In this week's Odder News, the biggest pot of borscht you'll ever see, a new birthday gift idea, and piranhas hit Sakhalin.

Trash-panda no more, this raccoon has developed a hankering for fine wine. 

“We expect there to be and there already is a decrease in prices for products included in this ‘borscht set,’ and in our opinion, the trend will continue.”

– Elvira Nabiullina, the head of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, has happy news.

Is there anything that could make cheese any better than it already is? A new patent in cheese-making with an unusual ingredient is attempting to do just that. 

When an injury takes an MMA fighter out of the cage, he decides to take his talents into the kitchen instead. 

Our old gals in the village cast a wary eye on all food from the store, because who knows what they’ve got in there?

Raspberries and cream – a wonderful summer treat.

For some 300 years, the residents of Gorodets, near Nizhny Novgorod, have been making a spicy cookie famous throughout the country, and perhaps the world.

Julia Frey's parents, Victor and Victoria, created beautiful feasts in the Soviet times. For Victor, it meant getting cake equipment tailor-made and becoming the best baker in town. For Victoria, it was cooking a Russian and Ukranian storm. Julia cooks, bakes and reminisces about her "great childhood" in London.

If you enjoy a hefty pour (or three!), you might think twice about what you consume to offset the effects of a night of drinking.

Grow parsley for the wrong reason and you could land up in jail.

In this week's Odder News, Russia jumps on the organic bandwagon, Russians get circus tickets and stickers for vaccinating, and quadruplets are more common than you would think.