Monday 10 June 2013

Food from afar

I recently spent a week in Dushanbe, staying at a very comfortable guest house. In the evenings I went to the local supermarket and bought my supper.
This is USD6 of supper - I largely picked things which I remember fondly from my days in Rostov on Don in the 1990s.
The box in the foreground contains what we in Blighty call Russian salad. The Russians and post-Soviet nations to which it spread call it Olivier ... because it was reputedly invented by the French chef of some Muscovite aristo. Chopped cooked veg and sausage in mayo.
The other box further back on the left contains kuraga - dried apricots, but what a taste, and of what size!
The bottle is half-a-litre of Borjomi - Georgian mineral water. To say that this was a "product" which was "marketed" throughout the Soviet Union would be misleading, but it was certainly sold everywhere in the old SU and they were rightly proud of it. The packaging has had a makeover, but the water itself, with a slight sparkle and a hint of salty mineralishness is just as good as I remembered.
The bread is a little chewy, it may be that this particular loaf is more for show than consumption.
Top side of the bread studded with seeds, nut, berries ...

The swirly underside of the bread
A kuraga

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