In Russia, you eat the bear. Oh, okay, you actually eat Mishka Kosolapyi (мишка косолапый), which translates as "clumsy bear," more or less. This is basically a chocolate-covered wafer candy with a picture of a mama bear and cubs on the wrapper. Cute, crunchy and tasty; I give it an A.This is the second installment of my long-ago promised series on Russian candy (part one is here). You can buy mishkas at most Russian and Eastern-European grocery stores in Milwaukee; go here for locations. Yulinka Cooks endorses Spartak in Whitefish Bay, Wis.
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11 comments:
Ah, sweet memories! What about "Belochka"? That was my favorite :)
I need to visit those Russian groceries one day.
Maya--Another favorite is "grliazh." Actually, I can't keep track of a lot of the names at this point--I just know the candy's fun to eat.
What clever packaging. I'd seek this candy out just to examine those cute little pictures!
Oh, the mishka! Love! I also used to love the chocolate ones calle strelka (?) or something like that. Mmmm.... so yum.
А за косолапого и по попе получить можно!!!
My favorites were the truffle-shaped chocolate praline candies called "Osenniy val's" (Autumn Waltz). I liked them not so much for their flavor but for the romantic-sounding name and the pretty gold foil wrapper that was lighter at the top and darker towards the bottom of the candy and had delicate outlines of autumn leaves drawn on it (as a little kid, I kept as many of these wrappers as I could, smoothing them out meticulously and storing them in a little box along with other small treasures). Also, there was a whole hazelnut at the top of the candy, which I thought was pretty cool.
Oh, I just went to Babushka's Deli in Indianapolis on Saturday and bought 6 different kinds of candies that reminded me of my youth(parents are Russian born, but I was born in Australia, grew up in Brooklyn, NY and now am living in Champaign, IL).
Anyway, many of these candies have a website!!
http://www.uniconf.ru/en/catalog/?gid=1539
It's in Russian too. Anyway, looking here may help you for pictures/descriptions of the ones you're trying.
I got the Red Hat, Clumsy Bear, Bruin of the North,
http://www.uniconf.ru/en/catalog/?gid=1539&id=2737 this one too
the Belochka, and
http://www.uniconf.ru/en/catalog/?gid=1539&id=2410
that one.
Irene-I also like Russian chocolate truffles-can't remember what they're called, but they're always sold in very colorful, gold and blue wrappers.
Irina-I used to save candy wrappers, too! This must have been the Soviet version of collecting baseball cards.
Greg-thanks for links. :)
I have friends who live right near a Russian store, and from what I've heard, there's quite a candy selection. I'll have to see if I can find these!
I love the russian candy series! Great posts. Sorry to be a history buff, but any idea on how/why they choose the various animals for each chocolate? Any idea when this started?
I was also amazed at how Russians knew which ones to buy and what animal represented what kind, though I guess had I spent my entire childhood eating them too I'd probably knew them that well too.
I love these, Yulinka - they're pretty widely available here in Estonia, too :)
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