Maxim Shabalin

[Ptichka]

http://ptichkafs.livejournal.com/

Shabalin misses the kefir
Samara skater is getting used to life in America
Artem LISOVSKY – September 17, 2008

Three months have passed since Maxim Shabalin started training in America. In June, Samara native, together with his partner Oksana Domnina, broke with his mentor Alexei Gorshkov to move across the ocean to train with a famous specialist Natalya Linichuk. Recently, Shabalin stopped by Moscow to extend his business visa. Turns out the athletes aren’t wasting time in America.

“Maxim and Oksana are working on the free program that Linichuk made for them”, told the skater’s mom Olga Vasilievna to the “KP”. “However, I cannot tell you what the music is; I wouldn’t want to give away the secrets to our competitors, right?”

According to the skater’s mom, Maxim Shabalin is slowly getting comfortable in America. Of course, life in the foreign land isn’t always easy.

“My son lives in a college town close to New York in a simple two-room apartment”, says Olga Vasilievna. “However, whereas the living conditions are quite comfortable, Maxim still hasn’t gotten used to American produce. My son especially misses fermented dairy products. You can’t even find basic kefir in America!”

Interestingly, Maxin Shabalin and Oksana Domnina befriended their direct competitors, Americans Belbin/ Agosto. The athletes even attended New York parties together.

“Maxim is not adversarial person”, smiles Olga Vasilievna. “He is pleasant with everybody. Also, Natalya Linichuk pays equal attention to her Russian and American teams.”

We’ll also add that the Samara skater will be in America until the Grand Prix event that will take place in Moscow on November 23d. It promises to be a hot competition. Besides Shabalin and Domnina, it will also host the team’s direct competitors to the right of being the first team in the country – World bronze medalists Yana Kokhlova and Sergei Novitski.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

One can get kefir and other fermented by looking them up on line. That's where I order sauerkraut - a very healthy fermented food.

 

[Ptichka]

It's just shocking to not see things you really consider "basic" in supermarkets. Kefir is something that was readily available in Russia even during the times of general shortages. For me, such a shocker was bread. You go into the supermarket, you're on the budget so you don't even look at the expensive stuff near the deli, and all you see in the bread aisle is that awful bleach-white stuff with absolutely no taste whatsoever! Once again, bread was always so cheap, tasty (if crude) and readily available in Russia... For years, I'd make the weekly visit to the Russian store (luckily, we have many of them in Boston, though when I arrived here 20 years ago, there was only one) to get my bread. My now, of course, I know plenty of other places to get the bread I like, but that first impression was certainly disappointing to say the least. Also, I still have a problem with American produce. Compared to Europe, fruits and vegetables here have no taste (with some notable exceptions, of course)! They have sweetness, but no aroma - this way, they are easier to pick when still not ripe, transport them without them going bad, and ripen them artificially. OK, sorry, rant over

 

[ManyCairns]

It's just shocking to not see things you really consider "basic" in supermarkets. Kefir is something that was readily available in Russia even during the times of general shortages. For me, such a shocker was bread. You go into the supermarket, you're on the budget so you don't even look at the expensive stuff near the deli, and all you see in the bread aisle is that awful bleach-white stuff with absolutely no taste whatsoever! Once again, bread was always so cheap, tasty (if crude) and readily available in Russia... For years, I'd make the weekly visit to the Russian store (luckily, we have many of them in Boston, though when I arrived here 20 years ago, there was only one) to get my bread. My now, of course, I know plenty of other places to get the bread I like, but that first impression was certainly disappointing to say the least. Also, I still have a problem with American produce. Compared to Europe, fruits and vegetables here have no taste (with some notable exceptions, of course)! They have sweetness, but no aroma - this way, they are easier to pick when still not ripe, transport them without them going bad, and ripen them artificially. OK, sorry, rant over

Hey, no need to apologize! Sadly, Americans have been sold on processed, convenience foods since at least the '50's, and most people here don't even understand how we've jeopardized our health for agribusiness's love of monocrop agriculture, varieties with less taste but which are pest-resistant and produce uniform-looking fruit, processing, long-distance shipping versus local (and fresh), etc., etc. No wonder you've been disappointed!

 

[Ginask8s]

No need to be disapointed in America. One can find almost anything if you know how to shop and can pay for it.

 

[Ptichka]

Well, a part of it is indeed about culture differences, as I've been saying. Both Kefir and non-bleached bread are very basic items in Russia; when you come here, you just don't expect them to be the items you have to order from the net or find in some specialized stores (the latter being virtually impossible if you're not allowed to drive). However, mostly you can find quality food that's not too perishable. The big problem comes, as I've said, with fruits and vegetables. While the better kind does also exist in America, it is often prohibitively expensive (take California white peaches, for example).

 

[Mathman]

I'm going to send Maxim some fruit-at-the-bottom Dannon yogurt (strawberry). Will that help?

 

[Ginask8s]

I'm going to send Maxim some fruit-at-the-bottom Dannon yogurt (strawberry). Will that help?

You have made me laugh!! Love a bit of humor. If Maxim can get to Northeast Philadelphia, he will be able to find all things Russian!

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

You have made me laugh!! Love a bit of humor. If Maxim can get to Northeast Philadelphia, he will be able to find all things Russian!

In Coney Island there is plenty of fermented foods. Russians like it and that's where they are. btw, I love the European bananas and pineapples.

 

[dutchherder]

Um...I buy Kefir at my small-town grocery store on a regular basis...??? Right here, in the heart of middle America. I will probably have some for breakfast this morning, as a matter of fact.

 

[Medusa]

Um...I buy Kefir at my small-town grocery store on a regular basis...??? Right here, in the heart of middle America. I will probably have some for breakfast this morning, as a matter of fact.

Well, considering that your country isn't the tiniest one on earth - it seems quite plausible to me that there can be some differences in the range of products the supermarkets and shops offer.

You definitely can buy Kefir in Germany, but I wouldn't be so sure that you can buy it everywhere in Europe. I actually find it exciting that not every country has the same products, e.g. if I walk 800 meters over the Dutch border to the next Dutch supermarket I can find lots of things I will never find in German supermarkets (on weekends the Dutch drive to Germany to buy stuff there they can't buy in the Netherlands and the Germans drive to the Netherlands to go shopping there...). If I want an Avocado I get on a bus (it's just a ten minute ride) and go to the next Belgium city, because the Avocados German supermarkets buy are awful.

But I have to agree on the bread thing - why is it that so few countries know how to produce real bread, healthy bread. I was in Scotland in the last weeks and having lived in France I am quite used to white bread and the fact that I can't get Schwarzbrot everywhere. But in Scotland it was worse, the only things you can get there are floppy sandwiches, some mingy toast... They absolutely don't know how to bake a crust for example (the French mangage to do that) and there are so few products that include full grain (don't know how to write that, I mean that you don't crush the grain and put it in the bread as intact grain).

Joe, you like Sauerkraut? My mom makes the best ever (I bet everyone in Germany says that about her/his mom).

 

[oleada]

I'm going to agree with Medusa, Maxim and Ptichka on the bread thing. It's really hard to find good bread in America - it does all taste quite bland. I miss the bakeries back home. Just the smell of the place was so amazing! My mom and I would always try to go right at the time, just when the bread was coming out of the oven. I really miss the sweet bread with sugar on top, or the one made with yucca flour.

However, it's impossible to find a good bagel at home, so...

 

[Mafke]

Um...I buy Kefir at my small-town grocery store on a regular basis...???

A couple of possibilities...

The father is repeating something his son said early on (before he figured out where to get kefir).

He doesn't think the kefir available in America is 'real' kefir (bread and dairy products in America are not generally to the taste of Eastern Europeans who often find them bland and over-processed).

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

I seldom eat bread except when my entre is saucy, and I only eat 'Italian' bread made with semolina flour when I'm looking for bread. I adore the garlic bread I make out of a nice crusty loaf. However, I can agree with the Europeans that the flour produced in America is not the same as in Europe. I would add, I prefer the European flour.

I have found some good Nan in Indian markets which are plentiful in NYC.

It's all a matter of different tastes for different peoples.

Doesn't Shabalin train near Philadelphia? It's hard to believe that he can not find Kefir. It may not be the same milk as in Europe. I seldom drink milk and it's very hard to find Raw Milk unless you know of a Dairy Farm and able to drive there..

 

[sillylionlove]

What the heck is kefir??? Is it like some kind of bread?

 

[Mafke]

What the heck is kefir??? Is it like some kind of bread?

Short answer: A dairy product, I think it tastes sort of like a cross between yogurt and buttermilk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir

 

[sillylionlove]

Thanks. Now I get it.

 

[dorispulaski]

Actually, my husband makes the best sauerkraut. He has a crock going in the kitchen right now. It is amazingly easy to make yourself. He also makes the best Jewish half sour pickles.

However, I really agree about the bread. Where we used to live in Dutchess County, NY, you can get a great breakfast hard roll from any quick stop in the morning. They are shipped up from the Bronx. Here in CT, you used to do pretty well with the Italian and Polish bakeries, when we were children, but now there is nowhere to get a decent loaf of bread. They have all been put out of business by the so-called bread baked in store at the big grocery chains-looks great and tastes terrible.

We buy produce at farm stands in CT all summer...and the same in Florida in the winter. That's where you can get heritage tomatoes, Mirai corn, and older and less common apple (and orange) varieties that I really like.. If the stand is owned by a farm, the prices are reasonable. I have been buying a number of kinds of hot peppers (yellow Hungarians, pasillas, sweet habaneros, and jalapenos) and green, red, yellow, orange and purple sweet peppers for 99 cents a pound for over a month at my local farm stand.

 

[Mafke]

In Poland stores not only sell kefir and buttermilk (traditional not cultured) but sour milk (not the same as spoiled milk).
IIRC pasteurized milk goes straight from being drinkable to spoiled while unpasteurized has an intermediary sour stage that's still quite drinkable.

 

[goldenpleasures]

I think the thread title needs changing now......