Snack Petersburg

Our crew invaded Saint Petersburg last August.  

Our stomachs studied with passion the menu cards in numerous places. 

Russia was a culinary blast.

Starting from the beginning: Waking up. Our mornings were characterized by the quest for coffee. And the need for caffeine was written into our faces.

And however coffee to go is an idea that had reached Sankt Petersburg...

... it is again only according to the signboards. Similarly to the service in many restaurants, the coffee to go places have no need for speed.

Who got hold of one of these coffees to wait, was happy. Artur who planed our trips, started after the first day, naming the meeting time for excursions half an hour earlier. This way we managed to make it with our coffee almost on time.

One of our first sightseeing stops was at Yeliseyevsky Merchants, a fin de siecle building, housing an exquisite food store founded in 19th century.

The delicacies were exposed as decorative ornaments contributing to the luxurious look of the fin de siecle interior.

Above - patisserie, below - oysters

It is now a good moment to introduce to the blog readers my favorite food model. Since I have known this man, he is a frequent theme on my snap shots. Hardly ever without food:

Taras and food.

I had one bite of the patisserie he had bought. For my taste, too sweet. From now on however, a culinary firework begins.

From oysters to mussels. I cannot eat those. The consistence of a mussel is not compatible with my mouth. But it was fun enough to watch these two falling over mussels in a bar called SPB. 

My husband loves mussels and he said the SPB-Mussels were "lecker".

We have been to this bar twice during the week as it is spacious - enough place for a big group without a former reservation can be easily found.

You can get beer here in a beer dispenser on your table. And it is a paradise  for smokers.

When you are in Russia, and in the eastern EU-countries, get bar food that they serve with the beer. The solutions for finger food are creative and often much healthier - it is at least not all chips and peanuts. 

I took the picture a bit too late, when mostly salt sticks and peanuts remained. What is stealing them the show are these cheese splints (left and right). The cheese tastes more or less smoked, depending on the sort. Cheese packaged as splints or braids I saw and ate in Poland, Ukraine and Russia. It is a good snack for a party.

The appeal of Russian kitchen are among others traditions reaching from Eastern Europe to Far East, existing simultaneously and being equally developed. This way, you can order a snack which is very Ukrainian, to go along with the beer. I am presenting you Salo, fatback, see above. And whatever your Western European taste is now telling you (some of you have a shortening reaction, I can see it), you should at least try it. I have fallen in love with Salo but maybe it is the 1/8 of Ukrainian genes in me that were talking here.

I admit, chewing on some sorts of fatback is not always easy. It is however definitely rewarding. But while chewing on fatback you do need to forget your diet restrictions.

Typical for us Eastern Europeans are the pickled cucumbers. It is also a party snack and a very common side dish for vodka.

We owe this Eastern European extravaganza to the place called Dachniki. We fall in love with the restaurant immediately. It is situated at Nevsky Prospect in its very touristic core. What they intended to recreate here was the atmosphere of a Dacha.

Dacha is a seasonal residence, a summer house, a holiday house. Dacha survived as a form of popular vacation for common people from the Sovjet times and symbolizes cosiness and familiar atmosphere. Grandma-like curtains, ancient fridges, cheep silverware. Summer feeling.

The menu in Dachniki corresponds with the childhood memories of my friends from Russia and Ukraine. And many of the utensils and dishes are familiar for a Polish too. Let alone the tea glass in the picture above or the thin white napkin in the bread basket. Reducing the equipment to necessary and life-saving items and then again arranging the place still in a pleasant way at minimum financial costs but with a lot of personal care. It is like coming back to mama.

Here some Dachniki-dishes. On the picture above, you see Manty, dumplings filled with lamb, with coriander dressing. The dumplings are not boiled but damped.

The dish above is shashlik, the meat has been marinated for one day in an onion sauce, and then grilled on a stick directly above coals.

Eastern Europeans are definitely carnivores. As a vegetarian, you will have to struggle to find food without meat. Hopefully, you at least eat fish.

If you visit Russia, make sure you try their Sushi. There are chains specialized on Sushi with a rich choice of dishes on the menu. Remember, Russia ends at the Sea of Japan.

The warm and moist napkins are meant to clean hands.

Best Sushi ever. No further comments necessary.

And a desert too.

Of course when in Russia, try to get caviar. We actually got it in the Aleksandrinskij Teatr, where we went to see a ballet (the snacks were better than the show - it is not Bolshoy...)

Taras with food

Food with Taras

And some of us were simply happy to get a dry smoked fish...

On the following pictures, you will see measurements from SPB bar against any dryness and thirst:

When you love beer, chances are that you might love a smoke as well - in Dachniki they let you try old soviet brand of cigarettes which is no stuff for sissies. See below.

After nights like these some of us were too weak to eat the next day...

To start the next day, there is a good place for western, spoiled tourists awaiting good and friendly service. In this case it is even better then most service in Western Europe and the English of the waitresses is good beyond belief. They actually speak with an Oxford accent.

They serve a really good breakfast. You can order Bliny, which means pancakes. Bliny are not only a breakfast dish in Russia, it is something you can get with sweet or salty filling and have it for dinner as well. Very recommendable, the Russian bliny.

A short excursion to Germany at this point and an outcry towards German restaurant managers: Do not pretend in your menus you cook international food because mostly you do not know what you are talking about. And we Eastern Europeans are really among you people, so when we see "Russian" or "Polish" on a menu card and what we get is what you think might be Russian or Polish, it is just a reason not to return to your restaurant ever. Here is the story:

Early September, we returned from our adventure in Pyetya (nick name of Saint Petersburg). Three days later, we met in Kiel to celebrate the great holiday we just accomplished, by going for a breakfast to Cafe Resonanz. It happened to be, they served among others Russian breakfast. In fact, although over decorated, it had no additional benefit. The shadow of a salmon does not make a breakfast Russian, even then when you call it Bliny. Especially when these are not Bliny. If a nation calls something by a name you do not understand, it can still mean something very down to earth like pancakes, Pfannkuchen or pannekoeken.

Back to Russia:

In our favorite breakfast place in Saint Petersburg you can also order something very (and now I need to be careful) European: pastry (that would be a very French breakfast), fried egg (very Dutch) or scrambled eggs with bacon (British / Polish).

To the right you see the display cabinet full of patisseries. Unfortunately, believe it or not, I forgot the name of the place. And you cannot even googlemap it. I know how to describe how to get there. It is close to the metro station Admiralteyskaya, and is situated on the corner of Bolshaya Morskaya and Gorokhovaya ulitsa. The name of the cafe sounds French.

If someone knows the place, please make a comment to this post, I am dying here to recall its name!

This is the opposite corner of the street seen from the front of the cafe. On the other side a chain of bars: Killfish. I cannot recommend the place - it tries to make an impression of a closed club, in fact everybody can get inside. Though, to get your drink for normal prices, you need to register with your mobile number. But you are only allowed to do it in case you own a Russian number. Basically it is a way to get foreign tourists to pay more for the drinks than the locals.

By the way, you will find familiar logos everywhere in Saint Petersburg, all written in Cyrillic in slavic transcription for the English pronunciation. But of course, nobody of us even thought of getting anything in one of these places. Well, maybe apart of a coffee - unsuccessfully though, the service there is still not for people who are in hurry to join a guided tour.

What we also decided not to buy was German beer of course...

But sometimes a man needs a magnum. And guess what, Russians do have their own magnums, called different name but according to my husband, just as good as the true originals.

But the West steels from Russia too. Here at the Moskovskij Vokzal (Moscow Station) in Sankt Petersburg, you see Bistro Soljanka. No, soljanka is not a soup from Berlin!!!

Among many Russian soups, one of the most famous one is Borshtsch. Polish version is called Barshtsch. In Poland we eat it as a very clear soup with one sort of inlay. Towards the East from Poland the soup thickens from country to country. The recipe for Barshtsch or Borshtsch can cause marital fights between mixed Eastern European partners - whichever of the countries we come from we claim we have patented the one and only way to prepare it. But the common element among us all is the red color - from the red beet. The snap shot above is taken in a self-service restaurant at Nevsky Prospekt called Market Place. I can only warmly recommend you to go there for a meal, uncomplicated, cosy atmosphere and truly Russian food. At very agreeable prices.

Do not hesitate to step into places that look like local chains. There are some of them - especially these who sell food from the further regions of Russia or former Soviet Union republics can surprise you with really tasty, authentic dishes from far away. In one of these places we had chiburreki. It is a Tatar dish. It is a dough turnover with filling. Traditional filling is minced meat, also combined with numerous different ingredients like champignons, persil, onions, cheese, curd etc. You can also order cheburreki with salmon too, which according to my experience is a very good idea as well. 

If you want to cook it yourself, you will easily find a recipe on the web. Among others, check this blog: 

http://natashaskitchen.com/2012/01/03/lenas-chebureki-recipe-чебуреки/

A fresh, cold Russian side dish is salad Vinegret. It is a mixture of cooked vegetables: potatoes, red beet, carrots. You can add onions, peas, and pickled cucumbers. The dressing is made out of oil, salt and pepper. Remember, the spelling of foreign names in cyrillic is adequate to the pronunciation of the words in Russian and correlates literally with the transcription of the Russian sounds: Subway is being spelled Sabwej for example.

You can make groceries in Russia in Produkty which basically means grocery store. In the center you will rather find numerous (really numerous, even next to each other) Produkty, from the size of a kiosk offering a very basic assortment up to something which resembles of a mini supermarket. Do not mistake the people working there with the same you know from the friendly supermarket in your western home town ("the West" in this sentence starts exceptionally at the border of the EU). They are honestly not interested in selling anything and they are not interested in you needing something from their store. Although the shortage of supply seems not to be a problem for quite some time now, Russian service has not managed the transition to focus on the customer. There are still exceptions, in the drugstore on Gorokhovaya  street (see above) a woman even wished us a good day. We wanted to give her a hug.

In contrast to the service in many public places, normally Russian food is being served with overwhelming hospitality - you are invited over somewhere and the table will be continuously filled with plates, snacks and beverages. On the picture above, a classic pick nick at the apartment of our friends. 

At the Russian indoor pick nick: These two are famous for looking alike, dressing alike and sitting alike. They are mental twins.

Nastja, Sashka and Ira know each other from Chabarovsk (if you do not know where it is, you should check it, it helps to understand the dimensions of Russia), last summer they have met again in Saint Petersburg.

Anton the cat discovers German beer we brought from Germany.

Priyatnovo Appettita!