Russian food in the UK

When you live abroad for a while, especially when you're talking years, you pick up a taste for the local food, eating habits which stay with you. You miss elements of British food and certain products when you're over there - I remember wanting malt loaf for about a month and having to make do with a dark, fruit bread. Equally, this leads to similar quests for particular delicacies back in Britain...

beer snacks

Shops
The changing face of immigration in the UK can be seen through the differences in shops specialising for certain nationalities. In our area, there were shops ten years ago representing the Caribbean, the Asian subcontinent and the far East - that was about it. Added to those now are Arab, more general multi-national targeting a variety of backgrounds and Polish/ Baltic stores. With the lack of specifically Russian ones outside London, we use the local Polish shop. You can get some of the products you never seen even in British supermarkets with world food sections - semechki (sunflower seeds), kefir (a fermented milk drink), a range of sweets and biscuits, buckwheat, a full range of pickles and pelmeniy (Russian dumplings, though in fairness, I've not found any decent ones back in the UK). Smetana (soured cream) is usually under half the price of that found in supermarkets too and your typical 'British range' of fruit and veg can be far cheaper in some of these shops catering for a variety of nationalities.

Kefir

Relatives
We're always glad to see relatives when they come to visit. An added bonus is the suitcase with an assortment of seldom-seen pleasures - kagor, cured pig fat, dried fish, caviar, sukhariki (cubed, flavoured croutons eaten as a snack with beer - flavours as diverse as jellied meat, salmon or horse radish, unsurprisingly I prefer bacon), sweets, oreshki (shortbread biscuits filled with dulce de leche) - and foods requested for being so much cheaper than here: buckwheat, unprocessed porridge (not the 5-minute to cook rolled oats).

caviar and meat

Us going abroad
Our last trip to a former-Soviet country was to Ukraine last year. Most normal tourists come back with bottles of vodka and maybe some chocolates. Not us... we came back with about 10kg+ of various grains (oats, buckwheat and millet) and ripping seams on our luggage.

Before the handles snapped on one.

Cooking
God-dammit... if all else fails, you have to do it yourself - pelmeniy, sochen, the variety of soups and salads, napolean (a layered-cake with a custard filling), lightly-salted pickled cucumbers and oreshki.

home-made oreshki