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I’m pretty sure that food quality has gone down, but don’t you think a large part of that could be attributed to nostalgia? I know plenty of food that I loved as a kid I now find repulsive. People’s tastes and preferences change over time. Also from stories I heard there wasn’t much of quality control back then to begin with. I’ve heard of stories about rats falling into the meat grinders and tainting the sausages. There’s a psychological phenomenon where as people get older they exaggerate the good memories and forget the bad ones.
I saw Russia change in a stop motion manner, 3 to 5 times a year for 14 years. I remember the first time I walked into a Russian farmers market in Moscow, somewhere off of Avtozavohdskaya street. The smells were the biggest influence on my memory. I could smell the tomatoes, carrots, cherries and the cooked meats. I didn't know carrots had a smell like that because most of the carrots I ever ate in America had little taste or smell. Same with potatoes. I liked neither until I came to Russia. I was eating carrots walking down the street and I remember eating a potato one slice at a time at the lake in Ismailova Park by the big church.
The salads, pastries, everything to me was better all around. I've read what they do to American groceries, force grown and ripened veggies and fruit. Meat that is force grown with steroids and chicken that live and die in cages.
Call it nostalgia if you like. I was Templton the Rat at the fair but I wasn't eating garbage for once.
Only old farts remember these Soviet times and regret Stalin.
Most people do not think about it. Here are cheap products of low quality and expensive products of good quality. Second products cost good money, not everyone can afford it.
But food is enough for everyone, and that's good.
Remember that you are what you eat. All those nights at the fair and I never gained weight and at times I lost some pounds. I felt better too for the most part.
I saw Russia change in a stop motion manner, 3 to 5 times a year for 14 years. I remember the first time I walked into a Russian farmers market in Moscow, somewhere off of Avtozavohdskaya street. The smells were the biggest influence on my memory. I could smell the tomatoes, carrots, cherries and the cooked meats. I didn't know carrots had a smell like that because most of the carrots I ever ate in America had little taste or smell. Same with potatoes. I liked neither until I came to Russia. I was eating carrots walking down the street and I remember eating a potato one slice at a time at the lake in Ismailova Park by the big church.
The salads, pastries, everything to me was better all around. I've read what they do to American groceries, force grown and ripened veggies and fruit. Meat that is force grown with steroids and chicken that live and die in cages.
Call it nostalgia if you like. I was Templton the Rat at the fair but I wasn't eating garbage for once.
This is really odd; RT quotes German "Der Freitag," where it says that the "low quality of food in Russia doesn't stem from the sanctions, but from the "market reforms of the nineties, and lowering of standards along with the quality control."
Maxim lived through the last phase of the Soviet system, so obviously he remembers only the empty shelves ( hence his "enough food for everyone now,") but I am older of course and I remember different times, hence I am well familiar with the quality stuff of the Soviet period. Needless to say that the variety of it was declining with time, but that doesn't mean that the quality stuff was not there to begin with ( as Maxim imagines by now.) And as I've mentioned, those were unique Russian foods, where the recipes were coming from older times.
So instead of taking what was the best of their own culture and building up on it in post-Soviet period, the fifth column in charge basically sold the country to foreign corporations, because this "fifth column" was essentially a "middle man" making his cut in the process.
So Russians had quality foods for some time all right after the Soviet period, but it were EUROPEAN exports for the most part. Once those were gone, it all went back to domestic production, that lacks quality starting from the nineties, ( with the loss of quality control, since it became all about "profits.")
So now they have the palm oil stuffed in their sweets/dairy products to no end, and those imported hormone-stuffed eggs/chicken/beef are now the staples in Russia. ( It's much cheaper to import something like this for the gov. ( and to have its *cut* in the process,) than to invest in Russia's agriculture ( where is the cut for the middle man - i.e. gov. officials?)
And all that explains why "even honey can't be trusted now," as Boxus mentioned.
Post-Maidan Ukraine is the world’s only nation to have a neo-Nazi formation in its armed forces. The Azov Battalion was initially formed out of the neo-Nazi gang Patriot of Ukraine. Andriy Biletsky, the gang’s leader who became Azov’s commander, once wrote that Ukraine’s mission is to “lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade…against the Semite-led Untermenschen.” Biletsky is now a deputy in Ukraine’s parliament.
Particularly concerning is Azov’s campaign to transform Ukraine into a hub for transnational white supremacy. The unit has recruited neo-Nazis from Germany, the UK, Brazil, Sweden, and America; last October, the FBI arrested four California white supremacists who had allegedly received training from Azov. This is a classic example of blowback: US support of radicals abroad ricocheting to hit America.
This good food of the past isn’t uniquely Russian, it existed all around the world, it’s only when modern agriculture production and selling of products on an industrial scale to global customers did quality go down. I’m pretty sure if you go to a local farmers market whether that be in the US, Europe or Russia, you will still find good quality food, just be prepared to pay a little extra, otherwise you will have to make due with industrial produce sold at the nearest big box grocery store.
As far as candies go, well they’re not good for you to begin with.
Also there is a growing movement, at least in the US, to buy local and seasonal food, so who knows the good old days might one day return, especially since a lot of people are abandoning globalism, for better or worse.
What IS of HIGH quality then?
The reason I was asking for certain "Soviet brands" was because they were of certain standards.
When they've gone to hell, what is out there Russian-made that is of decent quality? (As far as candies/chocolates go?)
Choice is very large. Vkusvill have good quality (for example) or some small shops. We sometimes eat at specialty pastry cafes. It is tasty, but it is more expensive.
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Originally Posted by erasure
The last Belorussian-made bar of chocolate I've received ("Spartacus?" not familiar with this brand) was crap as well.
You should only buy in specialized stores if you want to get good quality.
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Originally Posted by erasure
Another thing - if you are saying that "target category of buyers" is retired, ( in Russia that is,) in Belorussia they are NOT "retired" then, since the quality of "Soviet sweets" is still good?
I think that Belarus has a stricter legislation on the observance of Soviet quality standards.
Or there is no more quality RUSSIAN sweets, but it's all "Alpenmilch," "Milka" - Nestle, Ferrero and so on ( with other words, coming from foreign corporations?)
Needless to say that the variety of it was declining with time, but that doesn't mean that the quality stuff was not there to begin with ( as Maxim imagines by now.)
I did not say that. I know that products were of good quality. But at the same time, I know a riddle: "This is long, green and smells like sausage." Answer: "Train from Moscow." I do not know when it started, but good products were in short supply in Soviet times.
Quote:
Originally Posted by erasure
So now they have the palm oil stuffed in their sweets/dairy products to no end, and those imported hormone-stuffed eggs/chicken/beef are now the staples in Russia. ( It's much cheaper to import something like this for the gov. ( and to have its *cut* in the process,) than to invest in Russia's agriculture ( where is the cut for the middle man - i.e. gov. officials?)
I think you are exaggerating the problem. Agriculture has been actively developing over the past 5 years.
Closing off domestic markets from superior foreign competition always leads to poor quality. This was in Econ 102 for me. It works the same way in cars as it does in food. So does state subsidized food staples (bread, etc.). I have yet to hear - from any Russian that I know - that food quality has increased since Putin banned European food.
Closing off domestic markets from superior foreign competition always leads to poor quality. This was in Econ 102 for me. It works the same way in cars as it does in food. So does state subsidized food staples (bread, etc.). I have yet to hear - from any Russian that I know - that food quality has increased since Putin banned European food.
If it were truly "superior" competition ( in terms of quality) - I could understand that.
But more and more often "SUPERIOR" doesn't mean QUALITY of products, it means only FINANCIAL superiority, where the company with deep pockets ( i.e. mostly transnationals) can afford to push their inferior products for cheaper price, since they sell it in bulk. In this case scenario it's the LOCAL QUALITY producers that suffer the most.
But I still need to respond to Maxim.
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