Dill in Strange Places

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about food and eating here in Irkutsk. To put it simply, I’ve never been to a place with less Western food options than this city. It makes Mongolia look like New York City! What I’ve found to be typically quite a bit cheaper and definitely much more healthy is getting most of my food at the supermarket. Irkutsk does have one Papa John’s and one Subway, but I have yet to try either of them (I know for a fact they would try to put mayonnaise and dill on most everything though).

Pictured:

1. One of my favorite (and only) Western staples here in Irkutsk is skittles... these ones are labeled ‘Рашн Микс’ (literally transliterated ‘Russian Mix’) and are the red white and blue of the Russian flag. I’m very surprised we do not have something like this in the states for the US.

2. This is just one of the many locations of Slata, the main supermarket in Irkutsk, that I like to visit.

3. Fortunately, my host family makes me breakfast of some sort every morning. This morning, it was egg, which I throw between two slices of bread to make a lil breakfast sandwich.