Планета вкусов - Episode Guide

They say that the character of people is largely determined by the land, the soil on which they live. The land of Armenia is all mountains and stones that instill perseverance in people. So, it is not surprising that very laborious recipes arose here.

Imagine that you are in an unfamiliar country, on the streets of a foreign city. And you are so hungry! Where to find some food that will reward a tired wanderer for all his misery? Arriving in Salerno, a city in southern Italy, Anton Zaitsev tried a new method for himself. A severe hunger prompted him to go to the most reputable person in town and find out where and what is yummy here!

Nothing is easier than getting hungry here, in Berlin, where our gourmet journey begins. Anton Zaitsev wants to find food that can be called "traditional." Yet, it is not as easy as it seems - as long as international cuisine is on top here, and it pushes the local one on all fronts.

Some dishes are just delicious but taste of the others is truly legendary. And... well, some dishes are both! Take, for instance, famous Sevan crayfish. Those who have tried it, can't stop admiring its flavor. Anton Zaitsev opens the Sevan crayfish hunting season!

Anton Zaitsev is going to study the culinary phenomena of Salerno. He wants to find antique garum sauce. This sauce has not been made by wholesale since Roman Empire! Nowadays the garum is made only in Salerno and can't be found anywhere else in Italy.

The Berlin metro is organised in a very interesting way. Places with some sipid national cuisine are concentrated at almost every station as well as near it. So, you can make a culinary trip around the world while using the subway! .

Anton Zaitsev came to a very remarkable place for everyone who likes to eat. Only here you can observe three countries at the same time: France, Switzerland and Germany. Let's check if it's possible to have breakfast, lunch and dinner in three different countries in one day. But we'll not just eat - we are also going to learn something interesting about local cooking!

Anton Zaitsev arrived on the island of Aphrodite, hoping to find an ancient dish called "kleftiko", which means... well, basically, "stolen meat." And it's not just a metaphor!

There are popular dishes, there are famous ones, and there are legendary ones. Probably none of you tried a dish called "hash". Seven cities fought for the right to be considered the homeland of Homer. And all seventy-seven are ready to fight for hash. But we are not going to interfere in this centuries-old debate. Our mission is to find a real hash and learn how to cook it. To do that, Anton Zaitsev came to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

The city of Hamburg is very much like human. Almost 80% of it is water! There are a lot of canals in Hamburg, more than in Amsterdam and Venice put together, and locals usually work an appetite by walking along them. So you see why our culinary journey today is connected with water!

People of Caucasus love cooking and know how to do it properly. Special attention in Adyghe cuisine is paid to chicken. Anton Zaitsev is going to find out that a chicken dish can also be a real culinary adventure!

Old Cologne dishes have one really interesting feature that complicates the task of the taster - they have either deceptive or too poetic names, so you can't even guess how they have been cooked or what ingredients are. Anton Zaitsev makes a culinary journey into the past to find out what the dishes of the 18th and 19th centuries consist of.

The traveler, who found himself in the German city of Munich at the end of September, needs just one second to feel: there is a great celebration here. It attracts citizens and visitors of all gender, age and rank. This is Oktoberfest - the biggest and the most famous annual feast in the world! Anton Zaitsev tries to find out what seven million guests of Oktoberfest actually eat!

Dresden is the art capital of the world. This city is jam-packed with priceless paintings, sculptures and architecture. And, probably, this is the best place to find one of the most beautiful and artistic German dishes!

Anton Zaitsev knows for sure: there is never too much borsch! And he knows exactly where to find it - at the borsch festival in Borshchev, of course!

In Soviet times, this delicacy was famous throughout the whole country. You couldn't buy it anywhere else, exept the capital of the Ukrainian SSR. Only travelers brought this cake to another cities (of course, if they hadn't eaten it along the way). Anton Zaitsev tries to find this famous dessert and it's recipe!

Anton Zaitsev is just like a soldier from an old fairytale who cooked porridge with an ax in it. Today Anton is going to cook pilaf with the majestic name "fisinjan shah" adding ... horseshoe! This is an ancient culinary technique. Experts say: every human body needs iron. In the old days there were no vitamins, no iron plates and forks - so, adding a horseshoe in porrige was (at first glance) strange but rather effective way to fill up the blood with iron.

One of the most ancient Caucasian settlements is the Azerbaijani city of Sheki. It is believed that it was founded in the first millennium BC. Anton Zaitsev came here to taste a dish, which is rather famous in Azerbaijan. It is called Pity Sheki - a meat dish and soup at the same time. Sounds strange, but it was banned in the USSR! The thing is that Pity Sheki is not only cooked, but also eaten according to strict traditional rules!

The Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake in northeast Israel. This is a truly biblical place: the apostles Peter and Andrew fished here and Christ himself lived and preached in the coastal city of Capernaum. Anton Zaitsev wants to cook a dish that has been popular since the evangelists. And it is St. Peter's fish!

Anton Zaitsev tries to cook an ancient dish called "Sacrifice for the temple". It was reconstructed by historians studying the biblical era. To recreate the recipe, they used both archaeological methods and written sources, including the Bible itself.

Anton Zaitsev tries to cook an ancient Azerbaijani dish - "saj", food born in the fire. It requires a very special pan, which is called in the same way - "Saj".

Nowruz is the oldest holiday on Earth. It was already celebrated in the preliterate period of human existence. Nowruz means New Year for the Iranian and Turkic people and usually is celebrated on the day of vernal equinox. The name of the holiday itself varies among different nations. The Bashkirs call it "nawrez", the Kurds - "neuroz", the Kazakhs - "nauryz"! But whatever the name, the main part of this holiday is a big feast. Anton Zaitsev tries to cook a dish which can be made just once a year, only for this holiday. It is called nauryz-kozhey.

Anton Zaitsev arrived in Helsinki on a very unusual day - the day when the number of restaurants in the city increases tenfold! What makes people of different professions and status suddenly tie up their aprons and become chiefs for a day?

Can you imagine a restaurant serving just one dish - one and only? And the menu that has not been changed for 35 years? This amazing place is located near the Finnish city of Lappeenranta, near the Russian border. Despite it is quite far from big roads, gourmets from 100 countries strive there to try a very unusual dish called "Syarya"!

The Gyeongbokgung Palace, which has belonged to the Joseon Dynasty, is located in the center of Seoul. Kings of this dynasty ruled the country from the fourteenth to the twentieth century. It would be so interesting to find out how they lived and what secrets were hidden behind these walls ... But it's even more interesting to find out what did the kings eat! Anton Zaitsev decides to have a really royal feast!

La Manga sand spit in Spanish province of Murcia is, by far, one of the most beautiful places in Europe. Some might say that there is just the good old Mediterranean Sea, which lies on both sides of the 22-kilometer spit, but the locals have a different point of view. They see Mar Minor (the small sea) waves on the right, and Mar Mayor (the big sea) on the left. Today we are going to find out how do mar minor and mar major dishes differ!

Nowadays, seafood is quite common - everything is grown and caught commercially. However, there is one sea creature that can only be collected by hands - to be precise, by hands of women divers called "henyo". Anton Zaitsev came to the Convando province in Korea to try a dish, which is called "haemul modeum". Roughly speaking, it means "seafood platter."

Today our culinary journey led us to Tyrol. Anton Zaitsev hunts an interesting local dish, which once made a brilliant career - from a poor man's plate directly to the royal table. This dish is called "tafelspitz", which means "the top of the feast."

Even on a very large world map the island of Saipan, the Mariana archipelago, easily can be mistaken for crumbs accidentally sticking to an atlas in the Pacific Ocean, three thousand kilometers from the nearest mainland!

In their notes about the Mariana Islands Spanish travelers mentioned one quite strange culinary tradition of the Indians of the Chamorro tribe - the indigenous inhabitants of this tropical paradise. Not only wealth and power were symbols of social status here, but also the right to eat a special dish called "kelogwin". Its main ingredient is a particular freshwater shrimp that can be found only in the streams of Saipan.

Our culinary journey led us to Vietnam. Anton Zaitsev wants to find the secrets of an interesting dish with a tender name "la-u".

Usually we eat familiar common food. Less often we come across exquisite delicacies. But the most interesting thing for every gourmet is to find legendary dishes, which are, in many ways, the food for both mind and stomach. Anton Zaitsev goes in search of .... truffles. Ancient philosophers believed that they appear from lightning strikes to the ground and called them "divine." These mushrooms were adored by the rulers of the past, from the emperor Augustus to Napoleon Bonaparte. And Louis the 14th ate them raw without any side dish!

Anton Zaitsev wants to investigate how people of the peninsula use chestnuts for cooking while in many countries they don't even consider edible. Also, he will set up a bold experiment to find out which food will be the winner: Russian or Italian!

The Udmurts were first mentioned in the annals called "Tale of the Vyatka". This is quite an exciting story of the Novgorod army, which in year 1181 "beat many outlanders and enemies, and they scattered around the forests." Anton Zaitsev tries to find an Udmurt dish that was popular those days, and also find out what interesting culinary traditions of the Vyatka have survived to the present!

Hong Kong is lagging behind other countries and cities - but only with regard to the holidays! New Year is celebrated here a month later than worldwide. Anton Zaitsev discovers Hong Kong New Year traditions and of course tries to find some interesting holiday dishes!

The name Hong Kong means "a fragrant harbor", so aromas of excellent dishes are by far an integral part of this city.

Nowruz is celebrated on March 21 on the day of the vernal equinox and the celebration lasts a whole week. This is a very joyful holiday. Winter is over, sunny days are coming, a new life and new hopes begin. Food plays a very important role during Novruz. Anton Zaitsev tries to find the most popular dish of Azerbaijani Novruz and hunt out some other holiday recipes!

Anyone who travels the world in search of interesting dishes should always be hungry. Nothing is easier than getting hungry here, in Baden-Württemberg! Rich feast, friendly locals, quite cheap but incredibly delicious food - and all travelers are welcome. Anton Zaitsev wants to find out how to get hungry properly and how to still hunger with maximum pleasure for a stomach!

Macau has been a Portuguese colony for nearly five hundred years. Here, Asians and Europeans have been living side by side for hundreds of years, assimilating and enriching each other's traditions, including cooking recipes. Anton Zaitsev goes to the "special administrative region of the PRC" to find some rather interesting dishes of Portuguese Macau!

Anyone who ends up in Sardinia at the end of April will believe in everything that's written in "Time Machine"! Why? Because of the festival of St. Efisio, the defender of the island. Anton Zaitsev goes to Sardinia to find a very special historical dish, which recipe has not changed for 358 years, and try the food that was enjoyed in the Middle Ages.

Anton Zaitsev goes to Sydney to find out how much Australian cuisine really differs from ours and try the most popular dishes of the Green Continent!

The name of Kazan city comes from the russian word "kazan" which means "a cauldron". The legend says that many years ago one sorcerer ordered to build a great city in a place where the cauldron set on the ground would boil without fire. And, surprisingly, such a place was found!

Anton Zaitsev goes in search of traditional Macau cuisine and finds... the "nouyou tipan chaomin". This is a dish that has been prepared in this city long before the Europeans arrived. It really is Macau's original dish and a legacy of Chinese culture - food which an ordinary tourist can't found that easily!

As you might know, the Vikings were very harsh people. Anton Zaitsev goes to the homeland of this ancient warriors - Norway, to find one rather special fish dish cooked according to an old recipe. Can he find the courage to try terrifying lute fisk and some other unusual delicacies?

Sardinians always claim their "autonomy" from the rest of Italy. They have their own language and customs but what is more important - they also have culinary traditions and recipes that you can not find anywhere else. Some of these traditions are completely prohibited by European laws! Anton Zaitsev wants to find out how to hunt and cook a shark and also how, after all, Sardinians relate to sardines. And finally he is going to break the law... just a little!

Anton Zaitsev goes in search of purely Australian products and dishes that were invented on the Green Continent. Now he has to taste a kangaroo tail and the most expensive nut in the world, and also find out what cowboys usually have for lunch!

Anton Zaitsev continues his journey across the Green Continent. He discovers a secret auction where gourmets have some rather hot fights for fish, explores unique seafood at the highest point of Sydney and finds out what kind of dishes are served on the biggest Australian beach!

What dish is cooked in the largest pan in Bulgaria? How do microbes change a nation's taste? And why do Bulgarians walk on coal? Anton Zaitsev goes to the Country of Roses to find answers to all these questions!

Anton Zaitsev goes to the land of the Vikings to find the most unusual fish dishes you've ever seen and the most extreme food he's ever tasted in his life!

Today we are going to cook an Italian dish "spaghetti alle buzara". To do this, Anton Zaitsev goes to Trieste, a port city on the Adriatic coast. He will ride on the strangest tram in the world, find the favorite cake of James Joyce, discovers how fast food looked like in the 19th century and enter a secret laboratory at pasta factory!

Anton Zaitsev is invited to a feast in a large Abkhazian family. He is going to learn how to cook food from nothing and also will drink coffee in the most famous coffee house of the republic and try to get dinner by combat!

It is completely impossible to visit Batumi and not try a real Ajarian lunch! Anton Zaitsev goes to sunny Adzharia to find the best fish and cook it according to an old recipe, to learn the secret of original Adjarian khachapuri and to discover the technology of a real home-made chacha. And of course, to enjoy the most amazing views and to make friends with hospitable locals.

Anton Zaitsev goes to sunny Tbilisi to find out that making khinkali is not so easy as it seems and also to travel to the past and try one of the most famous Soviet drinks.

Anton Zaitsev finds out what real Ossetian cheese is, fights with the Olympic champion in the light of an owen with roasting lamb in it, cooks a dzikka and some pies, of course!

After a number of big and plentiful feasts in sunny Kakheti, Batumi and Tbilisi Anton Zaitsev needs to lose weight! And he is going to do it Georgian way: nice long mountain walks for exercise, a lot of wine for a good mood, and, well, healthy peasant food. Everyone who understands the real joy of an excellent wine with some exquisite cheese as well as thin waist will definitely appreciate this diet!

Anton Zaitsev goes to one of the most interesting megacities in the world to find out what Sheikh Mohammed has for breakfast, what the hunting falcon is ready to do for a piece of meat and what the former inhabitants of the desert have eaten before the oil boom.

For many centuries Slovenia has fought, made piece and traded with neighboring Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Croatia. And all that time it's transferred and borrowed some culinary traditions. As a result, a very special Slovenian cuisine has been created! Anton Zaitsev goes to this small but beautiful country in order to (as always) have a really good breakfast... lunch and dinner!

Like everywhere in Italy, in the Dolomites food is not just a way to still hunger but a ceremony, a process of communication and a way to enjoy delicious, lovingly prepared dishes. Anton Zaitsev goes to the Dolomites to find out what and how they like to cook here!

Anton Zaitsev goes to one of the most prosperous countries in the Arab world - Bahrain, "The Pearl of the Middle East", to learn everything about local cuisine! This cuisine of the Arabic Pearl can be called original: Indian, Pakistani, Thai and other Asian culinary schools are spread here along with traditional Arabic dishes. Date fruits are considered to be the most popular product: they are served here in different forms - from dried, going as light snack, to complex pasta made from flour and grated dates.

Anton Zaitsev goes to the Valencian Autonomous Community to have breakfast in a very unusual company, find out what a sea lion likes to eat and how to make a great dessert from two-day products!

'The Planet of Flavors' continues to wander around three cities: Benidorm, Denia, Valencia. This is the real Bermuda Triangle for gourmets! This time Anton Zaitsev will find out what the best chef of Valencia is capable of, cook and eat the famous paella and discover how the wine from the sea bottom looks like.

Rwanda is the only country in the world that has no street food. At all! Anton Zaitsev decides to find out what dishes replace street food in Rwanda and what local rulers actually eat.

Anton Zaitsev goes to Rwanda to discover what food can be found there, and is it actually edible!

Epirus is the place where Ancient Greece was actually born. Throughout its history there have always been holidays and feasts with delicious local food, drinks and a lot of fun. How do Greeks live and feast today?

Anton Zaitsev comes back to Moscow to find out why the best chefs from all over the world are trying to work here.

It is believed that there are more than 600 varieties of olives in the world. But the first thing that comes to mind when we hear about olives is, of course, Greece! Anton Zaitsev goes to this amazing country to try all possible olive varieties and to find out the most unusual recipes with olives - and some of them can't be found in a regular cookbook!

Anton Zaitsev goes to the very cradle of ancient civilization - Peloponnese - to try some interesting local food and find out what is so special about the traditional dishes of Messinia.

Anton Zaitsev continues to wander through the amazing emirate of Dubai, which is confidently ahead of America in terms of the number of immigrants. He is going to find out how recipes from many different countries took root in Dubai!

Anton Zaitsev goes to Vilnius to try the most ancient and delicious Lithuanian cuisine!

Anton Zaitsev continues his journey around Italy. Today he is going to find out what truly italian espresso means, how to distinguish edible mushrooms from poisonous ones and what Lake Garda is famous for!