I like blini with sour cream. If there's no sour cream, sugar or jam is good too. But the difference between what Americans know as pancakes (like you can buy at the Waffle House in any good southern town) and Russian blini is the thickness - pancakes are a lot thicker and cake-like. You can argue with that statement all you want, but it's what I've observed from 15 years of American pancakes and several wonderful Russian friends (in Russia) making blini. I'd never eat either with fish or caviar though.