Anyway, I wasn't exactly going for the food, but I was still excited to try eating some new things and tasting a new culture. I tried to go with few expectations, yet nonetheless Russia managed to confound basically all my preconceptions, not least in its unique approach to culinary matters.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
My first taste of Russia was, appropriately, borscht. FinnAir had provided us with a very respectable snack, initiating my complete and enduring satisfaction with the airline, but after more than a day's journey, I was very ready for a real meal. A little put off by the ramshackle courtyard
and deflated by the struggle to pull my 1000 lb. suitcase up five flights of stairs, Misha and I were rather nervous and flustered as Svetlana greeted us and urged us to sit at the table in the narrow, greenish kitchen. She offered us tea (чаи -- many Russians brew a pot of very strong tea and add hot or cold water to it to dilute for drinking. I was very disappointed to not be offered jam to put in it, as I had thought this was common practice. Milk in tea is unheard of, it seems, and the addition of sugar is much encouraged.). She then served us very thin but gloriously magenta borscht. The borscht I have had in the US has usually been rather thicker, with lots of bits of cabbage in it; sometimes it has had meat in it, and sometimes it has been pureed. This soup was very good, and we both had seconds. In retrospect, I believe this was the only time that Svetlana willingly offered us seconds, and one of the few times that I actually wanted more of something delicious that she was serving. She herself did not eat anything, but watched us fixedly as we ate. This would prove to be her habit at mealtimes.
After we finished our soup and stumbled through some smalltalk (she spoke zero English, as far as I could tell), Svetlana got out some paper and grilled us on what, exactly, should go on the list of things she would be feeding us. If I had known that she would adhere so strictly to the list, I might have tried to be a little more creative! I did, however, get the sense that this was more a quiz than a dialogue. She would ask: eggs? we would reply, yes. Boiled? yes. Kasha? Ummmm... KASHA? yes. Bread? yes. Cheese? yes. And so on. Knowing that few Russians can afford a wide variety of foods, particularly fruits and vegetables, I tried to be as accommodating as possible. After she had finished the list, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed and disoriented, and went into my "bedroom"
for most of the rest of the afternoon.
On our first morning, Svetlana made us blini. At first, this seemed wonderful. Blini are fat, puffy little pancakes fried in oil, and served with the inevitable sour cream (сметана). They are very tasty, but we soon realized that Svetlana expected us to eat at least a dozen each, with extra for Misha. They are very filling; five would be a solid breakfast for me! Jam was again conspicuously absent from the table; I began to feel disillusioned, as I had always read that jam and preserves were a major part of the Russian diet, particularly in the absence of fresh fruit. I surreptitiously mixed a little sugar with my sour cream for variety. I think I consumed more sugar in Russia than in the whole past year of normal life; I don't have a major sweet tooth, but Russians certainly do, and sweets are ubiquitous.
Misha and I set off for our first day of school, and by lunchtime in the mid afternoon I was ravenous. This state would prove to be pretty much a constant throughout the trip. Our group ate in a Georgian cafe near the university, and the food, though oily, was pretty good. Georgian food is a good deal more exciting than typical Russian food; it is "spicy" by Russian standards, with plenty of tomatoes, oil and eggplant. typical dishes are mutton kebabs, stews with tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, and various things roasted in oil. While this meal was satisfying, I was starting to become suspicious about the portion sizes. I do not think that I am a stereotypical American glutton, but I do get hungry. And I was perpetually hungry for the first few weeks in Russia, until I started buying my own groceries and packing food for the day along with me.
Svetlana and her entire family (husband, 5 daughters and a few spouses, most of whom lived together in the apartment) seemed astounded by my appetite, and several times asked me how I could eat so much and be so thin. Fitness has not really arrived in the Russian mainstream yet, and my explanations that I get a lot of exercise at home and thus can eat a lot were met with blank stares. All the women in the apartment professed to being on a diet, except for the youngest one, who ate with the normal gusto of a teenager. Our gifts of dried fruits were met with initial curiosity and later were utterly ignored. I'm sure they were thrown away as soon as we left. Our gift of coffee was ignored from the very first, which brings me to another issue.
The coffee situation in Russia is dire. Everyone drinks plenty of tea, and when we did encounter coffee anywhere, it was Nescafe or similar. I have never experienced a jones for coffee so intense! I was exhausted by being unable to sleep through the white nights, and so in the absence of coffee I was near delirium for a Misha and I came to depend on weak "American-style" coffee from the ubiquitous chain of кофе-хаус (coffee-house) cafés. I think this was really more like an americano, and at over $4, the price was too high for daily consumption. In addition, the service at the кофе-хаус was abominably slow (another Russian constant -- customer service does not exist!), and we were late several times because we were so desperate for coffee. Eventually I pretty much gave up and focused on tea, some of which was really very good. I never did get to try it with jam, though.
GROCERY SHOPPING
Most of the restaurants that I encountered in Russia were cafeteria style. For less than $5, I often got soup, "salad," some bready thing, a drink, and maybe some dessert. Let me warn you: salad in Russia is not going to fulfill your hankering for vegetables. It will definitely include mayonnaise, as do many other usually mayonnaise-free foods. It will probably be mostly made up of beets or carrots; it may have a herring surprise hidden somewhere in all the mayonnaise. I love herring, but not when I am expecting beet salad! In any case, this typical cafeteria food is very cheap and very unsatisfying. It is often lukewarm and never served with a smile. I rarely saw any salt or pepper, let alone any other spices or seasonings. The food is not horrible, just very bland, tiny portions, and often mushy and not fresh. At my house, there was salt, pepper, and sometimes fresh dill for seasoning. That was it, and seemed to be pretty much the norm. There are plenty of very nice restaurants (though even the nicest often have TVs in the dining room!), but they are astronomically expensive. I went to one, more on that later. Spurred by constant hunger, desperation, and boredom with the cafeteria food, I decided to brave the grocery store. There were several small 7-11 type groceries near my house, and in fact all over the city, but I wanted the real deal.
This market was on the way to the metro from my house in St. Petersburg. It was HUGE.
I was both delighted and daunted when I saw this market. I actually went in once and did a little recon before I got up the nerve to buy anything. You see, one must ask for everything, usually by weight. If one's vocabulary is rather limited, and one's familiarity with the metric system a little shaky, this can be very, very difficult. Each little island area sells something different; on the first floor alone there were stands for bread, spices, sweets, fruit & veg, tea, dairy, imports (mostly from Finland), meat, seafood, juices, alcohol, and more. I didn't even go up to the second floor. Many of the vendors are all vying for the customer's attention, so I basically ignored them as much as possible and tried to head straight for what I wanted. I'm sure I was easily pegged as a foreigner with a lot of money to blow; I probably spent more than many Russians earn in a month on fruit and vegetables.
Here I am at my favorite fruit stall. This lady was one of the friendliest merchants I met anywhere in Russia, probably because of my exorbitant spending, but nonetheless I was grateful for her kindness. The quality of the produce was generally very good, everything was beautifully displayed (she pulls what you want from bins beneath the display), and the variety was impressive. There were also many fruit stands on the street, but the fruit was not nearly as high quality as in the big markets. By the way, you can buy just about anything from a kiosk in Russia -- beer (16 oz cans or bigger, always warm -- there are refrigerated ones, but the vendors seem to want to preserve the display and always give you a warm one), hard alcohol, fruit & veg, cheese, yogurt and milk, fruity drinks, sausages, blini, hot dogs & burgers, candy, pierogi, etc.
This was the most daunting and fascinating part of the market -- the meat counter. I have never seen anything like it. Little refrigeration, huge parts of animals ready to be chosen and cut up, and this staring up at you:
The meat was pretty good, though. I suspect that much food in Russia is sort of organic by default, though I'm sure that industrial pollution is rampant. The meat seemed pretty lean and looked quite fresh. When I asked for ground meat, the lady told me that one only grinds bad meat, and she didn't sell bad meat, so I would have to get whole pieces. I liked her logic and then was stumped by having absolutely none of the necessary vocabulary. We decided eventually on pig meat (I only knew the words for pig and cow), from the shoulder area (I think), cut lengthwise. I have no idea what it was really, but it tasted good and I was proud that I managed to make the transaction work.
This is a supermarket in Moscow, a famous one called Yeliseevsky Delicatessen. As you can see, it is astonishingly beautiful. They have all kinds of imports, and it was astronomically expensive. Packaged vegetables as high as $20 or more, fancy things in tins, fresh bread and cakes, an unusual assortment of imported spices, Japanese packaged things, a wonderful prepared foods section, and I think a separate wing for caviar and champagne. I was so overwhelmed, it was hard to really take it in. It sure did make me hungry, though!
We bought a few treats from Yeliseevsky, but mostly we bought stuff from the little stands near our Moscow apartment. Being a customer in Russia is pretty tricky; lines as such do not really happen. You have to get right up by the counter, make eye contact, and demand what you want while the clerk stares at you balefully. If you're not fast enough or don't know exactly what you want, the clerk will move on to the next irritated customer who is pushing in right beside you. It is very stressful, particularly if you don't know the names of what you want! Dinners in Moscow were improv and we were all so exhausted by that time that I couldn't put much into it, but it felt great to be cooking again!
I think that most of these are for pounding meat?
More to follow; for now I wish you приятного аппетита!
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