Bought kumis ("a fermented drink traditionally made from the milk of horses") at a store yesterday - what a fake.

Or perhaps the kumis at that vegetable store on Yalta's Embankment all those years ago was a fake - but boy, was it delicious. The real thing, I'm sure. Or almost real.

It was one of those (many) things that made Yalta a different world for me as a child, the only place in my universe where they had kumis, which I, for some reason, loved so much. Because it's not a drink you'd expect a child to like - it's not sweet and it is said to contain a tiny little bit of alcohol. Though that probably explains why I loved beer so much in later life.

Anyway, this bottled kumis here in Moscow seems to be fake - but it reminded me of Yalta and my childhood enough for me to write this note, which is good.