Russian travel blogger Elena Liseykina has described the impressions of a friend living in the United States, saying the woman finds that "vegetables and fruit look like they are made of plastic." Liseykina wrote about the conversation on her personal blog, Travels with a Camera, on the Zen platform.
Her friend, named Marina, has lived in the United States for five years. According to Liseykina, Marina said she still has not gotten used to the appearance and taste of certain foods, and that she has been unable to find good vegetables during her entire time in the country. She said the same problem applies to bread.
Bread Problems
Liseykina said Marina described what is sold in American supermarkets as resembling soft, sweetish bricks meant for sandwiches, adding that they are all the same, bland, and quickly become tiresome. To get bread she is used to, Marina has to drive to a specific bakery across town or bake it herself, Liseykina said.
Hidden Sugar
Liseykina also relayed that Americans add sugar to dishes where a sweet taste would not normally be expected. She said sugar turns up in bread, sauces, yogurt, and ready-made meals that would be ordinary and unsweetened back home, so familiar foods unexpectedly taste sweet.
Background
Zen is a Russian content platform, formerly known as Yandex.Zen, where independent bloggers publish articles and personal blogs on topics including travel and lifestyle. Liseykina's blog, Travels with a Camera, focuses on her observations from trips and conversations with people living abroad.
Comparisons between Russian and American food and daily life have become a recurring theme among Russian travel bloggers writing for a domestic audience curious about life overseas.
Earlier Comments on the US
Liseykina's post followed an earlier piece by another travel blogger who described what they saw as an advantage Russians hold over Americans. That blogger said American culture has long become global, but this does not mean citizens of the United States are welcomed everywhere with, as they put it, open arms.
