Tuesday, April 7, 2015

F is for Food (and Faberge)



I have been very fortunate to have visited two traveling exhibitions of Faberge eggs.  The first exhibit was in Cleveland in 2008 and then in 2012 I visited the exhibit in Detroit.  I already discussed the eggs in my first post, but wanted to mention them again.  In addition, I wanted to show some of the food I enjoyed, so two for one letter.
My father's side of the family had Polish roots.  I think we only ate Polish food in their homes.  Stuffed cabbage, kielbasa, sauerkraut, pierogies, borscht (not my favorite, but had some decent stuff in Russia), cucumbers and sour cream...  Russian food was much the same.

Here are a few photos of food I ate, when I remembered to get out the camera.

One night in Moscow we had dinner with a young couple in their tiny apartment.  Seven of us crowded around this table, which was in the living room.  I am guessing that the apartment was no more than 500 square feet, tops.  I did not want to be rude and take pictures while we ate, but we had wild pig that had been shot by the host, who takes people on wild game shoots around the world.  The food was excellent and for dessert we had caviar and crepes.  Yum.

In the town of Tver I had chicken in cream sauce for lunch.  


A restaurant in Novgorod where we had lunch, above.  Below is a serving of cold slaw.  No little plastic cup here.  This is classy.


These are kolaches, a pastry stuffed with cheese, or you can use any fruit.  My mother made the best ones ever, but I never turn down dessert.  Below is one of the buffet bars at a Saint Petersburg restaurant.


And here is my plate with the salad course before I ventured to the hot food bar above:
In the top right corner is Salad Olivier.  It is a fancy potato salad.  Read through the various articles online and you discover that you can add just about anything.

The interior of a restaurant in Saint Petersburg above and my dinner of veal and eggplant below.


A typical salad of cabbage, tomatoes, cucumber, olives and feta cheese.

Below are two interior photos of a restaurant in Saint Petersburg that hearkened back to the cold war era.  Occasionally, air raid sirens would go off.  I think I ate a salad while I really wanted to try the potato pancakes that our guide was eating.


I do have to mention the piroshki that we had in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.  There is a chain of restaurants called Stolle that made pies that were out of this world.  So, so good.  Yet, I forgot to take a picture.  I guess I was just too busy eating.
As for desserts, they make sweet piroshki filled with fruit and of course the ever-popular poppy seed filling.  Our guide told us the most popular dessert in Russia is, wait for it, watermelon.  Go figure.
Check out the watermelons piled in the fountain in this photo of GUM department store.


While I ate no reindeer meat in Helsinki, I did go to the Hard Rock Cafe.  I had a burger.  Actually, it was the first time I ever ate at one of their restaurants.  The best part of that meal came home with me and ended up on my grandson:


Tolkien Bonus:  F is for Fangorn Forest, guarded by an Ent named Fangorn, who will arouse the other Ents against Saruman.


18 comments:

  1. The pictures of food make me hungry, and I loved how you saved the best for last. No, not the Tolkien though that's good too. I meant the little big guy in the Hard Rock Cafe shirt.

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    1. Thanks. I think I'll have to blog about his birthday next Sunday.

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  2. You are an AWESOME food photographer - every plate looked more delicious than the last! Excellent post! Thanks for sharing. (cute baby, too :))

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    1. Thanks for the compliments. On the photography and the baby.

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  3. I've never heard of people having caviar for dessert, how interesting. Those kolaches look so good!

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    1. Always interesting how different cultures treat food. Of course, caviar is cheaper there.

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  4. The food looks really good and it reminds me of the food my mom made. I think, depending where one lives in Europe, one can be influenced by where one lives. I was hoping to see another Faberge egg:) That one pic of the ceiling even done in stripes is something to see. Your grandson looks so cute in his T-shirt. Love that scene in LOTR-so many great scenes

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  5. Wow, can I have a bite of everything???

    Good luck with the 2015 A to Z Challenge!
    A to Z Co-Host S. L. Hennessy
    http://pensuasion.blogspot.com

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  6. Love seeing all the food photos. I am hoping to get to Russia some day. The kolaches look especially tasty and your grandson is adorable!

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    1. I hope you do get to Russia. It is quite incredible.

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  7. I forget my camera when I am eating. I have good intentions but they fly out of the window. What you did manage to remember looked particularly delicious. I was interested in your comment about Borscht. Never been a favourite with me either. So I would like to try it in its original home. Never had kolaches, but many Mediterranean countries make pastries with cheese inside, possibly similar. Never been to a Hard Rock Cafe either. Love the shirt on your grandson.

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    1. I never ate anything I didn't care for. My favorite was a piroshki stuffed with spinach, egg, and cheese. I think my grandmother's borscht just wasn't seasoned well. Then again, she was not the world's greatest cook. It was the two Italian daughter-in-laws, cousins who married two of her sons (one being my Dad), who really cooked a lot of the meals.

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  8. Yum! This post is delicious. I also once saw an exhibit of Faberge eggs, although I can't remember where. I was young. I'm just popping by from A to Z blogs!

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  9. Everything looks delicious! Your grandson is adorable in his Hard Rock Cafe T!

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    1. Everything was delicious and he is adorable, not that I am bragging, lol. Thanks for stopping by.

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  10. I like seeing the dinner party in the tiny apartment. So cool.

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    1. Super tiny one bedroom apartment. The couple was expecting a baby too. They said it would cost over $300,000 to buy the place. Unbelievable.

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