Welcome to Survival Soup and Bread

Did y’all know that Putin’s grandfather was a cook? I hadn’t. 

Apparently, it is a widely known (and propagandized) fact in Russia. Putin himself noted the fact in early interviews to secure his popularity in a post Soviet Union world. It likely adds a layer of humility for the leader to have come from a family of cooks.

I recently finished Witold Szabłowski’s What’s Cooking in the Kremlin: From Rasputin to Putin, How Russia Built an Empire with a Knife and Fork. Witold (he’s always referred to by his first name while conducting interviews in the narrative) is a Polish reporter whose other works include How to Feed a Dictator and Dancing Bears. The interviews all took place before Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian and my copy contains a preface and afterword about the impacts it has had on the people whose stories are told.

The book is fascinating and hard to put down. Starting with the story of the Czar’s loyal cook dying with the doomed family and ending with the final thoughts of a cook who worked in the Kremlin and Stalin’s favorite dacha, this book covers roughly a century of Russian (and USSR) history through the view points of cooks. Both men and women are represented in the book as well as former Soviet satellite states. Some of the best stories are also some of the emotionally hardest.

Famine happened in the former USSR, mostly intentionally done to starve the targeted population out of existence. The Nazis killed about 1.5 million people in their siege of Leningrad, while Stalin himself instigated the 3 to 7 million deaths during the Ukrainian Great Famine. Witold’s interviewees note that they were able to survive by becoming bakers or cooks for the few institutes that still had resources and if they were too young to work, their mothers did.

Bread and soup were what kept them alive.

There are many instances where bread and soup come up as important food staples in literature. The Hunger Games nearly always points out the different types of bread the Districts bake and Peta is the son of bakers. He even saves Katniss before the games by giving her burnt bread. Jean Valjean is arrested for stealing a loaf of bread early in the narrative of Les Misérables. Plus the Bible references bread multiple times. 

As for soup, one of my dad's favorite stories was that of "Stone Soup" (I wrote a blog post about this several years ago). There are several versions of this tale, but the most common one I know involves soldiers returning from the Napoleonic wars. I also read Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak all the time as a kid. 

What many of these stories have in common is that bread and soup were an important part of comfort and survival. When made with little processing, bread and soup both pack a powerful nutrient punch. Soup typically has some kind of vegetable and protein, while bread should have whole grains with plenty of fiber. Add in a bit of hard cheese and you've got a great comfort meal. 

Soup kitchens are often euphemisms for places that feed the most vulnerable of our communities and bread lines are a term for unemployment (and getting government assistance, especially during the Great Depression). For long journeys (especially at sea), hardtack was often included as a shelf stable supply. Hardtack is dense, long lasting cracker like bread that is softened with hot liquids like coffee, tea, or soup.

I love a nice hot bowl of soup. I made some tonight - butternut squash soup with carrots, honey nut squash, sweet potatoes, red onions, and garlic. I ate it with some apricot bread I picked up at the Farmer's Market yesterday, though I often top it with homemade croutons or a toasted baguette. When I'm really struggling with what to eat for dinner, I often make something I call a "pantry soup". It's whatever I can find in my pantry and refrigerator that could make a good soup. Black beans with onions in whatever broth I have on hand with a bunch of herbs is probably my easiest and favorite (this is the recipe from my food blog - which I haven't updated in a while...I'll get on that).

With the seasons changing to cooler weather and times getting tougher, I won't be surprised if more people start to bake more and share soup recipes. During COVID, bone broth and sourdough starters became wildly popular. I think we'll start seeing this trend again soon.

If you are able to, please pick up a canned good or two for your local food pantry. There are a lot of people out of work right now with the government shutdown and the start of an economic slump. I'm seeing more and more people pan handling on major intersections. 

I'm glad I read Szabłowski’s What’s Cooking in the Kremlin. I learned quite a bit about Soviet history through the lens of food and the people who made it. Without a doubt the saddest story was about the women who cooked for the people trying to stop the Chernobyl melt down in the Fairytale Forest. Many died from radiation poisoning and those who are still alive suffer greatly from all kinds of health problems. Bread and soups feature prominently in the book along side the personal stories. The book even includes a few recipes. 

What is your favorite soup? Do you have a favorite bread? I love a good gazpacho in the summer and an easy chicken noodle in the winter for soups. My favorite bread is probably naan or spoon bread.

Let me know your favorites in the comments. and whether or not you consider chili a soup (I personally do not, but I'm open to changing my mind).

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you like hearing from me.

Until next week. 

Welcome to the Lessons Taught

 …but didn’t sink in.

Have y’all ever wondered how much media is out there about World War 2. I have - mostly because while cleaning out my one parent’s apartment, I came across so many books and movies about World War 2. Books about ships and weaponry, books about major battles, mysteries that took place during the war, thrillers and spy novels mostly set in Europe, multiple copies of the same movie (why were there three versions of Tora! Tora! Tora!?), and documentaries galore. 

I ended up getting rid of a lot of it, but I still wanted to take my time and appreciate some of the books and DVDs. I am also still finding multiple copies of the some movies that I didn’t catch earlier. 

This is an old photo of the Mighty Mo where World War 2 officially ended.

World War 2 was a major event - there is no denying that. It shaped a lot of media in the mid- to late- 20th century. From the early propaganda films to turn of the century miniseries like “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific”, there isn’t a lack of shortages in documentaries, TV shows, books (fiction and non), art, and video games.

Tons of which are still coming out today.

I’ve even won a few books seeped in World War 2 influence from GoodReads giveaways. Three to be precise. One is a post war mystery thriller featuring Julia Child as a side character - the first in a series I’d like to keep reading - called Mastering the Art of French Murder. Another is the non-fiction account of the writer’s grandfather’s tank unit called Task Force Hogan: The World War II Tank Battalion That Spearheaded The Liberation of Europe. That one is worth the read if you enjoyed stories like “Band of Brothers” or if you had a family member who served in a similar setting. The third was a strange thriller called Her Father’s Daughter which focused on recovering stolen art and finding Nazis who escaped justice. Sadly, it was not as good as the summary might suggest. I don’t recommend that one.

Because of its cultural significance, World War 2 was a major part of my education. History classes would focus on how appeasement didn’t work to keep the Nazis from their expansionist goals and how Japan wanted to join in on colonialism since it worked so well for western countries (though much less so for all colonized people). Pearl Harbor, D-Day, and Hiroshima were studied inside and out. We watched parts of movies and miniseries like “Saving Private Ryan”, “Barefoot Gen”, and (of course) “Band of Brothers”. Our English teachers had us read A Thousand Paper Cranes, Night, and The Dairy of a Young Girl (i.e. Anne Frank’s Diary). We visited the Holocaust museum in 12th grade for a field trip and discussed the results of the Nuremberg Trials.

Yet with all this history and media, the current state of the world has me questioning if anything was actually learned. I grew up knowing the Nazis were bad guys, not only because Indiana Jones fought them, but because we learned about the Holocaust and how their actions compounded into one of the greatest mass murders in world history. Yet now, an Indiana Jones game comes out and there are people mad that Nazis are the bad guys. We also have people denying the Holocaust happened.

I could argue that there’s a similar over saturation of media about the American Civil War. Again, it was a major event that killed hundreds of thousands and ended the horrific practice of slavery. Except it took another century for the Civil Rights Act to take effect - that was during my parents’ childhood.

About two years ago, I was fortunate enough to see a stage performance of “Cabaret” at my local theater. I loved it and wrote a post about it. In the post, I noted that we lived in interesting times and that if you didn’t think they were interesting, then you weren’t paying attention. Well, I hope you are paying attention now.

I continue to hope for better times, but the lessons I was taught in my history and English classes indicate that things are likely to get a lot worse. What will be the new “normal” is up in the air.

But if we can’t learn the lessons from World War 2 (like how appeasement never works), why should more and more media about that time period keep coming out? There have been other wars, other world conflicts, and genocides that could and likely should be studied. Is it because many Americans view themselves as the ultimate “good guys” during that time (at least in the European theater - the Pacific is a lot more complicated)? 

On another hand, World War 2 media often tops the lists of banned books. Two books I’ve read, Night and The Diary of a Young Girl. Others include Maus and Number the Stars - both of which I’ve been recommended. All of these books were either written by people who experienced the Holocaust first hand, had family who survived the Holocaust, or conducted on site research.

Everyone wants to be a hero in some capacity. I often wondered what I might have done during some of history’s biggest events. Where I’d have been or how I might have contributed. You, dear reader, likely have as well.

The answer is, whatever you are doing right now. History is happening. The ordinary and nameless are who make the biggest impact. What stories are you leaving behind? In 20 or 30 or 50 years from now, someone might ask you what you were doing today. Will you be proud of your answer?

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post or it really pissed you off, please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you all like hearing from me.