Misha waffles

Now for our third food-related post in a row...

There is a section of the big Sunday bazaar here where hundreds of people squat along the banks of a dried up canal selling whatever junk they have on sheets on the ground. Most of it is nothing to look at - broken things, old Russian books, spare parts for cars that haven't been made for decades, and the like.

But as we were walking along the canal a couple of weeks ago, one thing caught my eye. It looked like a pie iron (like what you use at a campfire), but it had the Olympic rings on the outside and the inside had several molds for a little bear figure. The woman selling it said it was for cookies. I had no idea what it was, but at a price of $2 I couldn't pass it up, much to Jen's bewilderment ("what do we need that thing for!?!"). Here are a couple of photos of my treasure...


I took it home and got on the internet to try to figure out what I had, and I found that the symbol on the iron was the official symbol of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics...
Jen was 2 days old when the Opening Ceremonies took place (July 19, 1980), but probably didn't get to watch them since the USA was leading a 50 nation boycott of the games in protest of the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan the year before.

Then, I found that the official mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympics was this little bear named "Misha", which explained the bear-shaped cavities inside the iron...


Anyway, Jen said it wouldn't work for cookies, so we tried cake, but that didn't work either. Then we tried waffle batter, which proved to be a winner...


Here is a video of Ella's first encounter with the little Mishas (you can also see Jen's cruelty at about 0:59)...



She really studied the things...

She was hesitant at first, but after we put syrup on them, she lost all inhibition...

She just ripped his head on and munched right in...

I went back to the bazaar the next week with my new knowledge and found more 1980 Moscow Olympics/Misha stuff everywhere. There were vases, wall hangings, spoons, and all sorts of other junk. I bought the little Misha Olympic pin and commemorative Rubel...

Then I found a collection of Misha pins showing the little guy participating in all the events. I usually try to refrain from buying other people's junk that I don't need, but the guy was practically giving it away...

Enjoy the upcoming Olympics, everybody. We will be enjoying our Olympic waffles.