Lex Libertas

Well, if it's anything like Bulgaria (and it sounds like more things are like Bulgaria in Russia than aren't) you'll have to wait until summer to get a good supply of fruits and veggies. We've had nothing but imports and the crappiest tomatoes I've ever tasted since September here.

Lots of mandarins for some reason though. I never even saw those in summer and suddenly ever fruit stand has mandarins. Just plain odd.

Yes Owen, those are squirrels. The prime component of any Russian food. Didn't you know ?

But in reality, "byelok" means "egg white" originally, but in this context it means "protein". Note the singular form, "byelOk" (emphasis on the O), as opposed to the singular form of "byElka" (emphasis on the E), which means "squirrel".

Not sure what PP/PR is. Oh, and this is the last time you badmouth buckwheat, which is one of my favorite foods. Do I have to come over there and slap you ? Do I ?

In any case, you're right about bread: rye bread, and buckwheat (which is also a type of grain product) are the staples and cornerstones of Russian diet. Phrases such as "our daily bread" have literal meanings in Russia. Inicidentally, if they still have it, you should try Rizhsky or Borodinsky bread; they used to be quite tasty... but... even at the time when we were leaving the country, these types of bread were already disappearing (artificial shortages, take 256), so you may be out of luck. These breads were the real rye kind, too -- not the California "rye", which means "wheat bread with food coloring". Bleah.

Oops, on reflection, I forgot to emphasize: the plural of "byelOk" (protein) is "byelkI" (emphasis on the I), whereas the plural of "byElka" (squirrel) is "byElki" (emphasis on the E). Russian is not an easy language to learn, but at least there's a pattern.

So how would you say "squirrel proteins"? "Byelki byelki"? What about "recombinant proteins"?

What about shut up, Tony? Try that one.
haha i kid i kid

You all have just got a glimpse of the nightmare that is the Russian language. Just one of the more difficult parts of the language, at that. The same word can have different meanings depending on where the stress falls. Literally, emphasizing one syllable over another can change the meaning of the word, in this case from protein to squirrel. Of course, I guess english isn't the best in this sense, though stress doesn't really matter, we sometimes have the same word mean completely different things, but at least we often spell the meanings differently. How am I supposed to know what freakin' stress to put on a word I'm reading for the first time!!!

Well, you can think about it logically, for one. "Hmm, is my meal actually made out of squirrels ? No ? Then it must be proteins". See, that wasn't too bad :-)

With the food over here, you never really know.

Well yeah, I'd start seeing squirrels too, if I ate nothing than pel'meni month after month (no matter how good they are). You might think of branching out into bliny (a kind of Russian crepe, only not as ephemenral as the French versions), or blinchiki (the same crepe, stuffed with delicious goodness).

I want to branch out to blinchki, but first I have to buy a frying pan, all I have now is a pot. It's a task for next week.