Some more local food: the zakuski.

Time to revisit one of my favorite topics: the local food. This time, I will talk about what I should have talked in the first place: the zakuski, which mean "starters", or "hors d'oeuvre" for the posh and the French.
My entire blog could be about zakuskis, because Russians have a lot of them. Almost as many as soups. Here are my favorites so far. And I will probably stick to these ones, because I am tired with experimenting with new food by trial and error.

The "blini c ikroy" (that's pancakes with red caviar): a reliable starter. It goes well with vodka, although the pancake is not required.


The raw salmon plate: this is very common around here. They actually have several types of salmon, but don't ask me differentiating them... (Once again, if you want more exhaustive accounts about Russia, I recommend you to expand your reading material beyond this blog). This salmon goes well with a good white wine. No need to recommend a specific wine, you'll have to go with whichever wine is available (very possibly the one that is slightly more expensive than the one you meant to order).


The fish plate: again, you'll have to appreciate my minimalist approach when it comes to describe what's actually in the plate. There is salmon (or trout? here they have the same color) and two other fish. I can spot pretty precisely the lettuce and the lemon though. Well, anyway, it is tasty.


The assortment of meat: I can't say that one is my favorite. They always have beef tongue in this assotment plates. Tongue is actually very popular here, and the amount of tongue served in restaurants far exceeds the amount of all other pieces of beef combined. I haven't spotted cattle around Novosibirsk, but I suspect that they are genetically modified to have huge tongues and just a little of everything else. Still, the tongue is good with the horseraddish mustard.

Enjoy... Thanks for reading.

The records and achievements of Novosibirsk

Thoughtful friends got me a wonderful gift for my birthday: the book of records and achievements of Novosibirsk. It is an exhaustive and instructive collection of records of our city, which I am proud of sharing with you today. I appreciate that each record comes with a synopsis in English, which makes it easier for me to understand the meaning, if not always the actual essence of the achievement. Of course, one could flip through the book and list them one by one, but I am reporting only the most significant ones... allow me to use my own criteria for "significant". By the way, I am reproducing the titles word for word:

-The Club of the Cheerful and Sharp-Witted with Most Titles in the World. Someone in that bunch of cheerful people is not joking about keeping track of titles. I wonder how susceptible they would be if another club of sharp -witted were to contest the validity of this record.
-The Most Titled Sportsman in Russia Among Helicopter Sport Masters. His titles include golden medals at championship of Siberia, Russia, USSR.
-The Owner of the Biggest In Russia Collection of Candies and Chocolate wrappings and Alcohol Drinks Labels. He owns more than 13,000 candy wrappings, 1,000 chocolate bar wrappings and more than 10,000 beers, wine and cognac labels. Wanna meet the champion? Look for the drunk guy with really bad teeth.
-The Only Museum of Historical Relations between Saint Petersburg and Novosibirsk. I wonder why Saint Petersburg is not interested in hosting a similar museum.
-The Longest Compass Needle in Russia. For this one, you will have to use the same sense of imagination as the one required for making out animals in the clouds: it turns out that the central street of Novosibirsk goes North / South over 6,5 km. Thanks to the editors for providing this high level illustration for our understanding.

-The first Winner of All-Russia Competition between Children's Institutions of Extended Education. This one has to be put in perspective with another achievement reported separately: The Only School of Extended Education in Russia that Makes Programs for Children.
-The Greatest number of Printed Publications and their Copies about Novosibirsk. No reason to be shy about that one.

Hit by the financial crisis.

The financial crisis has terrible consequences in Russia. Every new day brings its loads of news about layoffs, banking system collapsing, commodity prices dropping... But even worse, the inflation which is running high, has the pricetag of my camembert going up faster than it takes for the actual camembert to liquefy. At this rate, I won't be able to keep up with my french lifestyle for very long. Maybe I should go on strike?

Trying to work out in the winter

Today, I needed some fresh air, but the weather was too cold and the snow was sticking to my skis, so I decided to go running instead. It was really fun because the longer I ran, the less I could see because of the ice forming on my eyelashes (my standard for "fun" has considerably lowered in the past 18 months).


For the scientifically minded: the white frost on my face comes from the vapor I exhale at 37C from my mouth and condenses on my face, my hat and my scarf at -25C. Boy that was good... You can't get that on a Wii fit.
Sorry for not smiling on my picture. The muscles are frozen. The inside smile is what counts.