The Bird Feeder

Feeding chickadees in the Botanical Garden at Moscow State University

Photo by Alex Davy.

 

V-Day + B-Day

Valentine’s Day and Alex’s Birthday are only days apart, so he’s lucky I’m such a gift-giver — he got separate presents.

The Russians I asked about Valentine’s Day agreed that it was an imported holiday, so they don’t celebrate it in a big way. Nonetheless, they echoed the common American complaint that giving flowers and cards has gotten old. Guess romantic cliches have outlived their life here, too.

For V-Day in Novgorod we un-veganized one of my favorite recipes, the Post-Punk Kitchen’s pumpkin cranberry risotto. (Not that Russia’s made us completely anti-veg; it’s just that a can of coconut milk costs $5-$7 here, and I’ve only spotted it in Moscow.)

A Russian couple was supposed to join us for dinner, but the girl forgot her documents (dorm visitors have to leave their passports with the front door guards), so we shared our dinner with one of my German floormates.

The hedgehog and the rug I bought from the silver-tongued Turk, Hobama

I gave Alex a slew of little gifts – a pomander, a chocolate egg with a Roman centurion figurine inside, a heart-shaped pressed towel, and M & M’s. (Alex claims M & M’s are not to be found in Moscow, though every street kiosk in Novgorod has them!). And Alex gave me a stuffed hedgehog.  If you don’t get the appeal of hedgehogs, watch this.

Alex’s b-day we spent in Moscow. Since he worked until 8 p.m., he missed out on seeing a production of Gogol’s “The Nose,” which a friend and I saw at the Moscow Theater of Young Spectators. We had some lower-brow fun with him–a basement blini joint where a plate of three thin, greasy blini costs 25 roubles and a cat wandered freely between the patron’s tables to the kitchen. Mmm.

I gave Alex a t-shirt from Novodel, a design botique in Moscow, and a set of plastic Russian soldiers to quell his War Hammer withdrawl.

Now, back to work…until St. Patrick’s Day.

 

Train Time

I’m in Moscow for the mid-year Fulbright seminar, which meant an overnight train ride from Moscow. Usually I ride platzcart, 3rd class. The cars are completely undivided, but the tickets are cheap. This time I was treated to a luxurious 4-person coupe — me and three Russian men. I must say, my quickly pessimistic mind went through all the worst scenarios that could take place during the eight-hour journey.

Nothing terrifying happened. To the contrary — one of the men finally asked about my accent, thinking I was German, and then set into a long series of reflections on his travels in Germany and Turkey, the Tao, and the memory of water. He showed me the correct hand positioning for meditating and admonished me when I said I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions and didn’t know who I wanted to work as.

When I actually talk to my cabin-mates, I sleep a lot better. Who knew.

Tomorrow our seminar starts, so I’ll share what the other Fulbrighters have been up to in their far-flung studies and professorships.

 

Quick bites in Moscow

The last few days we had a few “Moscow in your pocket”-recommended meals that weren’t half bad.

We popped into the cafe Everyday People (http://www.ludikakludi.com/) for a bite this afternoon. Good pies and smoothies, along with the usual coffee shop fare of teas, espressos, and croissants. I had a spinach and feta pie, and Alex had a strudel. Then we saw a plate of “sirniki” (сырники) that had been added to the chalkboard menu, and couldn’t resist. Made from Russian cottage cheese–like tvorog, they were like creamy silver-dollar pancakes with raisins, served with a side of sour cream. An ingenious combination of milk products, really!

The atmosphere was also a relief–the main server was a charmer. He never left his tiny nook behind the counter, concocting smoothies, making change, plating croissants, and filling tiny one-person teapots. His conversational style was great, too. As laconic as the usual Soviet shopkeeper (“May I have some sirniki, please?” “Yes.”), his responses were tempered by a playful glint in his eye, instead of the usual blank-eyed reluctance you so get here in Russia.

Last night we dined at a Japanese fast-food restaurant, Udonyason (http://www.udonyasan.ru/). The combo dinners are quite filling, and not bad for Moscow, only about $9 each. For me, that included a Japanese salad, a huge bowl of udon soup, a few rice balls, and a cup of puffed rice tea. Of course, there were some strange Russian accents–the Asian staff was more likely from Central Asia than from Japan–and one of the rice balls accompanying my meal was undoubtedly topped with a pink lump of canned tuna. Other than that, the miso soup was decent (though it had nearly doubled in price since the “Moscow in the Pocket” reviewer had visited), and the udon dishes were super filling. Admittedly, coming from the American Midwest, I have about as little idea about authenticity in Japanese cuisine as the average Russian does, but I did wonder–do they usually top udon soups with tempura? It seemed an odd choice, as the usually delicate tempura batter covering my shrimp quickly went flaccid after a few seconds absorbing broth.