excerpt:
Another part of the episode shows Fyodor Nesterenko, a USSR foreign ministry officer assigned to the U.S.-Russia Summit team, out to lunch with a group of American U.S. State Department members. He tells his colleagues that “every Russian dish starts with meat and potatoes,” and another Russian chimes in with “and smetana,” referring to an Eastern European-style sour cream. “I tried some here in America but it’s not like home,” Nesterenko says. One of the colleagues jokes, “Because American cows are different here.” Claudia and Elizabeth also discuss smetana (used to top golubtsy, a dish of shredded beef in boiled cabbage), saying that even back home it was hard to get.
