The bonfire with potatoes

So the other day we went to this city and we were promised a bonfire. OOOH. I thought. Maybe we can sing songs around the bonfire. Oh wait, Russia. Not so appetizing. Well surely we will have S’mores with Grahams, Mallows, and of course Hershey’s Chocolate. Oh wait. Right. I am in weirdoville where things are not as they seem.

However I can still reminisce about the scene in The Sandlot where the guy asks “Would you like S’more?” “How can I have some more of something I haven’t had yet?” “Your killing me Smalls!” Ok. So clearly I took some liberty in my retelling of the scene, but I am no memorizer, I don’t remember exactly how it went, but you get the idea. Basically a bonfire without S’mores just isn’t a bonfire. I mean back in Oregon when my friends and I had a bonfire, it was a necessity that we had all the S’more equipment. In fact all of our guests would call to ensure that we had adequate supplies of all the ingredients, fore they also knew that the night just would not be enjoyable if there were no S’mores, no matter how jolly the camp songs were. Well needless to say there were no S’mores at the Russian bonfire. In fact it wasn’t even a bonfire. It was more like a BBQ with too much coal, so that the flame peeked out from the grill, barely keeping me warm. The smoke was not enough to even scare the skeeters (mosquitoes, for those not in the know…) and my hair, sadly, did not smell like smoke at the end of the evening. However, all is not lost. When I relayed to the Russians my “disappointment” at the lack of S’mores, they told me that they have a similar tradition, if not almost identical. My ears perked up. What on earth could they have that is similar to S’mores, my lovely wonderfully delcious S’mores? And well they told me that their bonfire tradition is to take potatoes and put them in the fire, and sit and wait for them to bake. (Yes that’s it. S’mores and potatoes are very similar, good job Russians….) “its especially delicious when they get all black on the outside” The Russian said, her mouth watering, thinking about the delicious treat of blackened potato (To be fair, I like my mallows blackened too….) Soon all the Russians around me began to dream of the delicious treat that is potato. Ahh, Russians and their simplicity. I mean really. Potato. Blackened. Treat? Something isn’t computing. And in no way does a potato in any way compare to my beloved S’more….