Recently I was watching one of the most popular Soviet comedies of all time Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future for the millionth time, recalling how almost every phrase in that movie was enshrined in the pop culture. In the movie a home-grown scientist sends a regular Soviet bureaucrat to the past where he just happens to look like Ivan The Terrible, who in turn travels back to the 1973 Moscow. In one of the scenes the fake Tsar is having a feast and the dishes are being announced as they arrive: “Black Caviar” (huge bowl), “Red Caviar” (huge bowl), “And from overseas, Eggplant Caviar” (a small drop of supposed delicacy).
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPfTAX590Wg
This is a tongue-in-check reference to the Soviet food supply system where the real caviar was hard to find and was resold on the black market while so called “eggplant caviar” and “zucchini caviar” where sometimes the only items on the mostly empty shelves and were frowned upon by the Soviet people. That’s why I don’t recommend most Russian comedies to an unprepared American viewers they need to be thoroughly explained.
Needless to say that I didn’t miss these not-so-good vegetable concoctions, but when I read this recipe it sounded good enough to try.
For this recipe you will need about 3-4 lbs of zucchini, 3 medium onions, 2 large red peppers, 6-8 tomatoes, 4 oz of tomato paste, 1 pepperoncino (this lady lives in Italy, I used some pepper I grabbed in the Mexican aisle), salt, pepper and olive oil.
Cut zucchini into small cubes, put in a separate dish and sprinkle with salt. Cube peppers and onions. Heat up some olive oil in a skillet, add chopped pepperoncino (or whatever you are using) and red peppers and saute on both sides. Remove to another dish, I used my enameled cast iron pot. Add more oil to the skillet and saute the onions until translucent; when done, move them to the pot. Squeeze the liquid from zucchini and saute in the skillet, add to the pot. Cube the tomatoes (I removed the seeds), saute them in the olive oil adding the tomato paste. Combine with the rest of the vegetables. Add salt and pepper to taste and cook on a medium heat for about 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
It’s probably a good thing that this zucchini caviar doesn’t taste like the stuff I remember from my childhood. Sometimes the memory is good enough to satisfy the food nostalgia without having to subject the taste buds to the horrible taste of the past.
As much as hate and avoid various meet-ups, tweet-ups, social events, flash-mobs, actions with noble goals and everything that comes with it, it’s totally different when I do it.
Instead of participating in anything, just stop by and have a donut at the John’s Space Age Donuts in Overland Park this Wednesday from 8 to 10 (or whatever time works for you).
Photo by Eric Cartner
This Wednesday, May 19th, wasn’t picked at random. It’s the Soviet Pioneer Day. On this day a certain chain opens another location just down the the street, so an old donut shop which has been around since 1967 can use a few more customers. John’s Space Age Donuts are better anyway and I am buying the first dozen.
Photo by Eric Cartner
Besides free donuts (if you are fast), there may be local celebrity sightings, and you will enjoy not being part of the herd stampeding to fill up on the mediocre East Coast pastries.
These photos are tagged “Kansas City Crime” at the Life Magazine Archives. There is a whole set of them, without any names, descriptions or explanations. I have no idea who these people are and how are these places linked to crime. The photos are dated May 5,1950.
I have a camera too, you know.
This composition is called “Another Forecast Screw-up”. In it we see a local weatherman staring at the snow he didn’t predict. He is bent under the heavy guilt and curses of the TV viewers. The sculptor expressed heavy burden of being a failed meteorologist through the tense back muscles and a somber pose. Viewer could almost feel the weatherman thinking: “I should have listened to my parents and went to a law school”. Stone, snow, shuttlecocks. Author unknown.
The next composition is called “Flower Power Melts The Snow”. Rusted Car, Snow, Trees. Donated by D&C Scrapyards.
This photo is called “See a Man About A Horse”. In it we observe three major components: a group of submerged lights which signify the word “see”, a man and a horse. The lights are submerged in the vessels with water. The artist wanted to show how electric hazard affects the other components of the composition. Does it scare a man? A horse? We don’t know.The calmness reflects the thought that the man and the horse in the photo don’t know anything about electric safety. Maybe the horse actually knows something because it’s looking away. The man is clueless though.
Man, Horse, Electric Hazard. Donated by the Fire Department.
Lastly, I took this photo of a journal where visitors are encouraged to leave their thoughts. No Comment.
