It’s tough and unnecessary to draw a hard line on how far East the elements of this meal originate. And time zone? Breakfast, lunch or dinner? This meal sees no time, but for my childhood self it acted like bookends to the day.
Nana, I am hungry, was the unfaltering, stalling line that pushed back bedtime. I took sanctity from the world of dreams and nightmares in the sacred space at the table. Nana was never the gatekeeper type, so we’d put the kettle on and take out some bread and Bryndza, a salty sheep milk cheese that paired so well with black tea with lemon and sugar. Always in a pear-shaped glass, armudu, an ingenious piece of technology that maximises the tea drinking experience. A wide opening cools the tea pleasantly for the lips, whilst the slender waist retains heat for longer at the bottom.
Sometimes, a little garlic’d sneak in, rubbed thoroughly on the surface of the rye bread, to ward off illness and the maleficent inhabitants of the night.
Having drunk and licked up the last minute of my day, I’d go to bed knowing that this meal would be waiting on the waking side.
Maya Gulieva is a writer, artist and educator living in London. She was born in Moscow. You can find her on instagram here.