The Moscow food challenge

Since arriving in Moscow one of the many things the Greek and I love to do is find places to EAT.

Our backgrounds come from two amazing culinary explosion of flavours, concepts and traditions, namely Italian and Greek. This is coupled with our Australian exposure to multi-cultures and the lovely food they brought to our homeland.

Thai, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese, French, Mongolian, Seafood, an Australian BBQ, the list is endless; I think you get the message as well as our adventurous streak in trying it all!

Our time in the Middle East also helped cement our love for dining with the introduction of many spices and new traditions. I will never forget the Greek coming home one day after sharing a meal in an Arab tent with some of his colleagues. The bottom line was a 40cm platter of rice and goat that was to be shared by all that sat around it in the traditional manner (use of hands instead of cutlery) was discarded after the Greek, who was asked to eat first as a guest of honour, reached in with his left hand to proceed eating. This is voodoo for the Arabs as they only use their right hand to eat! Lesson quickly learnt.

Which brings us to Moscow, one of the most amazing cities in the World when it comes to variety and choice for dining; in fact we have only scratched the surface! I know it is well documented that it’s one of the most expensive cities in the world but after Australia where a basic Caesar salad is $25 we find Moscow to be slightly cheaper! I won’t even mention Dubai where an Australia steak is no less than $70.

Here is a summary of where we have eaten that we would like to share…..

1. Temerok – a pancake chain offering both savoury and sweet fillings – cheap and yummy!

2. Torro Grill – Steak and burger restaurant and bar – excellent Mojito’s, delicious burgers, great atmosphere and the best Chicken Wings in Moscow. Somehow the Greek has converted me to eating them along with a pint!

3. Bocconcino – High end Italian restaurant – excellent décor, brilliant food and ideal to celebrate events like the Greek’s birthday! Pizzas are amazing.

4. Aroma cafe (Indian) – Nice food, unfortunately our Middle East experience of this cuisine scared us for life as it was one of the best locations to eat it and we are yet to have anything come close to it so far! What this restaurant did offer that we didn’t get in the Middle East was a Russian blonde Belly Dancer – unbelievable but true, for some reason the Greek always wants to go back there!

5. Montalto – a New York style Pizzeria that is simply delicious. The attention to detail of this small menu is a culinary success story. Flavours are authentic and meticulous to their identity. Highly recommended and to top it off one of the best serviced venues in town.

6. Yakitoriya – The one on tverskaya is the best. We love the atmosphere and service. The sushi is colourful, flavoursome and has a twist from traditional sushi that is a culinary success. They even allocate the one and only English speaking waitress to service us.

7. Chilies – American Tex-Mex restaurant that has just open in Moscow. To date the most attentive and friendliest restaurant of all. The food is wholesome and the atmosphere colourful and welcoming. Homely place to eat at and down the road from where we live.

8. Starlite Diner – another American diner in the tradition of the 50’s craze! Décor takes you back in time and the booth seating is nostalgic. They have one of the biggest menu’s I’ve seen and the Greek ate one of the biggest burgers I’ve ever seen – he is banned from going back there again!

9. Beverley Hills Diner – the name gives away the atmosphere, yes it is a trip down tinsel town with on going movies and American food classics. Competes with Starlite!

10. The Corner Burger – tried this little groovy New York style burger cafe and had an amazing Italian burger with buffalo mozzarella, pesto mayonnaise and sundried tomato salsa. The Greek was jealous as his bacon burger had only one teeny weeny slice of bacon so be warned!

11. McDonalds, KFC and Burger King – Convenient, clean and consistent. Only difference to these places compared to others around the world is that all of them are 100% full all the time!

12. Akademia – the one we chose is near the Christ the Saviour Cathedral. It is like a huge atrium come glass house and very prestigious. The service is hugely efficient and the food is great. But what we love about it is the atmosphere, you always feel welcomed and there is no rush to leave. In fact this is one of the many reasons we love dining in Moscow as opposed to some places back home, and that is no one is hanging over your table to get the next diner in, it is quite refreshing and civilized. The other reason I like it is that Beard Papa is only a short walk away and I always insist on dragging the Greek there for my fix of custard filled profiteroles …. I dream about them.

13. Il Forno – the other day we discovered this amazing restaurant by chance and what an excellent find it was! Wood fired pizzas and pasta that would leave a lot of Italian restaurants begging for the chef to relocate to Rome, but it was the Osso Bucco that had us acknowledging what a great place Moscow is delivering some of the best culinary experiences the world has to offer, we both loved it!

14. Ritz Carlton Brunch – What does one say apart from it is the Ritz! Everything was picture perfect and the atmosphere and service immaculate. The food was a gastronomic adventure into fine dining French and Russian delicacies. There was pate, goose, goat, duck, pheasant and galantines. It was one of our most memorable dining experiences ever only surpassed by our visit to Maxim’s in Paris.

So that is it so far and we expect to try many more. We have found a Greek-Cypriot restaurant that the Greek is looking forward to as well as many Russian and Baltic classics that all look amazing.

I also had the pleasure to enjoy lunch with a girlfriend at the famous Pushkin Cafe (it’s the Maxim’s of Paris) and managed to sit with a salad and a glass of wine for three hours much to the disgust of the waiter who was waiting for us to order main and dessert! But hey I’ve seen how the Russian women manage to stay slim and eat in expensive restaurants…. And I’ll do the same!

Finally to those readers that are concerned about where we store all this excellent cuisine, it takes us a minimum of walking 5 kilometers to reach these Moscow treasures………….BON APPETITE!

Our first Russian Christmas party

After living in Dubai for seven years and never attending an office christmas party for obvious reasons, I was pleasantly surprised when the Greek told us we were invited to his office new year party.

What he didn’t tell me was that I was the only partner attending and that we were going that night. So with my magic curling wand I prepared for the party with anticipation and excitement and reminded by the Greek not to get too dressed up as he heard it was casual. Casual is a word I do not like!

The evening started with us deciding to not catch a taxi or a metro but to take a leisurely stroll of 1.6 km to the restaurant located over the pedestrian bridge near Christ the Savior Church. So hand in hand we strolled along the bridge when the Greek decided his footing wasn’t what it used to be and he went for a swan dive landing on his very flat butt with no possibility of a speedy recovery or dignity as his trousers were now frozen to the ground! After a few giggles and various attempts we finely had the Greek back on his feet.

As we arrived closer to the venue I noticed everyone arriving in private cars, taxis and company organized vans, thus allowing all the ladies to be dressed to the nines with high heeled shoes and glistening dresses, I on the other hand had warm UGG boots and ear-muffs; I thought I would speak to the Greek later!

The venue was a Cabaret-Karaoke venue with lounge seating and a huge stage. Each lounge had a table with drinks and food already laid out for the night’s festivities. As we entered we were ushered upstairs and away from where the Greek’s colleagues and the majority of the local staff were seated. We were later told this was the VIP section but at the time we felt a little rejected.

Well I sat down to a table of Pork and Porn, yes that’s right I said Porn. Our table had a wall mounted photo of a naked woman enjoying the moment staring at us as we ate. The Greek thought it was amusing and accepted that this was Russia after all.

The evening consisted of speeches in Russian and then two famous singers, one of recent times and the other of a decade gone past entertaining the crowd and from the looks of it everyone enjoyed it immensely. I would have joined the dancing as well but my UGG boots were no competition for the high heel entourage downstairs. So we ate like we never had food before and realized this was the first free meal we had since arriving to Russia.

There was a mini buffet at the table and the Greek swore that if he had some glad wrap he would have taken most of the stuff home as back up! They gave us soft drinks, vodka, whisky, red wine, white wine and champagne to drink but there wasn’t a beer to be found anywhere! The Greek shouted out “But we’re from Australia and we only drink beer”, but it fell on deaf ears and we settled for everything else.

The Party as far as we could see was a great success for all that attended and a huge cultural and learning experience for us!

As we strolled back to our apartment, with the Greek a little more cautious with every step, I reflected on the night and that next time I would be more prepared. That is until the Greek just looked at me with a great big smile and said, “Excellent coz we have another one of these shindigs in a couple of days!”

God help us!

Desperately seeking Star-lite

There are so many American diners in this city that we have to at least try all of them! Star-lite diner seems to have survived many years here in Moscow where most places only last 2 years. It’s open 24 hours a day and there are 5 branches spread around the city.

Now that we have mastered the metro we can travel further afield and try new places. The closest branch for us was just off the glamorous Trevaskaya Street in Pushkin Square. This meant the Pushkinskaya metro which opens onto Trevaskaya street right in front of Pusskin Square. Cant get easier than that for location…..but nothing is that simple in Moscow.

So with empty bellies and having studied the menu on the iPad that day we left in excited anticipation for a burger feast for Greek and home made chicken soup and a vegetable wrap for me.

Now what I haven’t explained in metro madness is that most metro stations have 4 exits so you can exit out on any side of the road and on any corner. You need to be able to read Russian to know which exit will take you to the direction you are looking for. Well we can’t read Russian and we thought how hard can it be if it is around the corner from Traverskaya Street. Actually the Greek thinks he can read Russian and I let him think so but we still get lost with him saying I knew it was the other way……..yeah right.

Well it can be very hard if you take the wrong exit, have no street map on you, it’s raining and you think you know where you are going but you really know nothing!

It took two and half hours to finally find Star-lite diner. But let me tell you we found the most amazing back streets full of designer shops like Chanel in beautiful closed pedestrian streets that I had never read about. We walked in the wrong direction for hours but it felt like we were on a journey of new discovery.

So just when we were about to give up and get back into a metro station we took one last look at the one and only street we didnt walk down and of course there it is Star-lite diner.

It was worth the intrepid journey……the nice english speaking staff took down our orders quickly and delivered great quality food in no time and 2 well deserved beers. We stayed just within our budget of $50 and have returned 3 times since then as it’s only a 20 meter walk from the metro station!

To moo or not to moo

Day two of our cheap eat adventure takes us to a well known Russia cafeteria chain called MY-MY and pronounced moo moo and is visible by the big black and white cow outside every outlet.

We had yet to try Russian food and after reading how easy it was to grab a tray and point to what you want and the nice staff will hand it over without having to speak a word of Russian we decided to give it a try.

We went to the closest branch which is near the Barrikadnaya metro station and was walking distance from our hotel. Its a cozy quaint atmosphere and can get quite crowded during the lunch time rush and hard to find a table especially if you are walking around balancing a tray of food. We were fortunate to find a few empty tables at 7pm so we took a deep breath, picked up our tray and went to the first station of salads.

The women behind the salad bar is yelling at me in Russian (to me it’s yelling to them its talking)….. I assume she was naming all the salads but who cares I’m in Russia and I would like a Russian salad. So I pointed at it and she carefully weighed the salad into the already weighed bowl. We then moved along to the soup station and this is where it got difficult…..she was calling out every soup on the menu and the only word I understand was Borscht and I don’t do beetroots in any shape or form and specially as a soup. So we moved along and missed out on what I found out later to be chicken soup, cabbage soup, pea soup and fish soup…..any of these would have been great.

Next station….remember this is cafeteria style so you keep shuffling along with your tray. Main courses…….another lady is non stop talking to us….she is rambling on and on in Russian and I am getting nervous and start pointing at anything cause i have no idea what any of it is but it all looks so appetizing. I choose what i think is fried chicken patty and the shouting continues and I realize she is asking what vegetable i would like. The choices are boiled potato, mash potato or sauted potato with mushrooms. No sign of greens so it’s sauted potato and at least it comes with mushrooms.

I didnt notice the Greek getting carried away and thinking it was a buffet and asking for nearly every dish in front of him…..but what about our budget?

2 bottles of water later plus the meals and it came to a grand total of $18…..yep we are definitely go to MOO for our dinner again.

We later discovered the 2 branches of MY-MY on Old Arbat Street have staff who speak English so we now enjoy chicken soup and no one yells at us.

Money or the burger

So we are now expats living in one of the most expensive cities in the world with no money. If you read back you will find that my wallet has been stolen and we have no working credit cards and only minimal cash

But this all makes for an even more challenging time for me as I am responsible for where we eat and what we eat while the Greek is at work and we are still living in a hotel room.

Forget hotel food…..it was way beyond our budget and we already experienced the tasteless room temperature pumpkin soup in the coffee shop and it wasn’t worth the money or the experience. We were fortunate enough to have breakfast included at our hotel so that eliminated one meal for the day (if we could be bothered getting out of bed at 8am as the morning still looked like it was midnight).

So after many hours of googling for cheap eats I found a great list of recommendations in the Moscow Times newspaper on line. The list gave the approx prices, locations and nearest metro station (we hadn’t yet to learnt the metro system…thats another story).

For us a cheap eat is anything from $20 to $50 …… our nightly budget. For some of you this may sound extravagant but we are not students …. We are grown hungry adults….the Greek is 125kg and likes to maintain his weight! We also wanted to try and squeeze into that budget a couple of beers or apple cider (wine is way overpriced for us here with our meager budget).

I only chose places in walking distance …. No more than 3km one way which fortunately included the lovely Arbat area which we discovered has so many affordable eateries.

I love my vegetables and like to keep healthy but am also inclined to gorge hamburgers and junk food at any moment…..this makes for a happy husband. Chilis on Novy Arbat was our first stop. We shared a plate of mini hamburgers that came with fries and onion rings and to satisfy my healthy side a grilled chicken caesar salad. We washed it down with 2 apple ciders and the bill came to $35.

We were thrilled….the mini burgers were huge, tasty and filling, the Caesar salad was light, non greasy and the chicken was tender.

Day One of eating on a budget and things are looking bright.