At ~5:45 in the supermarket video, what am I looking at? Is that a Soviet TV dinner?

https://youtu.be/t8LtQhIQ2AE?t=345

The text says "kotlety" which are basically meatballs:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutlet#Cuisines_of_Russia,_Ukr.... But I don't understand what I'm looking at either. Maybe it's the ground meat mix that you shape the cutlets yourself before frying? But what is the bread-looking half on the left side?

The right side is almost certainly buckwheat, known to Russians simply as “kasha.”

The left side is likely the cutlets themselves (the little brown outlines) surrounded by some (cold) white sauce that once heated turns more liquid.

It is buckwheat, known to Russians as “Grechka”. It is quite nice, goes well with meat or even mixed with milk. The white substance is most likely fat.

Haha I forgot we called it grechka. Technically grechnevaya kasha, but colloquially called either grechka or kasha; my grandpa was obsessed with it lol, so we just always called it “ne vkusnaya kasha” aka “not tasty porridge” lol

From visuals it looks like buckwheat with possibly two cutlets under bechamel sauce

> this footage of a ussr grocery store

At least they were spacious! And the small trolleys were kind: you didn't have to feel bad that yours was empty.

Even developing contries' markets usually are groaning with produce. What a condemnation of the communist experiement!

Farmer markets were a separate thing, and that's where you'd find fresh produce (and quality meat), if you could afford it. Looked something like this in late 80s:

https://imgur.com/a/DAepLEJ

Thanks, I did not know this. Look at the smile on the face of the granny in the lower photo!

Did these farmers' markets operate during the communist era? Late, I presume?

7:37 I would like to know how bad that meat smelled to get her to make that noise.

You can fit like 6 of those soviet grocery carts into a modern costco cart.