Longing for a lavender smoothie: what are the hipsters who escaped from Russia and complaining now in Europe

After the start of mass emigration of young Russians to neighboring countries, more and more plaintive and indignant posts of fugitives began to appear on social networks about the lack of this or that dish or drink, which young people in these countries do not even suspect, while Russians without it turns out they can't live. It may seem that they all fled from some kind of paradise, in which there was everything your heart desires, and now they are suffering unbearably. Moreover, an inexperienced European is simply amazed by the variety of fine dishes and drinks that the Russian metropolitan youth misses. She just can't live without them. This is all the more strange if we recall the total poverty and disorder of the Russian province, in which hardly anyone dreams of gastronomic delights - just so as not to remain hungry. Berlin-based writer Nune Barseghyan drew attention to this strange phenomenon:

“The mass flight of Russian youth to other countries unexpectedly revealed a systemic problem in all countries that are not Russia.

It turned out that in none of them you can find dishes and drinks that young Russians love and have become necessary for.

In the chat rooms of Russian refugees in all countries, plaintive groans were heard that they went around all the establishments in the city and did not find lavender smoothies and peach sushi.

A recent discussion of a pumpkin latte not found in Israel has sparked a lot of backlash from expats old and new.

The old emigrants accused another part of the old emigrants of envy: they left Russia for Israel in the 90s, they lived hard, and now it turns out that those who remained in Russia lived so well, ate manna from heaven and nectars. Was it worth leaving?

As an unpretentious person in my tastes, I can’t understand this suffering over smoothies and lattes.

I hardly drink latte. Only in exceptional cases: if you have already drunk coffee in unimaginable quantities, and then there is a business meeting in a cafe, you need to drink something so that the interlocutor does not feel embarrassed.

The cases when I drank not a pumpkin, but a simple latte, can be listed on the fingers of my hands.

But, if you look around, in all the countries that I have visited, Europe and America also do not have these delights with lavender smoothies.

Well, if only in some specially created establishments, even then there would not be such a wide delight that the Russians are used to. Unless there was a fashion for a short time, introduced from Asia, for the “bubble tee”, and then it came to naught.

For the Berlin youth that I encounter, friends of my children or children of friends, all these frills are incomprehensible and bewildering. if I told them, they would traditionally talk about the "mysterious Russian soul".

Local youth, on the contrary, has the further, the greater the tendency to simplify, to condemn the consumer society.

Many people try to buy clothes in second-hand stores, having money: just so that there is no senseless consumption and good things are not thrown away. Wearing branded clothes is considered bad form, well, if only so that the labels are not visible, and not all these close-ups or letters drawn with a shiny thread.

They will not be seduced by all these roses and violets in food.

What is the conclusion? This is what I get: over the years, Russia has developed its own cuisine, which has become necessary for young Russians, but completely unattractive for residents of other countries. Unless it causes envy of the "beautiful life" among some Russian emigrants of the older generation.

But there is more to think about.

PS.

I recalled a case: an Armenian couple said that when Parajanov came to Berlin, they took him to a chic restaurant, insanely expensive. And then he said to them:

"What did you assholes think that shit like that mattered to me?" I hate such places. the waiter stands behind him all the time while eating, brings a huge plate with a shiny silver lid, when he lifts it, under it is a tiny trinket, with inadequate value.

It would be better if they gave me this money, I would buy so much good at a flea market and make art out of it! This turned out to be a line that separates refugees from the inhabitants of the countries they came to. It turned out that this is very important for Russians, but not for all indigenous people and old emigrants. So the question arises as to why this happened..."

Readers mostly supported the author in trying to explain this purely Russian phenomenon:

- It's not about pumpkin latte, it's just an excuse to show how advanced and exclusive everything is in Russia. Then to teach the natives how to equip the country, I always ask, but you know so well how to equip, why didn’t they equip Russia, but came to live in a country where everything is so bad?

- You're not quite right. That part of the services that, according to an unspoken agreement with the authorities "on non-intervention", was equipped by "hipsters" in large cities, they arranged remarkably. They poked themselves further to equip, and they were hit with a dirty rag on the tinsel.