HAPPY NEW YEAR! - выйти - SPN Publishing

реклама
photo: Legion-Media; ИТАР-ТАСС
chicken tabaka — nothing superfluous, but
everything that is necessary.
Another very popular place that plays
on the Great Soviet Style with a touch
of irony is the Petrovich Club. The cuisine
is famous more for the names of the dishes
(for example, “Berlusconi’s and Putin’s
Dinner with Koni,” which turns out to be
fried zucchini with garlic and tomatoes
topped with Parmesan), but it is worth
coming here for the Soviet breakfasts with
hangover kefir and fortifying semolina.
Sociologists and culturologists
established long ago that nostalgia
manifests itself in love not for the “past
life” itself, in which the bad was at least
no less than the good, but for the cultural
aspects of that life — music and cinema,
for example. This is most clearly felt
in the case of cinema, because post-Soviet
films are light years behind Soviet ones
in terms of quality. It is not surprising, then,
that well-loved films have become a good
conceptual support for restaurateurs.
In Moscow there is a minimum of two
excellent restaurants based on Soviet
films. There is one devoted to the classic
Pokrovskiye Vorota in the district of that
name: bentwood chairs, white tablecloths
that reach the floor, photographs in carved
oval frames, a dreadful (as it ought to be)
copy of Vasnetsov’s Bogatyrs. The menu
includes Olivier salad, beetroot salad,
boiled prawns to go with beer, assorted
meats, okroshka and sturgeon Moscowstyle.
For dessert you will be served
charlotte, strudel or tiramisu, but sweets
were never important in Soviet cuisine.
If Pokrovskiye Vorota is inextricably
linked with Kozakov’s film, the Taganka is
the “main character” in The Meeting Place
Can Not Be Changed. Inevitably there is
a Black Cat Restaurant, exploiting the huge
popularity of the TV serial. Crab salad,
cod liver, an excellent selection of patties
“straight from the oven” and julienne
of porcinis, as well as some items rarely
seen in Moscow restaurants — sorrel-shchi
and rose hip tea. The names of the dishes
are even more recondite than those at
Petrovich (for instance, salmon on pancakes
is called “Jewish-style kugel of sea salmon,
an extraordinarily delicious dish prepared
to a recipe from the personal cookery book
of Major Boris Solomonovich Kogan, Head
of the Moscow Police Catering Complex
in 1958”), but this does not spoil them,
strange as it may seem.
And those who are, nevertheless,
closer to the point of view that the primary
purpose of eating out is to have their fill
(preferably not bankrupting themselves
in the process), not reading the menu
like a novel and not giving their orders
to a waiter with a Mauser at his side,
3
4
are recommended to try a place that is
not at all inspiring, but no less nostalgic
for all that. In the early 1990s a cafe
called Khmelnaya Charka (“The Cup that
Cheers”) opened on the site of an ordinary
canteen near Belorusskaya Metro Station.
Country-style beef, Kolomenskoye-style
pork, chicken tabaka and homemade
pelmeni at entirely “Soviet” prices but
of capitalist quality.
If you feel somewhat fed up with
capitalism and want something
left-field — probably something to go
well with beer or (nothing bad about
that, after all, you’re in Russia) a shot
of ice-cold vodka, look no further than
Cheburechnaya No 1, set up close
I
1. By Pokrovskiye
Vorota invite you
to the warm and
soothing atmosphere
of the late 1950s
2. The Yar Restaurant
combines imperial
tastes in the cuisine
with Soviet-style
luxury in its interior
design
to the world-famous Tretyakov Gallery.
Best chiburekki (Middle-Asian deep fried
turnovers with minced meat and onions)
in town guaranteed — together with
an illustrious crowd of Moscow’s oldschool
intelligentsia and museum-goers.
Or, if in a braver mood, visit Vtoroye
Dykhanye (“The Second Wind”), situated
in the same district of Zamoskvorechye.
This is a traditional Soviet “ryumochnaya”
(literally, “the shots bar”), with cheap
liquors, suspiciously looking sandwiches
and working class patrons. This place
may look rough but is actually quite safe
to get an experience — actually, Moscow
hipsters tend to take their girlfriends here
for a taste of “real life.”
Firmin Shеphеrd, Language trainer
Favorite Russian dish: Bееf Stroganoff
ПОДГОТОВЛЕНО ПРИ ПОДДЕРЖКЕ КОМИТЕТА ПО ТУРИЗМУ И ГОСТИНИЧНОМУ ХОЗЯЙСТВУ ГОРОДА МОСКВЫ
3. Everyone can
feel a little bit
Zheglov (the main
character in The
Meeting Place Can
Not Be Changed) at
the Black Cat Inn
4. Good old pelmeni
remain an all-time
favorite with the
Moscow crowd
like Russian food. Things like preserved mushrooms are great,
of course. Pelmeni are good for fast food. I don’t like borsch,
though. When it comes to soups, I prefer solyanka — it’s
delicious. Actually, I can’t help mentioning that even in the
Metro you can buy some tasty vacuum-packed things — that’s
New Russian food, of course, not traditional cuisine.
DECEMBER 2011 I WHERE MOSCOW 37