The last two weeks have been really busy, with midterm exams and lots of grading, plus a quite a few billiards games and the annual American Home women's and men's day dinner on Saturday (which was an excellent evening at a very nice restaurant here in Vladimir), and so I apologize for neglecting my blog.
One of the most mundane details about daily life is going to the darned grocery store. And anyone who complains about going to the grocery store in the US of A needs to visit Russia to put things in perspective. It's not that grocery stores are bad here; in fact, there are some very nice ones. It's just that the philosophy on grocery shopping is different. Most people visit the grocery store every single day and buy enough to get them through a day or two. Food products in Russia are usually made without preservatives, so food spoils very fast; a loaf of bread, even if sealed up, will get moldy in two days. Also, far fewer people have cars, and so it isn't possible to do the $250 I've-got-three-teenage-boys-and-this-is-gonna-last-a-week kind of grocery run if you have to lug all that stuff on the bus.
Just like in the US, there are a few different types of places that sell groceries in Russia. First there are corner produkti and zakusochnie stores. These are the bodega-type places that sell mostly alcohol, and everything is behind the counter, so you have to ask some crabby lady to get your bottle of water and loaf of bread. These places are usually pretty beat up and don't have much of any selection of food.
Then, there are the regular supermarketi that look more or less like a small American supermarket. The selection of products, though, is quite different. There are not too many fresh fruits and vegetables, and there are tons of dairy products that you would have a very hard time finding in America. The interesting thing, though, is that hardly any of those dairy products are jugs of milk; people really don't just drink glasses of milk, and usually milk isn't even sold in containers bigger than one liter. Then, there is the all-important bread section; Russians eat a huge amount of bread in comparison to Americans. The bread is often nothing fancy--basic, hearty white or black bread--but it is fresh. The meat section of a Russian supermarket is a lot smaller than at your neighborhood Heinens (Cleveland shout out!), and meat prices are actually equal to or even a little more expensive than in the states (thanks big agribusiness). Then there are the junk-food isles, which are far less stuffed full of junk than in the states--chips take up just a little slice of one isle in the supermarket I go to every day. Shoot, there is more space devoted to pickles and other pickled foods than to potato chips. Don't come to one of these stores looking for anything unusual, that is, anything not in the usual Russian culinary palate. Pelmeni? Got those. Whole frozen fish? Check. Salsa? Forgot it. Lunch meat? Out of the question (you can get sausage, but shaved ham or deli turkey simply doesn't exist).
Recently, some big supermarkets have opened up in Vladimir. There are two huge ones that look almost exactly like giant US grocery stores. They have a good selection of products that go beyond the usual Russian supermarket fare, and you can even find peanut butter in one of the stores here in Vladimir (it's lackluster PB from Denmark, but you take what you can get). The city planner in me doesn't like how these stores are big boxes situated on the very fringe of the city, but they are definitely very popular places in the city. Also, I live basically across the street from one, so if I ever need that PB fix, I can just walk.
Here are a few pictures of the Russian grocery store experience. The amazingly fancy store is Yelisevskii in Moscow, which is a place I frequented when I had my internship in Moscow in the Summer of 2011. Pretty nice, huh?
One of the most mundane details about daily life is going to the darned grocery store. And anyone who complains about going to the grocery store in the US of A needs to visit Russia to put things in perspective. It's not that grocery stores are bad here; in fact, there are some very nice ones. It's just that the philosophy on grocery shopping is different. Most people visit the grocery store every single day and buy enough to get them through a day or two. Food products in Russia are usually made without preservatives, so food spoils very fast; a loaf of bread, even if sealed up, will get moldy in two days. Also, far fewer people have cars, and so it isn't possible to do the $250 I've-got-three-teenage-boys-and-this-is-gonna-last-a-week kind of grocery run if you have to lug all that stuff on the bus.
Just like in the US, there are a few different types of places that sell groceries in Russia. First there are corner produkti and zakusochnie stores. These are the bodega-type places that sell mostly alcohol, and everything is behind the counter, so you have to ask some crabby lady to get your bottle of water and loaf of bread. These places are usually pretty beat up and don't have much of any selection of food.
Then, there are the regular supermarketi that look more or less like a small American supermarket. The selection of products, though, is quite different. There are not too many fresh fruits and vegetables, and there are tons of dairy products that you would have a very hard time finding in America. The interesting thing, though, is that hardly any of those dairy products are jugs of milk; people really don't just drink glasses of milk, and usually milk isn't even sold in containers bigger than one liter. Then, there is the all-important bread section; Russians eat a huge amount of bread in comparison to Americans. The bread is often nothing fancy--basic, hearty white or black bread--but it is fresh. The meat section of a Russian supermarket is a lot smaller than at your neighborhood Heinens (Cleveland shout out!), and meat prices are actually equal to or even a little more expensive than in the states (thanks big agribusiness). Then there are the junk-food isles, which are far less stuffed full of junk than in the states--chips take up just a little slice of one isle in the supermarket I go to every day. Shoot, there is more space devoted to pickles and other pickled foods than to potato chips. Don't come to one of these stores looking for anything unusual, that is, anything not in the usual Russian culinary palate. Pelmeni? Got those. Whole frozen fish? Check. Salsa? Forgot it. Lunch meat? Out of the question (you can get sausage, but shaved ham or deli turkey simply doesn't exist).
Here are a few pictures of the Russian grocery store experience. The amazingly fancy store is Yelisevskii in Moscow, which is a place I frequented when I had my internship in Moscow in the Summer of 2011. Pretty nice, huh?
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