At long last I've arrived at the new year holidays. I've enjoyed them quite a bit, mostly spending them by practicing piano and reading. The first few days were more interesting though, because I went to a Russian dacha, a country house.
The dacha was located about a thirty-forty minute drive from Podolsk, within an entire suburb of dachas. I would say that dachas most similar to lake houses in America--out in the country down very narrow roads, and not typically the most elegant buildings. The house itself wasn't extremely comfortable, which makes sense considering most dachas are built by their owners. In fact the second story of the dacha had a lot of unstained wood and signs of ongoing construction. The stairs were very narrow and steep. The insulation seemed to be missing or not very effective--most of the time we had the heaters going full blast, but it was still cool near the floor and near the walls. It was an interesting experience to feel warm standing up and then become cool by sitting on the floor--kind of like swimming in a lake.
When we first arrived there I sat down to peel onions. Between me and one other person, we peeled nearly 10 kilos (22 pounds) of onions that day (but I'll admit that he did most of it, having arrived earlier). I didn't do much more after finishing that except wait for preparations to be completed. After we had been there for two hours or so an interesting dilemma cropped up. We had three enormous containers of salad made (to be explained later), but these salads needed mayonnaise, of which we were in short supply. A poll went round concerning who was able to drive--in the final analysis there were only three people, all of whom had had several beers and were continuing to drink in an effort to find a solution. For about an hour and half while we were hoping for dinner all I heard about was how we had no mayonnaise and no one could go to the store to get it, as walking was about four cold and windy miles each way and by this time it was dark as well.
We finally sat down to eat at ten minutes to midnight and the new year. The mayonnaise problem was temporarily solved by only adding mayonnaise to the salad that was on the table. The TV was on and was displaying the clock tower at the Kremlin, as is traditional. At midnight, after the clock tower had tolled twelve times, the host opened a couple bottles of champagne and filled our glasses and we toasted to the new year. Then we listened to Putin's speech while eating dinner. After dinner we didn't do much--mostly we watched the horrific musical performances on TV from the new year's celebration until about five. I slept in a fold out armchair which was barely more than fabric covered wood, but I managed to sleep well enough.
I found my time at the dacha to be very strenuous for a few reasons. First, the host had joked that the dacha "way of life" (быт in Russian) is to wake up, eat, drink, and sleep. Indeed, people didn't seem to be very interested in doing much else, which was frustrating to me. I did get a lot of Russian practice in though, and I visited a memorial to Russian soldiers from several different wars. Second, I hadn't had any information about the trip except that I should bring something to drink. I assumed that we would stay the night, but hoped that we would leave in the afternoon of the next day. It was 9 PM of the third day before we left, and I was grossly under-prepared for such a significant time investment. Also, I felt very unclean, because of the third problem: no running water in the dacha. There was a well, and people filled up buckets and brought them into the house, and that's what we used for hand washing and the little dish-washing that we did. Most of the time though, the serving dishes just stayed on the table and were refilled when necessary.
Well, that covers the majority of my time at the dacha. Now something I've been meaning to talk about for a long time: Russian food. I've asked a few of my adult classes for some recommendations about Russian food, but they've all been unsure of what Russian food is exactly. From what I've seen so far, the most distinctive dishes are salads and soups.
Salads aren't typically the kind with lettuce (from what I understand that's specifically a caesar salad or a greek salad). These salads are chicken or ham or potato salad, but they have a lot more than just a couple of ingredients. One of my favorite salads, Olivye, typically has potatoes, ham, peas, pickles, and possibly other vegetables. Chicken salads vary, but I've yet to have one that wasn't delicious. And there are some wonderful mushroom salads. To be honest, there are very few salads I've had that aren't tasty. Most of my experience with salads comes from buying them in the supermarket, so probably when they're homemade they're all tasty.
If there is a Russian national dish, it's probably borsch, beetroot soup. This is a slightly sour soup with or without meat but always with a beautiful purplish-red color.
Borsch is a nice, hearty and pleasant dish. I don't crave it, but I'm always glad when I've eaten it. Solyanka is a soup that's tastier when I've had it, but apparently there are so many different variations that it's hard to say what exactly is in it. Those are the only soups that I've had, but there are many more apparently, including milk soup.
Outside of these two important types of dishes, Russians also seem to eat a lot of bread and sausage. Buckwheat is at least as popular as rice. Caviar is fairly common as well, and I've decided that I'm not a big fan of it. Another famous Russian dish (though apparently more Caucasian than Russian) is shashlik, barbecued fatty meat. I had had it three times before going to the dacha, but only at the dacha did I enjoy it. Wow, it was good.
In terms of fruits and vegetables, Russia is disappointingly similar to America (in comparison with Vietnam). Apples, pears, oranges, bananas, and grapes are all staple fruits. However, cherries are more plentiful, and there are two kinds with completely different words. Apparently during cherry season they become extremely cheap. They also have blackcurrants, which is a wonderful thing because I love blackcurrants. My boss gave me a large jar of her homemade blackcurrant preserves which I would love to tear into, but I haven't figured out how to open the jar yet. Also, orange peppers are quite a bit more common and cheaper here, much as green peppers are in the states. That's nice for me because I enjoy them quite a bit more.
I'll probably have more to say about Russian food in the future, but that's all for now!
The dacha was located about a thirty-forty minute drive from Podolsk, within an entire suburb of dachas. I would say that dachas most similar to lake houses in America--out in the country down very narrow roads, and not typically the most elegant buildings. The house itself wasn't extremely comfortable, which makes sense considering most dachas are built by their owners. In fact the second story of the dacha had a lot of unstained wood and signs of ongoing construction. The stairs were very narrow and steep. The insulation seemed to be missing or not very effective--most of the time we had the heaters going full blast, but it was still cool near the floor and near the walls. It was an interesting experience to feel warm standing up and then become cool by sitting on the floor--kind of like swimming in a lake.
When we first arrived there I sat down to peel onions. Between me and one other person, we peeled nearly 10 kilos (22 pounds) of onions that day (but I'll admit that he did most of it, having arrived earlier). I didn't do much more after finishing that except wait for preparations to be completed. After we had been there for two hours or so an interesting dilemma cropped up. We had three enormous containers of salad made (to be explained later), but these salads needed mayonnaise, of which we were in short supply. A poll went round concerning who was able to drive--in the final analysis there were only three people, all of whom had had several beers and were continuing to drink in an effort to find a solution. For about an hour and half while we were hoping for dinner all I heard about was how we had no mayonnaise and no one could go to the store to get it, as walking was about four cold and windy miles each way and by this time it was dark as well.
We finally sat down to eat at ten minutes to midnight and the new year. The mayonnaise problem was temporarily solved by only adding mayonnaise to the salad that was on the table. The TV was on and was displaying the clock tower at the Kremlin, as is traditional. At midnight, after the clock tower had tolled twelve times, the host opened a couple bottles of champagne and filled our glasses and we toasted to the new year. Then we listened to Putin's speech while eating dinner. After dinner we didn't do much--mostly we watched the horrific musical performances on TV from the new year's celebration until about five. I slept in a fold out armchair which was barely more than fabric covered wood, but I managed to sleep well enough.
I found my time at the dacha to be very strenuous for a few reasons. First, the host had joked that the dacha "way of life" (быт in Russian) is to wake up, eat, drink, and sleep. Indeed, people didn't seem to be very interested in doing much else, which was frustrating to me. I did get a lot of Russian practice in though, and I visited a memorial to Russian soldiers from several different wars. Second, I hadn't had any information about the trip except that I should bring something to drink. I assumed that we would stay the night, but hoped that we would leave in the afternoon of the next day. It was 9 PM of the third day before we left, and I was grossly under-prepared for such a significant time investment. Also, I felt very unclean, because of the third problem: no running water in the dacha. There was a well, and people filled up buckets and brought them into the house, and that's what we used for hand washing and the little dish-washing that we did. Most of the time though, the serving dishes just stayed on the table and were refilled when necessary.
Well, that covers the majority of my time at the dacha. Now something I've been meaning to talk about for a long time: Russian food. I've asked a few of my adult classes for some recommendations about Russian food, but they've all been unsure of what Russian food is exactly. From what I've seen so far, the most distinctive dishes are salads and soups.
Salads aren't typically the kind with lettuce (from what I understand that's specifically a caesar salad or a greek salad). These salads are chicken or ham or potato salad, but they have a lot more than just a couple of ingredients. One of my favorite salads, Olivye, typically has potatoes, ham, peas, pickles, and possibly other vegetables. Chicken salads vary, but I've yet to have one that wasn't delicious. And there are some wonderful mushroom salads. To be honest, there are very few salads I've had that aren't tasty. Most of my experience with salads comes from buying them in the supermarket, so probably when they're homemade they're all tasty.
A typical olivye salad
Borsch is a nice, hearty and pleasant dish. I don't crave it, but I'm always glad when I've eaten it. Solyanka is a soup that's tastier when I've had it, but apparently there are so many different variations that it's hard to say what exactly is in it. Those are the only soups that I've had, but there are many more apparently, including milk soup.
No joke. Milk with noodles.
Our shashlik looked exactly like this.
I'll probably have more to say about Russian food in the future, but that's all for now!
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