What Russians Eat

Last night we had dinner at Natasha's apartment. Natash is the "wife" of Sasha, Tanya's brother. They have not yet had a wedding. They both work in customs. Her apartment building is old, but it has been recently remodeled inside and is very clean and modern - what I think Russians call "European Standard".

This is a typical Russian apartment building. I took

the photo from the balcony of Natasha's apartment.

Tanya is pointing out where Sasha's new apartment will be -

on the eleventh floor of this new building.

I have sometimes been asked what Russians eat.

I hope the following description with photos will give an answer.

Typical Russian formal meals start with

appetizers like this: various salads, slices of meat, cheeze,

fish - what we might call Deli foods. There is also

strong drink; in this case it is cognac and vodka

(Slavic rye here) and fruit juices. No water.

After about an hour, when everyone has eaten large

quantities of appetizers, the main dish is brought in.

In this case it was chicken and broiled potatoes.

Both were very tasty.
Here is Sasha preparing the chicken in Natasha's kitchen.

Enjoying large "pickled" mushrooms.
Notice that the television is on. Russians often

have the TV on while dinning. Also notice how

light it was after 10:00 p.m.

Tanya delighted with large "pickled" mushroom

All this was followed by a chocolate tort (cake). Sorry,

I forgot to take a picture. I think we were at the table no less than two hours. It was a very enjoyable evening.

An Evening in St. Petersburg

We are still under the spell of “aklamitazatzia”. I wasn’t able to sleep past 4:00 a.m. and about 2:00 p.m. we yielded to a long nap; but this evening we felt alert and energetic enough for a nice stroll in downtown St. Petersburg and a visit to a new sushi restaurant.

The morning was taken up getting my registration for my visa. Tanya, her son and I went to the immigration office and waited in a small, crowded room for nearly three hours. I didn’t know what would happen. Finally Svyatoslav and I were admitted to an inner room. I was relieved that the woman official was very patient and pleasant. She was glad that I spoke some Russian. I was delighted that the registration was free; two years it cost 1000 roubles ($36).

After our afternoon naps Svyatoslav came home and told us he was hired for a new job. He is not happy with the pay which is about $500 a month. He told me the average income now is about $770 a month. To put this in perspective, he pays about $80 a month for his apartment including utilities.

Tanya, her mother and I enjoyed a very nice walk in the city this evening. There are lots of changes to the buildings as always. I love strolling down Nevsky Prospekt seeing a variety of people including many in the most current styles. It is always a great show. After walking through Palace Square we stopped at a new sushi place on Nevsky Prospekt called “Dve Palochki” (two sticks). Out of the windows we could see the Kazan Cathedral across the street. It is well-known for being a museum of athiesm in Soviet times. Now it is an active church. The decor of the restaurant was very modern and it was mostly full at 10:00 p.m. Anastasia had never eaten sushi or used chop sticks so it was a new experience for her. The food was tasty and not expensive. We enjoyed watching a video of nature on a large flat-screen television not far from our table. A short walk and a quick metro ride brought us home before midnight.

Palace Square with the Hermitage

Anastasia and Tanya in Palace Square

Archway view of Palace Square

Trying chopsticks

sushi

Penguins on TV in the restaurant

Photos

Here are some initial photos.

On the flight to Russia

Over St. Petersburg

Over Borovichi

Katya, Vitalick, Bill and Dima

Rollercoaster ride

Travel is like riding a rollercoaster with many ups and downs, hills and valleys, in rapid succession. Tanya and I went out in a light rain this morning, took one metro stop, and found the office where I should register my visa. There were 40 people waiting in line to do this. Always before it took 5 minutes to register my visa. I have never understood this requirement, but I always try to honor it. Tanya found out that Americans need to come to this office on Thursday and bring copies of all travel documents.

Next we found a Western Union office to retrieve the money my father sent. A transaction that should take two minutes was stretched into an ordeal lasting at least half an hour. The women behind the desk had to examine my passport many times, prepare multiple documents, have me fill in a form, ask why my father’s name was written Frank and not Francis, have me sign more forms, and then take all this to another woman behind a glass in an enclosed little closet. This woman inspected my passport, reviewed all documents, went into another room with my passport, studied her computer for a few minutes, inspected my passport again, and finally counted out the money in dollars. I was not in a good mood when we left.

I yielded to jet lag in the afternoon and took a long nap. When I got up I called Katya. She said that she had been in the hospital due to severe abdominal pains. Still she wanted us to come to dinner. It took nearly an hour by metro and tramway to reach the Paschkin’s apartment. I enjoy riding the metro because it is great for people watching. It is a quick and efficient system. Katya and her fiance greeted us. She explained that now six couples live in the apartment. Katya’s twin sister, Masha, was married in February to Dima. Katya will be married in July to Vitalik. Katya had prepared a nice meal for us. We watched a DVD of the girls singing in a restaurant two years ago. Then Katya showed us a double DVD of Masha’s wedding. I was very impressed with how fancy and fun it was with many nice Russian traditions. One of the traditions is to kidnap the bride and make the groom pass a variety of tests before can see her. One such test was to be able to pick out the lipstick impression of Marsh’s kiss from about six others. Masha looked very beautiful and everyone had a wonderful time at the wedding. I felt bad that I hadn’t attended the wedding and glad that we’ll be able to attend Katya’s wedding in July. Sasha, the girls' father had even written out a very nice invitation for “Sir William and Aunt Tanya” to come to the wedding. Katya gave me four jars of “maroshka”, a preserve made with cloudberries, impossible to find in the US. It is sweet and tasty. Before we left, Dima returned from work. I took a few photos which I’ll try to post tomorrow. In the backgroud of the photos you will see the American flag I mentioned in an earlier entry. It hangs in the apartment next to an Israeli flag.

So the up and down day ended on a high. Tomorrow we’ll take another rollercoaster ride.
As I am about to post this entry it is 1:20 a.m. and the sky is still not dark!

a rocky start

We made it to Russia, but it wasn't easy. Our flight was an hour late getting out of Los Angeles which meant that we missed our connecting flight to St. Petersburg and had to be put on a later flight. After hauling our four 50 pound suitcases plus 5 carry-ons through the airport in Moscow (after our 12 hour flight), taking a free shuttle, going through security a few more times, we got on the plane to St. Petersburg in the last seats, the last row. Dusk had almost turned to night when we took off at 11:30 p.m. It was amazing to see the sky become lighter as we flew north and west to St. Petersburg. Since Tanya's brother, Sasha, didn't know about the flight delay, he was not at the airport when we arrived. We were able to borrow somebody's cell phone (they call them "mobilny") and call her son who called her brother. It was about 1:30 a.m. when Sasha showed up with his car, a Honda sedan with the steering wheel on the right side. We barely stuffed all our luggage and ourselves into his car and he drove us to Svyataslov's apartment. Tanya's mother, Anastasia, who had arrived earlier in the day greeted us there. We were all happy to be together again. We finally got to bed about 2:45 a.m. I slept until noon.
Svyataslov and I went out this afternoon. I went to get some money from the ATM which I had done many times in the past. It didn't work. Later I tried to phone my Eagle Community Credit Union. No answer. I e-mailed the credit union and received a reply that my card had been temporarily blocked and that I could call a number to unblock it. I called the number and learned that the cridit union has decided to not let their cards be used in Russia at all. I have had no communication from the cridit union about this. I will have a critical conversation with them about this when I return home.
Since I counted on using my credit union card, I didn't bring enough money for our stay. So I called my dad and he was gracious enough to wire us money. Tomorrow I will see if it arrived.
Another misadventure was going to the office I have gone to in the past to register my visa only to find out that I have to go to another office now. So that will be another adventure for tomorrow.
I did change some money and we bought groceries. I spotted a stall that sells seeds and I asked the woman attendant if she had tomato seeds. She said, "What kind?' I said, "Exotica". She brought out a box and found 23 packets of different seeds (some were exotic like Japanese black tomatoes). The owner showed up and gave us a 40% discount for this big purchase (about $8) and also had us talk to his daughter on his mobilny who have us her e-mail address.
One new thing we noticed on the main street of St. Petersburg was pairs of young people dressed in red outfits with jackets that said, "I can help." I spoke to one pair. They are paid by the city to help tourists who speak English or German. I asked them if they thought that the majority of Russians were against America. They said diplomatically that many people are against the politics of America now, but not the people.
Another disappointment today was learning that all of the Paschkin family except Katya have gone to Borovichi. But Katya, a 20-year old I have known since she was nine, invited us for dinner tomorrow. She speaks English rather well now. She will be married July 14th. We hope to attend the wedding.
So our trip to Russia is off to a rocky start. I hope things soon get better. I'll try to add some photos.
Travel guru Rick Steves advises travelers to "Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic." Well, I am trying.

The Russian Public

We are nearly packed. As in the past Tanya is taking a lot of candy, nuts, coffee, tea, and clothes for her son, mother, and brother in Russia. She claims those things are better here than what can be purchased in Russia.
Last week I was surprised to read in the lead edditorial in the Los Angeles Times which said, "The Russian public is wildly anti-American". I wrote my first ever letter to the editor in response to this statement. They have not published it and it is unlikely that they will. Here is what I wrote:
"Re: "Listening to Putin" editorial, June 14, 2007
I was stunned by your assertion that "the Russian public is wildly anti-American" because it is so different from my experience.
In thirteen visits to Russia, I have never experienced anti-American sentiments. I find Russians to be intelligent, warm-hearted, hospitable. They are adept at separating the policies of the current American administration from the people of America. The majority of Russians I know oppose the war in Iraq, but that's true of the majority of Americans I know.
Russians love our music, our movies, and even our flag. Two years ago I brought a six foot long American flag. On the 4th of July we displayed it on my host's veranda where we had a barbeque to celebrate Independence Day. Two days later my friends brought the flag along on a picnic and proudly displayed it in public. Was their behavior wildly pro-American?"