We introduce ourselves, we are Marco and Maria! Why are you reading this? Because during the summer of 2020 we left for a journey along the Trans-Siberian, the mythical railway that connects European Russia with the Far East: from Moscow to Vladivostok for over 9,000km of railway. We wanted to try a different experience than usual. Helped by the newly formed Slow Food Russia organization, we met and interviewed some producers and people who are trying to rediscover traditional Russian tastes using natural ingredients and helping the development of local communities.
First, we met in Kazan Ali and Farhad from the company Alì and sons in Kazan. Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan, a small republic 800 km east of Moscow. The first night on the train passed quickly, we were excited for the start of this adventure which, in almost a month, would lead us to meet exceptional people with simple and powerful projects, capable of improving the lives of people and their communities. We woke up on the banks of the Volga river on a sunny, windy and very hot day. Such are the days in mainland Russia. Temperatures in winter easily reach -40 ° C, while in summer they reach + 40 ° C.
We are planning an appointment with Farhad at the new agricultural producers’ market opened on the outskirts of the city. It is our first interview and Maria and I are quite excited; will we be flawless? We prepare the list of questions and write down how we would like to manage the meeting. In the end, nothing we have planned will go as planned. But that’s okay, because “live” things always go better than you imagine them: it’s called experience and along this journey we have made a lot of it.
Alì and sons is a family farm active since the early 2000s, in which we try to rediscover the tradition of bagged horse meat thanks to the use of totally natural processes and ingredients. Horses during the Soviet period and up to the 1960s were owned by the government. They were considered as weapons, so private citizens could not raise them. Only after the Stalin period and when the USSR developed the atomic bomb, were they simply retired by Nikita Khrushchev, forgotten and ‘eliminated’ as unproductive. Alì’s father, as he will explain in the interview, has recovered these traditions and now the company produces salami, bresaola, and sausages of various types and of the highest quality. Personally, basturmà is my favorite: a kind of spiced horse bresaola with a very soft and tasty surface! Enjoy the interview and for any information these are the links:
Website: kazilik-kazan.ru
Instagram: @kazilik.kazan