Russia - South of Italy is here

Home Party with Girls

Elena is hosting a party for her closest friends (girls this Saturday). For this Elena wants to cook pasta with shrimps according to the Southern Italian recipe. She asks the shop assistant about different shrimps and settles for the large ones without the head.

But then she decides to look up the recipe on her iPhone online and is surprised to find out that actually the respected blogger who lives in Italy advises to use the ones with the head. The head is used to give the extra flavor to the juice.

The rocket salad, sundried tomatoes and parmejano will be the accompanying salad components.

Cooking at home

All the ingredients are ready:

Elena is surprised to find out that the new salad Belaya Dacha is already washed (in the packaged on the left). She know washes the greens that were sold in a usual package:

Now the greens are cut:

And the shrimps have to be peeled:

The shells are peeled, the head has to torn off and saved for frying later, for the sauce. One peculiar detail is the removal of the intestines. "If we don't remove it will make the shrimps taste bitter."

Now the shrimps are peeled. And the cherry tomatoes have to sliced.

The whole process is carefully organized and planned. Every utensil and ingredient finds its own place. Everything is orderly and enjoyed.

"I do everything carefully and in a nice-looking way. I enjoy the cooking as much as I enjoy the grooming process. Sitting with the mirror and all my cremes and stuff."

Now stage 1 is complete and a glass of wine is well-deserved. The guests will arrive in about an hour.

"I don't like garlic and onions at all. But in this dish you have to have garlic in the sauce. You fry it in the oil until it gets brownish and then throw it out."

After the garlic leaves the pan we add the heads and the spicy pepper. We need the juice to for the sauce.

Before throwing the pasta in the water some olive oil needs to be added for the taste.

The trick with the pasta is to get it in the water without breaking:

And finally the shrimps need to be fried on a high temperature for a short period of time:

The guests have arrived and the dinner is served:

The salad comes after everyone is seated:

[Unfortunately girls object making pictures during the party itself.]

The guests tonight are the three girls who are the closest friends.

They discuss the different kinds of cheese on the plate. "This one with the fig is kinda sweet and nice."

Then they talk about the wines on the table and the wines they bought recently. The prices, the places of production, the bouquet. In the end everyone agrees that the wines of the New World are more rich in flavors and in genera are better quality then the French ones. "The French are losing the market! I will choose a wine from Chile over a wine from France any day now!"

Then they discuss different famous Russian culinary bloggers. The host is promoting the author of the today's pasta as the real whiz.

Then they move on to TV series and movies. The usual suspects - House MD, Dexter... "If you start watching Prison Break you can't stop until you watch all the episodes! I have several friends who couldn't go to bed till 8 am. They even went out in the middle of the night to buy the next season."

Then somebody mentions that you don't have to go out and buy DVDs actually. You can download everything on torrents.

One girl boasts that her provider sells the fastest connection in town - "I can download a movie in a couple of minutes. Really!"

Another girl boasts that she has a high seeding ratio on the torrent tracker everyone in the room is using. "I just download the most popular film and let it seed for several days." - "And I leave it on and seeding when I go on a business trip."

Then they move on to discussing HDMI connection formats. "The quality of the sound is really astound with this new format. The picture is good even on the VGA connection [from laptop to TV]. But the sound is something that makes HDMI worth it."

Next subject is sports. Two of the girls have started playing tennis again after a 10 year break. They discuss their instructor and how in summer they will be able to wear short tennis skirts.

"I go to the gym 3 times and I feel great. I can't imagine myself without it now!"

One girl is having a birthday soon and she wanted to order a table in one of the high-end clubs in town. She discovered it will cost her 100 thousand rubles (2300 pounds) and she decided against it. "I might as well take everybody to Turkey for 3 days instead for the same of money."

Everyone is excited about that option and go on discussing sun, sand and the sea. Two of the girls grew up on the Baltic sea and miss it all in Moscow. "You go back to your town and realize that your friends look like they are 20. That's what the sea does to you! And you don't have to spend a fortune on cosmetologists."

Conclusion: Parties for friends around the cause of serving a specialty are a great bonding session where all the subjects discussed are related to one big issue - How to improve your life - both materially and spiritually - through technology, sports, movies, food, sea, etc.

Opportunity:
We see that Food Lovers are different in their attention to details ("The head of the shrimps are used for the sauce. The intestines have to go out to prevent bitterness.")

Traditional butter users are reached in housekeeping magazines with the message of 'naturalness'.

We see that Food Lovers have to be reached in different touch points with the messages of "Pay attention to this detail and it will improve your experience" - for example in traveling magazines where non-tourist routes are covered ("Pay attention to this fact while visiting this place and you will experience the other side of the country.").

Russia - Wrap it up as a foreign culture

Zhenia Kuyda, 23

Restaurant critic at the publishing house that recently launched a lifestyle magazine about food - Afisha Eda. We meet at a Georgian restaurant right next door to the publishing house.

"Afisha Eda studied the oil/butter breakdown in Russia. It turned that olive oil is used by less than 1% of the Russian population. So I wouldn't say there is a significant lifestyle/quality food trend going on in Russia.

Yes, there is a trend of people who think that everyone should have a "man he buys meat from at the market", a list of restaurants with favorite dishes, a grandma that brings 'real' butter from the village.

House in the Village dairy has been exploiting this trend for a while now.

Observation: This looks like a very Russian thing. In hair care consumers keep saying they have a friend hairdresser who supplies them with professional shampoos at wholesale prices. This may be the Soviet legacy - when you could get quality food only if you had connections.

"At the same time Afisha Eda sells more copies than its elder brother [the city guide magazine]. People don't have to actually follow all the advice and recipes from the magazine. They just enjoy reading about good cuisine."

Observation: People don't have to drive Bentleys and wear Breguet to read Esquire or GQ.

"I don't cook at home because I eat out a lot. My profession requires me to do so. Plus at my age I feel like partying and going out. Plus I follow the diet called Just For You. My daily meal comes in a box and they claim it was done personally for me."

"They probably lie about it and have only several options they combine for everybody. It is like the Barnum Effect. When we are told the horoscope was specified for us - 80% will believe it.

Opportunity: communicate the product as something customized according to personal needs.

I don't see myself falling for bliny and butter but if butter served to me as a part of a different culture - for example as a croissant with butter or dairy sauces - it seems to be healthy. You want to be a part of a different cultural experience. Beurre blance is insanely fat but you feel like its equal to olive oil.

Opportunity: communicate the product as part of a different (non-Russian) culture, different cuisine.

Russia - I want to be strong

Dasha, 23

[lives with her boyfriend, odd jobs as model, translator]

We go to Azbuka Vkusa not too far away from her house. She wants to show us how to make aubergines with salad and cheese and spices.

Despite the fact that there variety of the sorts of cheese is rich Dasha chooses the Russian one - Adygei cheese:

Dasha's granddad is Uzbeki - so she knows a lot about spices, but she chooses the one that is pre-mixed.

We end up with an assortment of vegetables and "cheese to make it feel finalized".

Dasha just woke up and hasn't ward up yet for a proper conversation. She opens up on the way home and at home. So we check out and head out home for cooking.

Shopping

One the way home I find out that Dasha and her boyfriend rarely go to this premium store. They regularly go to Metro Cash&Carry. This is where she digresses from what her boyfriend likes. He can buy a big pack of waffles and she hates this kind of junk food. Dasha then likes onion in any shape but her boyfriend objects to eating it a lot. So she has to refrain.

Dasha's meal routine usually consists of just vegetables and rice or buckwheat. Buckwheat is the only dish where she adds butter.

Her boyfriend usually buys something like Valio - something from the medium segment.

She specialized in Chinese at the University and regularly goes to China. She says that China has spoilt her. In China she could eat for less than 20 cents a day. And the food is cooked really fast there.

Open Markets

In Moscow in addition to Metro they go to local convenience stores and a nearby market. This is where Dasha picks up vegetables and spices. She mentions her Uzbeki roots and the vendors immediately show respect. She starts bargaining and they show even more respect.

Dasha knows about spices, how to make "the real pilaf", she feels comfortable at the market where most of the vendors of vegetables and rice come from the southern former-USSR countries.

Maslenitsa

Every year they host a big party dedicated to Maslenitsa and the ritual of burning the effigy of winter. They make bliny and burn the real effigy.

Opportunity: become the symbol of theme food parties.

Now Dasha starts cooking.

First she washes the vegetables with a brush and then pours hot boiled water over them for cleanliness.

The cheese is cut

The tomatoes are sliced while the first portion of aubergines is getting toasted.

Next she adds the spices.

Now the aubergines are sizzling:

In the meantime we notice an assortment of separate spices on the fridge:

It was brought from China. While Dasha grinds the carrot she notices that it seems OK judging by the juice. But the aubergines seem to be too dry for their price. You never know where you find the good food.

"I did a research once and bought kiwi in every place I saw in the city. My conclusion was that it must be imported from the same place. All the kiwis in town tasted like crap."

"You have to spend some time trying before you find your 'grandma' on the market who will always have good products for you."

She confesses that restaurants are the same. You come to a place where they charge you over 700 rubles for a salad (almost 18 pounds) and it's just a bag of rocket salad from the supermarket and some sauce.

While she lays pepper and tomatoes on the in the pan she tells about the baking machine in the corner.

"We make the most delicious bread with this machine. My friends come to taste it all the time, with butter. I never tried it with butter because I am afraid to get addicted."

"It is also funny that I use flour from the store, nothing unusual. But the bread from the store grows moldy and my bread never does. It dries in 2 days, that's all. I think they put something bad in the bread since it grows moldy."

By now the first portion is ready. Final touches:

We sit down to table:

The dish tastes simple, elegant and tasty but something is missing. Dasha warns that she tries to avoid salt. "Because it adds 10 years of your life".

Why the Good Food?

Soon Dasha is moving to China for at least a year. She doesn't want to work as a translator there according to her diploma. She wants to start a business of her own, to continue taking photographs, and explore the world.

"I want to eat healthy to live longer. I want to be stronger to be able to see and taste more. I want to travel before I am 30. I don't want to read about things I want to see with my own eyes."

"I am not satisfied with the way things are going in Russia [she refers to the recent scandal involving the Mail of Russia not delivering parcels from abroad on time]. I want to change what I can. And I need to be healthy for that."

Conclusion: It seems that people who are interested in quality food are the ones who are in general more inquisitive and pro-active.

Russia - The Smell of Food Creates the Mood

Veronika, 24

[Vegetarian. Single. Lives between her rented apartment (with flatmates) and her mom's apartment. Freelance PR agent.]

The Smell of Pies

We have an annual tradition of throwing a Maslenitsa party. It feels very home-like, nice, bonding. Everybody brings the different fillings for the bliny (pancakes). The dough is made in advance. Everybody enjoys the process of cooking and the atmosphere.

Honestly it feels like a matinee in the kindergarten. Even strangers felt like family members at that party. I don't eat pastry, pies and bliny but I enjoyed the atmosphere very much.

Opportunity: Communicate butter as the inherent component of bonding food theme parties.

Good Food

I used to date a boy who was a chef and I learnt a lot from him. We would buy all the premium ingredients from Azbuka Vkusa and have cooking nights. He would tell me about the combination of the sour and the bitter, the sweet and the spicy and all that stuff. I learnt from him that when all the receptors are activated that is when the real satisfaction comes.

Food is like a drug. It is the easiest way to get high and to fight depression.

My Mom and Butter

My Mom sticks butter everywhere. She cooks with mayonnaise, butter, layers of everything. She likes doing this layered casseroles with potato. It's all very heavy. But she avoids frying on butter because it is bad for health.

She shops spontaneously. She will buy 3 kilos of apples on promotion just because they were on promotion. But nobody eats them in the family.

Me and Shopping

I try to shop with a list all the time. I don't follow impulses in the store. My meal roaster is very limited now: buckwheat, rice, hummus... Hummus is my life! I can eat only hummus all my life. It is light, it spreads like soft cheese, it is not fat.

My mom knows it's futile to try to force some food on me. I can't even imagine myself right now as a good housewife. All my boyfriends run away because I don't know how to cook all those family things - bortsch, cous-cous, chak-chak... I have a friend who is married and keeps digging out all these recipes to please her man. These girls are really passionate about cooking.

In restaurants I am not sophisticated as well. I order Caesar Salad and Philadelphia rolls.

Restaurants

But I love going to restaurants. In Russia we have a few places that are similar to all those little cafes in Berlin. It always smells good inside them, it smells like different spices. Those cafes in Berlin are so varied and so unpretentious - you can't help but enjoy your time there. They have lots of soul.

In Moscow we miss the good human attitude.

In Berlin they have these regular open markets/fairs where someone is preparing food in big cauldrons. You eat that soup and you feel bonded with people around you.

Open markets in Russia are a scary place to be in general. Even premium supermarkets can literally stink sometimes. You don't feel like spending time there.

Opportunity: again food lovers shows themselves as people perceiving the world with all their senses. Impacting all their senses is sure-fire way to drive Sensuality for the brand that will make it a Lovemark eventually.

Russia - The sophisticated go back to the basic joy in life

Helen, 31

Lives alone with her mother, total income above average.

Cooking Experience

At school I was crazy about hand-written copies of recipes from whatever sources I could find. The favorite was of course the Big Cooking Book [scroll the link for pictures - this book was called "A Book anout Tasty and Healthy food"] every Soviet family had. [The internet wasn't used for recipes back then.] So I have a lot of experience of cooking. Now I don't even have to look it up online to understand how a dish is made.

I actually use internet only for email. I think people who spend all their time online are failures offline by default.

Inspiration from Restaurants

I spend most of my salary on restaurants. I love eating out. When I choose a place to eat I look at the design first. I am convinced that you can understand a lot about the food they serve by their approach to the interior design. That is why I like this fishery:

If I like the dish I will be able to copy it at home without a recipe. It's based on my experience plus on the fact that I am a 'sensoric' person. I like to touch, smell, see, taste, and so on.

If you have a passion for food - you feel it. You sense the combinations involved and you can always reproduce it.

For example in this restaurant (fishery) I like this Boston Soup. This is my favorite in this restaurant. And I have tried it at home once - successfully.

Sensoric People

I always compare food to sex. There are people who like sex and only some people really know how to do it. The same with food. Everybody loves eating but not everybody knows how to cook.

'Sensoric' people can do everything the like and know how to - dance, eat, make love, and basically express themselves creatively or artistically.

Good Food

We all grew up on the simple Soviet food which was "without the music accompaniment" so to say. It was plain and dumb.

Opportunity: Communicate the good food message with the involvement of all senses - with music in media, with tactile in-store comm's, etc.

Good Food is an Experience

You can't drink expensive wine on a bench so to say. The setting has to be proper. It is a lifestyle thing. It is also a system thing. You dress well, you drink well, you eat well - you follow one system in all your routes.

Smart vs. stupid people

Smart people differ from stupid people in terms of what they understand by pleasure. Smart people have reached the top of intellectual pleasures available on this Earth and realized that the simple pleasures is what matters.

They know that the real keif in life comes from exploring the simple pleasures. That is why my all-time favorite cartoon is Ratatouille.

Opportunity: It takes going all the way in your intellectual growth to understand that the simple pleasures of eating and drinking good are the ones to be cherished in life. (Similar to the insight behind the UK TVCs about Potato, Bread, etc.)

Russia - I Want to Frequent a Store on the Corner

Misha, 28, single, lives alone.

Soviet Background

At the age of 17 I discovered I had a gastritis. I had to abruptly stop eating smoked, hot or fried food. Now it is not so severe and I can manage to break some rules but as soon as I feel nauseated I know I have to stop eating or drinking something.

If I go back further in my childhood I remember that when in the early 1980s my dad started bringing new unknown food from abroad. First yogurt really shocked me. In the Soviet union we had only kefir and ryazhenka. That's what I was used to. I guess I am pretty conservative.

Conservative

I remember I saw the Century eggs for the first time in 1992 and I had none of it. It takes unusual circumstances to get me to change my habits. 2 years ago we went to Bali with friends. All the food was unknown and it was a nightmare to me. But I had no choice. Everybody had no choice. We ate only at that very local place, where the food is not adapted for Europeans. Only local - rice, seafood, chicken, noodles.

So everyone ended up hooked up on the Asian food and we started looking for something similar in Moscow.

Looking for Asian food

We found a Japanese supermarket in Moscow. When we go there with friends we buy lots of funny, weird, unknown stuff. We buy all we see like crazy and then it stays in the shelves for months because it's so weird.

Parties with friends

We do regular out-of-town parties. Girls cook at home salads and stuff and bring it with them. Boys choose meat or fish if it's a barbecue. When you prepare meat it is important to preserve the meat taste. You have to know how to make a marinade to preserve it. Wine is one option. But mostly we try to avoid lots of spices of herbs on meat.

Secondly, cutting is also very important. Because meat has a structure and cutting can help or spoil it in terms of softness.

Choosing food

For meat we go to the open market to one man (vendor) we know. We know him and trust him. Everyone who cares about the stuff he eats has to find one by trial and error.

Spices we choose from the people who cook meat regularly and know how to make a marinade and all that. When people know a lot about spices they deserve my highest respect.

For example at the Crimea we found this lady who asked us "What kind of a fish do you have? How do you want it? How do you plan to cook it?" and then she mixed some spices for us right on the spot. The fish was marvelous.

It is obvious that vegetables form the tent in the street smell like vegetables unlike the ones from the store.

Plus I have this friend who is a real guru. We go to Dorogomilovsky market with him [it is a well known market with quality food]. From him I learned that cooking is a "harsh" art. You have to understand how flavors work vs. knowing the recipes.

Butter

Now that I have learned to manage my gastritis I can fry meat and vegetables on oil (not olive). This is my most common dish cooked at home. I wish I had someone to cook for, but I am single. I have lots of friends but most parties take out of town or other places.

One pack of butter can last in my fridge for 2 months. I usually buy Valio or Vologodskoye. I know that there are different producers of Vologodskoye but mine is the color I remember. I choose it by the color.

I do not trust butter from open markets. When it's unpacked it is suspicious.

I guess butter is not the crucial product for that's why I am not too concerned. That is why I wouldn't care about deals in stores as well. Saving 10 rubles is not too interesting.

Trash Tradition

In summer we go on small hiking getaways with tents and stuff. We bring all the crazy canned food. Like sprat in tomato sauce. All kinds of cheap junk food that goes well only with vodka.

Organics

I am not too concerned. I know one girl who is crazy about it so I hear about it all the time. But I am not seeking it everywhere.

Good Food

My motto is Eat Products with Taste. If it tastes good it is good for you. That's why I will never go to MacDonald's.

But in Moscow even this rule is hard to follow. Restos are a disaster here. You have to keep a list. Meat is good here, fish is good there. There is no one place where all is equally good.

In France you go to any bakery and everything is mouth watering. In Moscow even in expensive bakeries what you get is hired people who don't care about you.

What we need is stores and restaurants where you know the owner. He is your neighbor or someone you got to know. This person will remember you and your habits and you will trust him.

We call it "Let's drive out to eat". You can never find a good place nearby. And it's true for everything in Moscow - everything you do you have to hunt it down across the city.

Shopping

Shopping is also a feat in Moscow. You have to hunt high and low to find stuff you want. So most of the times I am too lazy to drive and just go to the local stores. I guess I am pretty utilitarian in my approach to food.

Observation: People are tired of living in big cities (where you have to spend lots of effort to find sophisticated items), shopping in big supermarkets and chains (where hired people treat you like an object).

Opportunity: Provide more soulful, humane approach to your customers.

Russia - It Runs in the Family

Lisa, 28, lives with her mom and dad

(Serves tea and offers to add ginger and honey because she likes all those extras.)

On the eve of December 24th we went to Latvia with my friend Dasha. And we were lucky to catch their ginger cookie season. We would buy a big bag of them and I would finish half of the bag in no time! They were so delicious I had to try to do them myself back in Russia.

I went online and found the recipe but the problem was that by that time the Orthodox fasting season came and she had to avoid products like eggs and milk. I made the dough and without those ingredients it fell apart. I needed advice and I called my grandmas: "Grandma it wouldn't stick together! What do I do?!"

My grandmas know everything but the answer didn't come at once. After we tried several tricks and nothing worked grandma offered to use boiled water and it helped!

Cooking Rescue

Like almost every Russian family we have these Cooking books from 1953.



Everybody spent a lot of time looking at those pictures in their childhood.





Plus we have this notebook from my great-grandma with all the recipes through the generations:


I can always turn to these or online or call my grandmas for help.

Cooking for Friends

A friend of mine has a brother and mentioned once that he likes the cake called The Count's Ruins. I never heard about it and had to find out about it. So I discovered it is the same as Pancho. And I decided to make it for him. When it was ready I ring him up: "Come to my place and pick up your cake!"

He was very surprised and he gave these cookie cutters for New Year's and then a baker's syringe for the Women's Day. Now I have a huge collection of all the bakery additions and utensils.


I love it. And my friends love it. If we have a home party, people bring champagne and I bring rolls with cranberry and everybody is excited. Or for New Year's I make cookies and put them in the cooking sleeve and tie it at the ends so it looks like a giant candy and give it my friend as a gift. Of course everybody likes it more than stuff you can buy.

I am not concerned with spending time on cooking or baking.

Fasting and Cooking

I am fasting for several years now. Most of my family is fasting regularly. So cooking from scratch is a perfect way to make sure you avoid certain ingredients.

I know exactly what I eat when I cook myself.

Theme Food Parties

I haven't had alcohol in a long time. I prefer to drive everybody around to avoid drinking officially. It's OK - I can have fun when my friends are drunk. I can dance without drinking too.

Plus there was a shift in the way I entertain myself with friends. I realized I am through with clubbing. I even had to stop seeing some friends of mine who are still into clubbing all night.

Last time I went out with this girl I was clubbing together for a long time and when I told her I plan to go to bed by 1 am she was furious: "I would never even have called you if I knew you are not dancing till morning!"

I would rather just have a conversation in a cafe and go to bed before everybody else.

Conversations at these food parties are not forced like the ones in the clubs. Nobody has to pretend. Anything can become a subject. A cool video someone saw on Youtube or whatever.

Cooking buns with cinnamon

Let's cook buns with cinnamon! I've loved cinnamon since I was a child. I will do it so that everyone who fasts can eat it. I always have layered dough from the store in the fridge.

The trick is to know that you can spread it only along or across the dough. Never do it randomly in all the directions at once. It breaks the structure.

Cooking with Butter

I never bake using butter. I work at the seeds company - Russian Seeds - we sell seeds for planting, we make oil from seeds, we make mayonnaise. I know everything about those products.

I can add some butter in mashed potatoes. BTW I only do it with a blender, I love it whipped and light as feather.

Other than that I use butter only on sandwiches with caviar and that's it. I can forget to buy butter altogether. I know nothing about shopping for butter actually.

This is the butter mom buys. It's stored in door of the fridge until grandma comes to visit them and uses it all up on bakery.

Naturalness

2 years ago I found out I have allergy to sauces - to the unnatural stuff in it. I had something at MacDonald's and it broke out and my face became like a pillow. Now I have to watch closely and read the labels to avoid unnatural stuff. I look at the producer, judge by the image of it. It can tell you a lot.

Some of the rules you just have to remember. Like, never drink juice in packs only in glass bottles.

Or never buy water melons when it's not the season. You can buy them even now in spring but it will be full of chemistry. In summer I can eat only water melons for days.

Shopping

I recently asked friends on Facebook "Can you buy the vegetables from this company that advertises their freshness but judging from the size of the operation is it possible they can produce it all near Moscow in their hothouses?"

They probably import it. It's better to go to the open market. There you can at least have a CHOICE. You see tomatos from Abkhasia, Uzbekistan, etc. You can smell them and choose the best ones. Do you know that tomatoes should smell at the place where the branch is connected?

One big difference even from premium supermarkets is that at the market they have little space for storing so it doesn't sit in the store for a year deep frozen.

Conservative

I am actually very conservative. It took my mom several years to turn me on to aubergines. Now I can eat them everyday. Or I can stick to doing only lamb and pilaf at home for a long time.

[Now is the time to cut and lay the buns on the tray]

And now Lisa prepares the second part of the dough:

Shopping continued

Usually I shop in the nearby stores to avoid getting stuck in traffic. We have one trick with my girls to avoid traffic and human crowds. Once a month we go on a weekday to Metro Cash&Carry at exactly 11 pm. At 11.45 they start the shift change and you have to make it before that time. This is the only time when there is few people in the store.

We split in three routes with three trolleys. When we cross paths we ask if someone needs for example these spices and we buy a pack and divide it between each other.

This is the sauces that were bought there:

Good food

It's easy to define it. Good food doesn't take away from your health.

Plus you get the satisfaction from eating it - you give yourself a mental praise for not eating junk.

At one point I was eating lots of frozen vegetables fried on oil but the my allergy broke out and I had the official need to watch what I eat. That's when I bought a steam cooker. [It's hidden somewhere in the shelf because it's for the microwave and it's portable.]

[Now the buns are in the oven]

[When the buns are almost ready Lisa's mom comes in the kitchen. She tells how finding good food has changed from the Soviet times. It used to be you would be able to find the best fish and caviar in the Eliseevsky store in Moscow. Now all you get is rude shop assistants and expensive fish that is stored deep frozen, and not fresh from the sea as it used to be.]

Conclusion: Even if you have to avoid some products (due to fasting or allergy) you can still cook whatever you want if you are inventive enough.

Conclusion: Cooking from scratch is a way to make sure you consumer the right products (required by your diet, health or belief restrictions).