This cast-iron frying pan was bought by my great-grandmother in 1959. When my mother got married, my grandmother gave this pan to the new family. Why did not my mother buy a new pan? Because after the end of World War II, times were still harsh for the people of the USSR and not everyone could afford to buy everything necessary for life, even kitchen equipment. Later this pan was given to my family, and now it is in my daughter's family. Why?  Because we tried a lot of pans from different manufacturers, including cast-iron ones. However, only our original pan makes the most delicious gourmet blinis, the taste of which we all remember from our childhood. Blini is a Russian national dish. In Eastern Slavic culture, blinis were previously a ceremonial dish and now they are a part of Russian culture as well. A hot round blini is a symbol of bright warm sun, holidays, good harvests, happy marriages and a part of commemoration ritual as well. As for me it is a memory of Sundays, when my mother was baking blinis and the smell was coming from the kitchen.  There are dozens of different ways of preparing blinis in Russia. Russians serve blinis in different ways - with sour cream, butter, honey, jam, condensed milk, chocolate, fruits, or with red and black caviar, stuffed with meat, liver, mushrooms, fish, cheese, vegetables and even cakes are made from them. 

– Anzhelika Bogoslovskaya

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant