End results

[Tab]

I'm too tired to look up the other thread...

That butter spread thing with Kafir - just tasted like butter.

Winners were the marinated tomatoes from the Ukraine (f*cking yum) and the smoked beef sausage from Tel Aviv (or what little I could get of it - my teenage son ate 90% of it). Butterfish - nothing special. I'd rather have lox. Smoked kalpa or whatever it was - make for a good dog treat although, as I said, if I was in a Russian dacha on a cold winter's night with a fire roaring and a bottle of vodka, I could see munching on thme. Short of that, though... I think my dogs will like them.

[Warpy]

1. Kefir is a cultured milk, so the butter would taste like butter

with a slight tang and lower fat. In fact, mixing butter with kefir cheese sounds like something I might have done back in the day when I was trying to stretch a dollar.

The smoked kalpa sounds like something to have on hand for when you get snowed in and desperate.

[Tab]

2. I'm going back, definitely getting more sausage

wlll bring a friend - she's a foodie and =jewish and can hopfully identify some of the hebrew things.. between us we should be able tto come up with a new set of exproments.

[grasswire]

3. there is a book.....

http://www.powells.com/biblio?PID=28368&cgi=product&isbn=3895082341

It supposedly has a lot of information about the market foods of Europe, including Eastern Europe. It may be out of print and hard to find. I saw copies available somewhere for about $50. It's a really big book with lots of photos.

A lot of photos of Russian market foods are available in the reviews of those markets existing in Vancouver Washington, as well as a lot of info about the foodstuffs. Go here for that: http://www.extramsg.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=177




And here is the link to a review of my local market

http://www.extramsg.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=197

[grasswire]

4. house made tomatoes

Additionally, my local shop has shelves and shelves of jars of these marinated vegetables. Lots of different brands.

[Tab]

5. I was able to order a copy through Amazon

prices range from $26 to $70, depending on condition and seller. Thanks!