Mmm. Butter.

Last weekend was the end of Russia's annual Maslenitsa festival, and consequently, I've been spending the last week trying to lose the kilo I gained. I probably won't burn many calories by typing, but what the heck.

Maslenitsa is a wonderful holiday pretty much based around butter. Okay, it's about more than that, but butter is a major component. Masla even means butter, so there ya go.

Alright, seriously now. Maslenitsa was started waaay back by the pagans. It started as a celebration of the return of spring and the sun (which is extremely absent during winters up here). They would celebrate by eating blini, which look like the sun, smeared with oodles of butter. Mmm. When Christians came along in the 5th century or so, naturally they were appalled by the pagans, but like many traditional holidays, they found a way to work it into the Christian calendar. "Hey," they said. "Let's make this a pre-Lent feast." Much like Mardi Gras or Carnival, it's a chance to let loose and eat a lot before meat and fun are banned from your life for 40 days.

The irony here is that when Russia turned communist/atheist, Maslenitsa was seen as a Christian holiday, and thus it was banned, along with everything else even remotely religious. Considering its roots are pagan and it doesn't actually celebrate anything religious, I find it strange that it was given the boot, but what can you do. After perestroika in '96, the celebration returned, although somewhat awkwardly; what do you expect after a 70-year hiatus?
One thing Russians haven't forgotten how to do is eat, in large, rich quantities. The festivals and traditions (which apparently include burning effigies and taking sleigh rides) will take some time to resurrect (or reinvent entirely), but the blini are definitely in place.

Last Sunday, which was the final day of Maslenitsa, Jonathan and I scored tickets to a festival concert at the new Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall. The building itself was quite old and had been used for concerts for many years, but in 2003 a fire destroyed most of the inside, leaving just the outer shell. They decided to preserve the exterior and hired an architect to design the inside around keeping and restoring the outside. The fnished product was christened quite recently. It's almost a theatre-in-the-round, with seats in front of and behind the stage. The architecture is very modern Russia... weird, unique, and a little bit cheesy.

This is a weird bubble chandelier in the main lobby:



And this is the concert hall itself:



The concert was of a short ballet, Apollo, and an oratorio, Tsar Edip, both by Straviinsky, and conducted by the incredible Valery Gergiev. We had great seats; the stage is sort of sunken below the level of the audience, so we were sitting at eye-level with the performers. Nothing like really being in on the action.

Afterwards, our tickets also included a Maslenitsa reception, where we ate ourselves silly. There were stuffed blini,



blini with mushrooms,



blini with farmer cheese,



blini with chocolate,



and most importantly, blini with sour cream and caviar.



They even cook these things on a stick.



It's not like blini are ever hard to find in this country; but a festival whose main objective to eat them is not something I'll object to. Except, of course, during the week after when I can hear my arteries clogging. Therein lies the glory of Maslenitsa: after a winter of craving rich foods to keep out the chill, you finally go so ape eating them that a 40-day fast is a welcome relief. I can't wait to sit down with a big bowl of fresh cucumber and tomato.

And maybe a blini on the side.

Pecan Update

After talking to my friend at work about pecans and their mysterious absence in Russia, I decided to do some google searching to see if I could figure out why they aren't here.

I didn't come up with any answers- but I DID find something even weirder.

Before I go on, I should also mention that my friend and I also talked about dark chocolate and how it's pretty hard to track down here. It is possible to find, but it's much less prevalent than milk chocolate. She stated that she finds dark chocolate too "sour" and so do her friends. Whether it's ice cream, chocolate, cakes, whatever, Russians tend to like their treats as sickeningly sweet and creamy as possible.

So, my friend and I both found it hilarious when I stumbled upon this:

http://russianfoods.com/showroom/product01319/vendor003E7/default.asp

This is a website that supposedly specializes in Russian products, and they're selling PECANS covered in DARK CHOCOLATE. I (and any Russians I've mentioned this to) can not think of anything LESS "Russian" than the combination of pecans and dark chocolate. I love how they even come in a souvenir-ish laquer box. Someone should put this website out of their embarrassing misery.