From Russia with Love

Office Bliny Brunch!

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:25:15 +0400

Office Bliny Brunch!

Russian bliny (crepes) recipe

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 09:34:54 +0400

So I am finally posting some recipes…The occasion? I decided to make a big batch of bliny for my office, inviting them to bring whatever they think might go well in a typical crepe, be it a savory or sweet one. I have attempted this by myself once before in the United States and a few times in Saint Petersburg. Big differences can be made in what pan you use, whether you add oil or butter to the batter or to the pan, how thick or thin you pour the batter, and, of course, converting a recipe from metric to US measurements! Here are both recipes so that you can choose what is best for you. A note, a bliny recipe to Russians is somewhat similar to a pasta sauce or salsa recipe…it seems like everyone has their own take on it and opinions on what makes the best blin (one blin, two or more bliny).

Metric Recipe (original with conversions, compliments of Ilya Varnayev)

560 kg of flour (roughly 2 1/3 cups flour, exact is 2.367 cups)
6 eggs
1 L milk (roughly 4 1/4 cups of milk, exact 4.227 cups)
6 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Add dry ingredients together and mix. Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients slowly to wet ingredients. There should be mostly no lumps, but it doesn’t need to be perfectly lump free. Batter should be very liquidy, not thick!

Optional: Add 1/4 stick of butter, melted, to batter. Lightly butter pan.

Heat a medium-sized flat pan (preferably non-stick) to medium heat. Using a medium-sized ladle (for medium-sized pan), pour a ladle-full of batter onto the pan. The easiest way to do this is if you hold the pan at an angle and turn the pan such that the batter forms a thin layer on the bottom of the flat portion of the pan.

When the sides start to dry and turn brown, turn the blin over. It should be done in about 30 seconds. The opposite side will be brown and spotty.

Do not be discouraged if the first blin turns out rather…messed up. The Russian have a saying “perviy blin - komom”, which means the first blin is a blob, essentially.

I assure you the second will turn out much better!

My brother tried bliny for the first time today. He had since made a blin and jelly burrito and an ice cream blin sandwich. I’ve also made blin smore’s for my Russian friends while I was in Russia due to an acute lack of graham crackers.

They can be sweet or savory, depending on your taste. This recipe works fine for both, but I would suggest perhaps decreasing the sugar in the recipe if you want the blin to be less sweet. I have also once completely forgotten to put eggs in batter before, and they came out no less delicious and formed than their egg-y counterparts.

Also, not that I am forgetting…but using a large pan, I have so far made 12 bliny with enough batter for a few more.

Enjoy your bliny! Try it with caviar…if you dare!

My boss recently came back from Russia and gave me this set of...

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 03:06:36 +0400

My boss recently came back from Russia and gave me this set of Russian nesting dolls (or matryoshka in Russian). They’re so cute! Would you believe that after so many times traveling to Russia, I never got myself any matryoshkas! So I present, my first ever matryoshka! I am so glad my job keeps me connected to Russia :)

About my internship at ITMO

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 04:19:14 +0400

About my internship at ITMO:

Here is a page from the UCLA EURECA website which features a profile of me for the internship I did last year at Saint-Petersburg National Research University for Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics. As you can see on the website, I now work at the UCLA EURECA program. =)

Almost one year ago today, I returned from Moscow and soon after...

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 04:08:56 +0400

Almost one year ago today, I returned from Moscow and soon after left for St. Petersburg. It was an amazing year of my life, my internship was one of my favorite parts of that year. Now I get to see off the next generation of UCLA-ITMO interns and UCLA Flagship students…getting nostalgic for Petersburg and ITMO! Now I get to live vicariously through them…luckily I still get to work with EURECA and Russia :)

Russia set to ease visa rules for American business people and tourists!

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 09:28:42 +0400

Russia set to ease visa rules for American business people and tourists!

Funding for Russian Students to Study Abroad!

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 01:48:07 +0400

As a part of the Global Education Program (rus. Глобальное образование), as many as 3,000 Russian students over a period of 3 years could receive funding to study in foreign institutions starting in 2013. The institutions must be among the 300 top-rated schools according to international ratings. According to the more recent information I was able to find, students could receive up to $53,000 towards tuition and some other specified expenses in the form of a loan. If the students return to Russia after their study abroad and work for a period of three years, they do not have to pay back the loan. If they do not fulfill this requirement, they will have to pay back the loan including interest (which should be a competitive interest rate). Russian students currently studying abroad are also eligible to apply.

The Strategic Initiatives Agency (rus. Агентство стратегических инициатив) will be working on developing this program. Currently, this initiative is in the project stage, but President Vladimir Putin has showed support.

For more specific information, I have translated the following excerpt from a news article from the Strategic Initiatives Agency website:

In accordance with the project for the decree on the volume of financing of the Program (Global Education Program), at the expense of the federal budget, no less than 5 billion rubles (in 2012- 0.5 billion rubles, in 2013- 1.5 billion rubles, in 2014- 2.0 billion rubles, in 2015- 1.0 billion rubles) will be allocated for the support of education (compensation of education) for no less than 3,000 citizens of the Russian Federation for the period of 2012-2015 (in 2012- 250 students, in 2013- about 900 students, in 2014- 1200 students, in 2015- about 650 students).

[“Согласно проекту Указа объем финансирования Программы за счет средств федерального бюджета составит не менее 5,0 млрд. рублей (в 2012 г. - 0,5 млрд. рублей, в 2013 г. - 1,5 млрд. рублей, в 2014 г. - 2,0 млрд. рублей, в 2015 г. - 1,0 млрд. рублей), с учетом содействия обучению (компенсации обучения) за счет средств Программы не менее 3000 граждан Российской Федерации в период 2012-2015 годов (в 2012 году - около 250 человек, в 2013 году - около 900 человек, в 2014 году - 1200 человек, в 2015 году - около 650 человек).” ]

Current Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev had also stated during the last month of his term as president that doctors and professors should be sent abroad to study or take retraining.

Note: For reference, for international students seeking to attend UCLA as an undergraduate student, estimated costs for attendance for 2012-2013 are $55,300 (http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/newbruins/Intl_Budget.htm). Graduate and Post-graduate programs range in cost. However, some universities may have agreements for exchange programs with UCLA, which would allow a certain amount of students to study at UCLA but at their home school’s tuition rates, and an equal amount of UCLA students to do the same thing at the foreign institution. I am not sure how many Russian universities have such agreements, but many Chinese universities have such agreements. I do not know how this could apply to the Global Education Program, but it is something to consider.

For more information:

In English:

http://www.nature.com/news/go-west-young-russian-1.10633

http://thepienews.com/news/putin-plans-to-fund-top-students-abroad/

http://www.rt.com/news/prime-time/education-abroad-program-russia-589/

http://www.examiner.com/article/stanford-uc-berkeley-ucla-and-other-top-schools-attract-russian-student

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2012/05/russia-mulls-plan-overseas-study-scheme

In Russian:

http://www.rg.ru/2012/05/10/obuchenie.html

http://www.economy.gov.ru/minec/about/structure/depsoc/doc20120426_06?presentationtemplate=docHTMLTemplate2&presentationtemplateid=76b66780446888f597aef7af753c8a7e&WCM_Page.ResetAll=TRUE&CACHE=NONE&CONTENTCACHE=NONE&CONNECTORCACHE=NONE

http://www.economy.gov.ru/minec/about/structure/depsoc/doc20120426_06

http://www.asi.ru/smi/1857/

http://www.asi.ru/smi/1440/

http://asi.ru/news/2544/ (very recent post 6/22/2012)

Went to the Oceanarium in St. Petersburg today! It was very...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:41:33 +0400

Went to the Oceanarium in St. Petersburg today! It was very interesting and was much more impressive than what I was imagining, based on my experiences seeing animals in the circus and at the zoo. They had a pretty big selection and the animals seemed very active with very clean tanks. Of course, it was no Sea World, everything was inside, and understandably so! The weather has only recently been warm. With a student ID, the ticket price is pretty reasonable. I would suggest going early to avoid the crowds though!

Ice is still flowing down the Neva, must be Spring :)

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:08:20 +0400

Ice is still flowing down the Neva, must be Spring :)

I’m dreaming of a bigger coffee cup…but at least I...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:14:00 +0400

I’m dreaming of a bigger coffee cup…but at least I didn’t have to bring my laptop to work today. I am almost done translating these annotations, too! I’m ready to feel so accomplished…5 more paragraphs, give or take.

Today is Russian Orthodox Easter, so Happy Easter everyone! I...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 13:14:00 +0400

Today is Russian Orthodox Easter, so Happy Easter everyone! I celebrated it this morning at my host mom’s parent’s apartment. We had the traditional Russian cakes “Kulich” and “Paskha”, which I tried for the first time. Kulich is a light, round cake and Paskha is made from tvorog(Russian sweet cheese) and raisins and is shaped almost like a pyramid. They are quite delicious! We also had colored hard-boiled eggs. It was my first time celebrating Orthodox Easter. It was a very delicious breakfast, but I do miss my family’s traditional breakfast dish, creamed eggs on toast. My mom is saving me some Easter candy (Peeps and Cadbury eggs!) for when I get back in June. Hopefully, my brothers won’t find them!

The Neva is melting and the ice looks very pretty floating down...

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 20:02:48 +0400

The Neva is melting and the ice looks very pretty floating down the river!

The Neva is now only half frozen, it is Spring yet? :) The days...

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:58:37 +0400

The Neva is now only half frozen, it is Spring yet? :) The days are getting noticeably longer, I love it! Yesterday, we had all types of weather going on: sunny, snowy, rainy, icy…Most of the snow had melted by this morning, and today has been relatively warm (-1 to 4 degrees Celsius) and sunny. It would be a nice day for baseball…

Taken by Aleksander Nevsky Monastery around 8am this morning.

It’s okay, St. Petersburg. You can keep snowing if you...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:47:27 +0400

It’s okay, St. Petersburg. You can keep snowing if you want. In two months, I’ll have all the summer weather I could want!

"From Russia with Love" article published in "University ITMO"

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:47:19 +0400

"From Russia with Love" article published in "University ITMO":

My internship had me write an article about myself in Russian for their university journal. It just got published in the March edition and my boss gave me a copy of it today. Very awesome!

A very clear day and a very pretty sunset last week—but...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:12:53 +0400

A very clear day and a very pretty sunset last week—but today it snowed again. I love the snow, but not when everything that just melted refreezes!

My friend gave me Valen’ki for my birthday! They are sooo...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 20:33:50 +0400

My friend gave me Valen’ki for my birthday! They are sooo warm!!! =)
Here is a description from the article on Wikipedia about what they are: “Valenki (Russian: валенки; sg valenok (Russian: валенок)) are traditional Russian winter footwear, essentially felt boots: the name valenokliterally means “made by felting”. Valenki are made of wool felt. They are not water-resistant, and are often worn with galoshes to keep water out and protect the soles from wear and tear. Valenki were once the footwear of choice for many Russians, but in the second half of the 20th century they lost most of their appeal in cities, due to their association with rustic dress.

Valenki (synonymic and semantic related expressions which mean the same – vа́lenukhi (pl.), vа́lezhki, vа́leni, vа́lentsi, kа́tanki) – warm felted highboots made from dried sheep’s wool; they are usually hard by their form, but there are soft types which are made for a corresponding footwear.”

This week is Maslenitsa (Russian Carnaval)! During this week,...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:46:19 +0400

This week is Maslenitsa (Russian Carnaval)! During this week, the custom is to cook and eat a huge amount of this dish in the picture above: bliny. They can be filled or topped with just about anything from fish or caviar to fruit or jam. The official translation is “pancake”, but I think they are more like crepes. This one is filled with tvorog (sweet farmer’s cheese), vareniye (syrupy jam) and banana chips. It was delicious!!!

The Church on the Spilled Blood (Спас-на-крови)—perhaps...

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:35:58 +0400

The Church on the Spilled Blood (Спас-на-крови)—perhaps one of my favorite places in Petersburg. It’s so pretty no matter the season or from which side you look at it!

Attending a two-day SumIT Startup School at ITMO. :)

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:06:30 +0400

Attending a two-day SumIT Startup School at ITMO. :)