05.12 'Pelmeni' in Perm: Russian Culinary Treat Awaits Sochi Torch Relay

PERM, Russia, December 5 (R-Sport) – The Ural Mountain city of Perm will greet the arrival of the Sochi Olympic flame with a mass banquet of Russian-style dumplings, “pelmeni,” the regional administration announced Wednesday.

The torch relay will reach Perm, a city of a million 1,400 kilometers (900 miles) east of Moscow, on January 3 and be taken on a two-day trip around the city by about 260 torchbearers.

This leg of the relay will finish with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at the esplanade in the center of the city, where 20,000 dumplings are to be cooked and eaten by Perm's residents.

Pelmeni are a traditional dish made of three kinds of meat: lamb, pork and beef.

The torch relay for the February 7-23 Games, which started on Red Square in Moscow on October 7, is currently in the heart of Siberia, in Novosibirsk.

It is to take in all of Russia's 83 regions on its 56,000-kilometer (35,000-mile) trip.