Adventures in Russian Food #6

Quick update:

Interesting things I have ingested in the last week:

Homemade chicken liver pâté- Delicious. I knew I love this stuff on Bahn Mi, but man is it good just on crackers or bread. It's chicken liver with veggies ground into a paste.

Stewed Eggplant Stuff- My host mother didn't give me a name for this but I probably came close. It's eggplant, peppers, tomato, garlic, onion, carrots, cabbage, lots of salt, and probably some other stuff too. It's fo-realz tasty. If anyone has a name for this, do tell.

Tvorog- I had my first Tvorog experience this morning for breakfast. Tvorog (творог for you purists out there) is translated as farmers cheese, but I'm not sure that does it justice. For me, it was a slightly sour, sweet yogurt-like product with the texture half way between cream cheese and a greek yogurt. It ran like yogurt, but held form when moved with a spoon. Very interesting stuff. My host my mixed it with vat-jelly and it was just fantastic. I think the stuff I had this morning was around 11% fat, so it should stick with me for a while. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tvorog for more info.

Калина - My host mom had a small bucket of red juice with pulp sitting on the counter. As I was finishing breakfast, she asked if I wanted to try so naturally, I said yes. She told me that it was mushed up Калина and that it was very bitter. She dipped a spoon in and gave me a spoonful. Yes, it's bitter. In fact, probably as misleadingly bitter as bakers chocolate. Such a lovely red juice should not be that bitter. As it turns out, my host dad makes medicine out of it. This is what wikipedia says http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viburnum.
It's apparently a laxative and seeing how I haven't exploded, I'm guessing a spoonful is not enough to be effective. Again, If anyone knows what these guys are, please tell me. I'd rather not think of them as 'mooseberries'.