea. They drink tea alllll the time. Even late at night. And it’s always caffeinated. I think I’m going to buy myself some decaf for use at the dinner table, because a mug-full at 8pm might just be too much for me to handle.
3. dairy. This shouldn’t have been a surprise. I guess I’m just surprised that all of the “you will eat 4x as much dairy as usual” warnings were actually true. They were true. It’s just so easy to eat dairy products here. Need a fast breakfast? Yogurt. Need a fast snack? Cheese. Need a fast dessert? Ice cream. Need anything, fast or slow, from a café? Slathered in mayo and/or sour cream.
4. salt on bread. Apparently it’s a thing, to sprinkle salt over your buttered bread. Who knew. It tastes pretty good. Why did I never think of this before?
5. kasha. I have no idea what is in this stuff. We eat it for breakfast every day. It’s roughly the consistency of very thick oatmeal, and there are apparently ~160 variations my host mom likes to make… again, I don’t actually know what’s in it, but I do like it a lot. It’s quite filling.
6. sushi. …Is everywhere. Walking down the street, it’s like… Coffee, Pies, Coffee, Sushi, Megaphone, Coffee, Bank, Sushi… The coffee I saw coming, but not the sushi. And it’s actually really good. And because Russians don’t like spice, most of it is actually edible for me, which is nice.
7. soup. I knew borscht was a thing, but I’ve not had that too often since coming here. What I have had is lots of other kinds of soup. For, like, a lot of meals. So much soup. At least once a day, if not more. It’s great, because I need to stay hydrated and warm, and this is a wonderfully decaffeinated vehicle for both liquid and warmth! Ура!!
8. sugar. Do you like three teaspoons of sugar in your mug of tea? Well, you’re not alone. So does everyone else at the table.
9. hot dogs. Anyone who knows my eating habits also knows that I really don’t much like hot dogs. I have resisted the quarter dogs at school for 5 semesters now (and still no temptation to try!), and I don’t ever eat them at home. But here, hot dogs seem to comprise most of my meat consumption. My host mom serves me about 5 slices at dinner every night. And I’m warming up to it.
10. peanuts. Anyone who knows anything at all about me knows that peanut products account for roughly 45% of my diet. Peanut butter on pretzels, peanut butter crackers, salted peanuts, honey-roasted peanuts, peanut stir-fry, peanut M&Ms, just plain peanuts… yum. But WOE IS ME: apparently peanuts are totally an American thing. I was at the biggest grocery store in my immediate vicinity today, and they didn’t have a single peanut product anywhere in the whole darned place. Except I think I saw two Snickers bars. But seriously, if I’d known, I would have packed a few large bags of peanuts for my continued sustenance.