Saturday, 27 June 2009 07:03
Yesterday, on the way home from the grocery store, I saw these cows hanging out by the side of the road. Presumably, they were waiting for something bigger than a Lada to come along so they could hitch a ride to the pasture.
Also, just for fun I thought I'd show you what some of our food packages look like. Click the "Read More" button below to see!
You can buy milk by the box or by the bag. The boxes are sterilized and if unopened, have a shelf life of several months. The bags, which cost about half as much, go bad in just a few days, opened or not. Both packages inevitably dribble all over the fridge when they're taken out or put away!
Mayonnaise and ketchup come in pouches; mustard in a tube. Squeezing your condiments takes a little getting used to!
Eggs come in tens instead of dozens, and are often covered with chicken poop and feathers. Butter comes in a block like this, rendering useless all my American recipes that call for "one stick of butter." Now is when I put all those middle-school math skills to work, calculating how many grams are in one cup and so on. You can buy sour cream in a tube like this one. Again, with the squeezable condiments!
Russian bread is one of my favorite things about the food here (and I have many favorite things!) A loaf like this, still warm from the bakery, costs 15 rubles, or about 50 cents. Also pictured: a juice carton and a box of salt.
Spices come in little packets like this. Here: anise, saffron and cumin, with vanilla sugar in front. Vanilla extract isn't sold here, but if you remember in time, you can substitute a little vanilla sugar for some of the plain sugar in your recipe. (I never remember in time.) You can make your own vanilla sugar by burying one vanilla bean in a canister of sugar, and letting it sit for several days. Or, since you live in America, you can just buy vanilla extract and not bother with the vanilla sugar!
