Whenever the weather gets unbearably hot here – like how it has been in the past few weeks – I try to think of the time when I went to Russia during the tail end of the summer season.
It was an 11-day assigment, onboard a cruise ship sailing along the Volga, the longest river in Europe, measuring at 3,531km in length.
It was September, said to be a good time to visit the country as the weather would still be relatively warm. “On average, the temperature during your visit should be around 15°C, not too cold, ” said our tour leader Alfia when she greeted us at the airport.
She was wearing a down jacket and a wooly hat; I had only brought a few thermal clothing, some sweaters, hoodies and gloves with me on the trip. It’s going to be tough keeping warm, I thought.
“You can drink lots of vodka to warm up your body. We have the best vodka here, ” Alfia said, perhaps half-jokingly... it was hard to tell with Russians.
After all, during the hot and dry seasons in Malaysia, don’t we usually stay away from eating “heaty” dishes and soups? And then have steamboats and hot pot dinners when there’s a storm out?
That was my plan in Russia anyway – to always choose the “warm dish” option at meal times.
Except it didn’t quite work out the way I had hoped it would.
Since it was still summer, we were served a lot of salads, potatoes, bread, cheese, meat and fish. Soup came in a small bowl and it was never boiling hot like how we would eat it here.
I’m not one to constantly whine and complain about unpredictable situations, though, so I made the best of my predicament.
I wore layers of clothing, walked briskly whenever we went on our excursions and tried to eat and enjoy as much local food as I could find.
Unfortunately, most of our meals didn’t seem too local, at least not to me. I had expected lots of borscht (beetroot soup), kholodet (meat jelly or a terrine), blini (crepe or pancake) and pelmeni (dumpling).
Instead we had stews, pastas and steaks, though I suppose the choice of meat used in some of the dishes made them inherently “Russian”.
For example, rabbit is a popular meat there, more commonly found in dishes than pork. Also popular are potatoes, beets and a handful of other root vegetables.
Alfia said that this was because the Russian weather is not ideal for growing a number of vegetables, especially leafy greens.
“We had a lot of turnip centuries ago because it was one of the few things that could survive our harsh winters.
“Then the potato was introduced here. We like potatoes... turnip, not so much, ” she said.
True enough, we had potatoes at every meal in Russia. They were in almost all our salads and of course, served as a side with stews and steaks.
Speaking of salads, a Russian salad is incredibley calorific and more often than not, comprises cooked vegetables and meat or fish. My favourite is the beautiful Mimosa Salad, which is made up of eggs, canned tuna or pickled herring, potatoes, carrots, pickles, onions and a whole lot of mayonnaise and cheese.
A serving of this can last you a whole day. I know this because I made it over the weekend, along with other Russian dishes like borscht, coulibiac (pie) and kasha (porridge).
It was my attempt at recreating a fancy Russian meal, as most of the dishes are typically only eaten on special occasions.
I envisioned my meal to be like something Russian empress Catherine the Great (1762-1796) would have had at her gorgeous summer residence in Pushkin, located just outside of St Petersburg.
The palace – now a museum and art gallery – is part of a complex called Tsarskoye Selo, where members of the Imperial family used to reside.
Apart from the palace, visitors can also check out the Imperial gardens and some of the residences and halls. Alfia regaled us with all sorts of stories on the history of Catherine and the Tsars, such as who was murdered where and who had an affair with whom.
Fascinating!
Proof is in the pie
Actually, Catherine herself did not like fancy foods, preferring instead simple, home-cooked meals like, you guessed it, stews and boiled potatoes, and kasha. She reserved all the grand meals for her guests, not just because she was a good host, but supposedly because it was a way to sweeten diplomatic deals.
There was also pie, lots of them. “I love pie. We all love pie, ” said Alfia when I asked her about it.
Russia has many different types of pie or “pirog”. The most common one is the pirozhki, which is more like a bun than a pie.
I made a simplified pirozhki and a coulibiac, said to be eaten during the holiday season. A coulibiac is a puff pastry pie filled with fish (commonly salmon), rice or buckwheat, eggs, spinach and mushrooms.
It’s easy to make, unless you’re making the pastry from scratch which in my case, was never going to happen.
It might seem weird to have cooked rice in a pie (a very traditional version even includes layers of crepes in the filling) but it actually works and did not feel cloying.
I was told it has to do with how the Russians used to celebrate holidays in the old days when times were tough (war, famine and the like) – not with gifts but with rich, high calorie food made from the cheapest ingredients.
Even their porridge is extremely lush. I asked the cook on the ship what it was made from. “Millet, milk, sweet cream and lots and lots of butter, ” she said, winking.
No wonder I survived the nights hanging out on the ship’s deck when the temperature dropped to below 10°C...
Oh to experience the freezing cold summers of Russia again. But until we can travel safely, na zdorovje (eat and drink to our hearts’ content)!
If you’re thinking of replicating your favourite meals from your international or domestic travels, we’d love to see what you whipped up. Post your culinary creations on Instagram and tag us on @StarLifestyleMY.
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