"For those who feel nostalgic for delicacies of past years ... the producers of the company 'Russian Cold' collected the best samples from your childhood" under the brand name CCCP (that is, USSR). The company's website labels this confection an eskimo — a generic name, in member states of the former Soviet Union, for chocolate-covered ice cream on a stick. The ice cream itself, according to the company, is plombir, an especially rich variety heavy with fat and sugar.
As for the stick, it separated from the ice cream during the innocent act of removing the foil wrapper. Fortunately, I had fast hands and sufficient napkins.
Previously: Russian kvass reminds me of Caribbean malta. Both are brewed soft drinks, nonalcoholic or nearly so, that attempt to play the role of thirst-quencher, not always convincingly. Many commercial brands of malta, for example, have a syrupy character that smacks of molasses, sometimes Yoohoo. Unlike malta, kvass is fermented though not necessarily effervescent; it too can seem syrupy. After downing a full bottle of Troika brand kvass, I felt thirstier for the effort. Perhaps the raisins, from which Troika and many other commercial renditions of kvass take their flavor, are the reason.
Also shown: Peterburgsky nut torte with caramel hid the flavor of hazelnut under too much caramel and chocolate. Nonetheless, when proffered to friends, it disappeared very quickly.
Taste of Russia
219 Brighton Beach Ave. (Brighton 1st St.-Brighton 1st Pl.), Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
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