food, glorious food

Today my host mom called me a плохой человек (bad person) because I didn't finish my breakfast. I laughed, but she wasn't laughing. Hah. Hah. Hah.
I thought I had lucked out and escaped the wrath of the Russian force feeding, but apparently not. Oh well, such is life. In other news, I just finished off my favorite dinner of borsh, pelmeni, and tea. Before coming to Russia, I knew that Russians drink tea all the time, but I didn't think they'd actually drink it all the time. You mean you want a cup of water? What? No. Tea. You drink tea.
(You could also opt for beer, since it's cheaper than water, but that's a whole other story.)


Almost every restaurant has this nifty little deal called a бизнес ланч (business lunch). To pronounce it you say "business lunch" in a Russian accent. The standard is a soup/salad, main dish, and drink, all for less than $10. There are also variations of just soup, salad, and drink or just salad, main dish, drink and so on and so forth. It's quite the little gem.


The first McDonald's in Russia was opened in 1990, in Moscow. Our program director told us that she went with her family and that it was a really big deal to go to McDonald's. The line was also a few miles long.
I have yet to visit this "pearl of capitalism." A few of us have been to others a few times, but I didn't get a Big Mac. I feel like the Big Mac is the deciding food when trying to determine which country has the best McDonald's. I'm a little hesitant to make this decision, because "best" and "McDonald's" probably shouldn't be used in the same sentence, but nevertheless, a Big Mac I shall have.



We ate at a Mexican restaurant a few weeks ago.
They tried.



Anyways, it's time to get another cup of tea and read some Pushkin.

From Russia with love (and a full stomach),

Kara