Moscow

Many of you could have guessed that part of the reason for the theme of this blog is that I am going to Eastern Europe this summer, specifically Russia, so there is ample opportunity to blog about communism. Of course, that isn't really the reason, as more sophisticated readers would know (not my students because they are dumb). In any case now I'm in Moscow so you would think I would go crazy with the communist images.

I will say that they have shown up the Italians in honoring antifascist partisans. The gun that woman has is much scarier than anything that guy in Parma had. However, I don't much care for the communist imagery here.

It's everywhere, like in this subway stop. It isn't that beer ad I'm complaining about. That has a lot more significance for these people than Lenin's head. This stuff doesn't have anything to do with history and was just put up in the 1950s to rally the people around some sort of crude nationalism (which I guess is why it is still there). Therefore I will talk about rice pilaf.

The Uzbeks call it Plov and it is something of a national dish in many places in this part of the world. I have had it in East Africa and South Asia by the name Pulau or Pilau. All it means is that the rice is first partially cooked, and then cooked with other ingredients (although even that doesn't necessarily have to be true I understand). This keeps the rice from sticking together. The key is this heavy pot called a Kazan. Apparently only men cook this dish because of the weight of the pot. The russian variety has a ton of carrots, lamb, and what I was relieved were not hard boiled eggs but whole heads of garlic. They serve it with a cabbage salad and some thick gravy. I could not tell if this guy was Uzbek or what. There were a lot of central asians (and east asians) working at this market where he was so it could be that this is Uzbek and not Russian. However, I hear the Uzbek variety has a lot of cumin, which this did not have.

Here is a picture of me in photoshopped into Red Square so you know I'm actually here and not just on my couch in East Harlem.