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Three days in Moscow


chefmd

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Dinner at a Georgian restaurant called Chachapuri.  About 30 dollars for two including one beer.

writing on the black board says treasure your appetite as your first love.  image.jpg

 

Georgian dumplings khinkali, we ordered a lamb version.

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Shashlik, grilled pork kebabs. Lulya, kebab made with ground lamb kinda like kofta. Chachapuri, dough stuffed usually with cheese but we opted for a meat version.

 

 

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Dinner at friends' house.  Fat hod dogs called sardelki, half sour pickles, salted herring, pickled mushrooms  Home brewed beer produced in the city apartment.  Vodka and black bread, naturally.

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And now I can not sleep.  It is 12:40 am.  

 

Hearing Chris De Burgh song in my head


Moonlight and vodka, takes me away,
Midnight in Moscow is lunchtime in L.A.

 

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250 grams (a bit over 1/2 pound) of the best roe is 800 rubles, may be 12 dollars.  Black caviar is very expensive, have not decided yet if it is worth a splurge.  Will keep y'all posted so to speak.

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@rotuts. Great advice! Will. Get. More.  It is very nice that my son is traveling with me since I can taste everything and he will eat the rest.  It is very fortunate to be a young tall man when it comes to eating.  

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Quick mid day snack at another Russian chain Teremok.  

My Dad, my son and I all chose pelmeni (meat dumplings) with sour cream and Russian beer Baltika#7.  Young man had double portion of pelmeni and most of grandpa's beer.  For a grand total of about 15 dollars.  And we were walking down Arbat street which is as touristy as it gets.

 

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choice of soft drinks including birch water

 

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this is is how birch water is made, it is actually sap of birch tree

 

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menu board.  You can get rather filling dinner for 169 rubles, under 3 dollars

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Meat centric dishes is what is usually eaten when you eat out.  More vegetables are consumed at home.  People in Miscow grow stuff if they have dacha (summer house).  I do miss salads that we normally eat every day.

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Dinner at a fancy restaurant recommended at hotel.  It happened to be Georgian but we went anyway even though we had Georgian food on Saturday as well.  I love their cuisine.

 

we had a few appetizers.

 

Satsivi, chicken in walnut sauce.  Pickled veggies

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Lobio, bean dish with various spices

 

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Hachapuri, cheese pie

 

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Marrow bones.  Perfectly cooked with nice and fatty chunks of melt in your mouth marrow.

 

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Oh my...that beautiful, beautiful marrow! :x:x:x

 

Looks like an amazing trip so far! I'm not at all familiar with Russian & Georgian cuisine, so this is quite fascinating.

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@IowaDee Yes, silverware and plates are mostly imported.  It is indeed a small world now.   It only took about 9 hours to fly non stop from Washington DC to Moscow.

 

the rest of our dinner (having internet issues).  Veal kabobs and grown lamb kabobs served with fresh herbs and spicy tomato sauce.

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and hinkali in very light broth

 

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Quick breakfast at the railway station. We had a fascinating trip to a small town called Luhovitsy 137 km south of Moscow.  Will post tomorrow since Internet here is sporadic.  You will see veggies being consumed.

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Thanks, chefmd. I am seeing the vegetables begin to emerge as depicted in your most recent pictures. I think meat is good too but I guess I was missing the colour of vegetables in your earlier photos but thanks for explaining that often the Russian diner seeks more meat based dishes when going out for a meal. Makes sense.

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@sartoric I cook marrow bones in Cuisinart steam oven on 300 steam bake for about 20 minutes. There is a lot of fat rendering and while delicious, it is never as plump as we had at the restaurant.  Here is a photo of the ones I made.  Served with parsley salad.

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Yesterday we went to visit my ex in-laws, my son's grandparents.  They live 137 km south from Moscow.  Fast train gets there in 2.5 hours, may be a little less.  No WiFi but there is air conditioning.  You buy tickets with assigned seats and have to show your passport to board the train.  There is a small market by the train station.  It was rather empty partly because it was Wednesday and partly ( so I was told) due to weak economy.

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veggies were super fresh and very cheap, cheaper than in Moscow.  A kilo of cukes (2.2 pounds, everything is in metric system) for 50 rubles.  Exchange rate is about 65:1.

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pickled veggies

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more veggie

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wild mushrooms 300 rubles per kg.  Chanterelles were lighter in color than what I am used to but smelled unmistakably like chanterelles.  I wanted to buy the whole lot.image.jpg

 

small store near the market

 

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And lots of meat including offal, bones, and pigs head

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