Piroshki, Pelmeni, and Borscht, Oh My!

Living in San Francisco with its large Russian population gave us a distinct advantage when it came to Russian food. There were few surprises and we already had a list of things we wanted to try in the "old country", in order to compare them with what we had tasted at home. First on our list were piroshki, the small fried dough buns filled with meat, mushrooms or potatoes. They were easy to find and as my traveling companion commented on more than one occasion, "I've never met a piroshki I didn't like". Pelmeni were easily number 2 on our list and these meat filled dumplings, served with sour cream, were available just about everywhere. Borscht, the Russian beet soup was also readily available, and served with sour cream. As good as it was, I found myself ordering cream of mushroom soup more often.

It hadn't occurred to me that it would be impossible to write a restaurant review of Russian restaurants. Since most signs were written in cyrillic with no English translation, and because my keyboard uses Roman letters, I find myself at a loss for words, or at least for names. No matter, there are hundreds of restaurants to choose from and showing you the food should work well enough. The meat as well as mushroom piroshki and porcini mushroom soup were available from a restaurant on Nevsky Prospect that looks like this:

 

Even though I can't name them, we did find some good Russian beer along with some imports. The Kozel pictured below is actually a Czech beer that I remember trying in Prague. It completely changed my opinion of beer, from something negative to something very positive.

As you might expect, blini were on the food scene, the one below served with salmon roe and sour cream. The rye bread was impressive and the Russian Salad was a real treat, since I seldom see it at home. The surprise for me was buckwheat groats. Served with butter and mushrooms, they became a filling, vegetarian lunch course, but I also tried them for breakfast at the hotel. I'm not certain that they are normally a breakfast item, because to add to the confusion, our hotel also served macaroni and hot dogs for breakfast.

 

Another restaurant on Nevsky Prospect turned out to be our favorite, because the food was so good and unpredictable. It turned out to be a Georgian restaurant and they have earned their reputation for serving the best Russian food available. Here are photos of it and its sign:

We found it on our last evening in St. Petersburg and it provided a perfect last meal in Russia. First we started with piroshki, then an onion and mushroom salad. Next we ordered a "Russian Pizza" that was remarkable. There was a raw egg on top that our waitress nimbly mixed into the melted cheese with a fork. It was a real production and provided great entertainment along with the best food item of the evening. Lastly we ordered a pork and potato dish similar to a goulash and a lamb "shislak". Russian vodka rounded out the meal. Well, you can't go to Russia and not try the vodka, can you?