Immortal Beloved

'Plavleniy sirok’ (плавленый сырок) is a traditional Russian snack that is similar to European cream cheese. Sirok production was a good way to utilize broken hard cheese truckles. It was melted together with milk, formed into tiny ‘bricks’ in the size exactly like cigarette boxes and packaged into foil. Sirok was very cheap, always available at stores and quite nutritional. It was regarded as the best ‘zakuska’ by seasoned vodka professionals. The best sirok was “Druzhba” (Friendship) although I could never make it out what friendship were they meaning. Probably it was about that feeling of camaraderie between drinking buddies. When I was a student, “Druzhba” was the only affordable snack to chase our vodka with.

In the 90s it disappeared from stores as was usual with dozens of traditional Soviet snacks and drinks. “Druzhba” was replaced with ersatz – sirok, like “Viola” or “Hochland”. But now “Druzhba” is back! Moscow cheese dairy and creamery Karat, after a decade of barratry, finally secured the right to be the sole owner of the famous brand. “Druzhba” sirok is immortalized in the sculpture (by Shcherbakovs) that pictures a Crow and a Fox happily sharing this favorite Russian snack. One can see it at the Karat dairy in Moscow not far from Dmitrovskaya Metro station. Why a Crow and a Fox? For those of you who don’t know, it is about the Krylov’s fable every Russian school kid learns by heart at the age of seven. Here’s its English version.

“A crow was sitting on a branch of a tree with a piece of cheese in her beak when a Fox observed her and set his wits to work to discover some way of getting the cheese.
Coming and standing under the tree he looked up and said, "What a noble bird I see above me! Her beauty is without equal, the hue of her plumage exquisite. If only her voice is as sweet as her looks are fair, she ought without doubt to be Queen of the Birds."
The Crow was hugely flattered by this, and just to show the Fox that she could sing she gave a loud caw. Down came the cheese and the Fox, snatching it up, said, "You have a voice, madam, I see: what you want is wits."

Only in Russia the Fox is female.