Food in Russia

I don't think I have yet talked about the food in Russia. It is very different then home. I think we are finally getting a grip on what is what but it sure took a long time. There are not a lot of ethnics foods here although Tatiana did say they have a Japanese restaurant she likes a lot. I miss the melting pot of America. In fact I would like to go to The Melting Pot fondue restaurant when I get back. I haven't been there yet and it sounds so good.

Everything grocery shopping is different. Tatiana had to find stuff for us because it is packaged all different. For example: milk comes in a plastic bag, cream comes in a sour cream like package, cottage cheese comes squished together without the liquid in a little round plastic package. Crackers are thick and hard. We look for labels for familiar brands and those things are usually not disappointing such as M 'n' M's, sprite, potato chips, ketchup- you know all the stuff that is good for you. However coca cola lite which looks like diet coke and you expect to be diet coke is not, it is much sweeter and tastes flat to me. I cannot wait to have a REAL diet coke when I get back.

They also drink coffee or tea after every meal and even the kids drink tea with their cookies as an evening snack. The coffee is too strong. I miss starbucks! We have to drink bottled water because the water is not good for us. The yogurt is very creamy and so is the ice cream, it is not cold or hard enough. They do have these yummy bars we found though. There are all kinds and they are in the freezer department. They taste like chocolate covered cheesecake squares to us (that is the texture) but they are actually made from yogurt. The other night we made pasta with chicken. We bought a red sauce with peppers. It was so sweet. It was like pasta with ketchup! Yuck so we bought a different sauce that looked spicy like salsa and mixed it. Better.

The restaurants are decent, the ones we have been able to visit but the food is usually much more bland than you would expect. If it is seasoned it is usually with dill. They don't eat a lot of chicken here but we always strive to find it on the menu. Today we are supposed to go shopping and there is a Sbarro. I hope we get to eat there. It is the only American place in town. Sometimes we order pizza from a place over here. It is a treat but tastes very different from any of our pizzas that we know.

Anyway, we have figured out what we can survive on for the next 11 days so we will be okay. We ate our last packet of top ramen that we brought from home today. Oh, they do have good sausages. We mixed that in. Like Salami types- tons of selections and tons of white cheeses- no cheddar!

When we get to Moscow there is a Hard Rock Cafe and a McDonalds and all the adoptive familes are so excited to go have an American meal. WE are no exception! And we can't wait to arrive in America and have a REAL American meal!