The Day of Kvass and Toeses

Today, I managed to rouse myself somewhat later than I have been, at seven in the morning instead of five. My feet still hurt from my forays around the city yesterday, but I was famished and decided to go off in search of food. Thus began a day of eating and spending.

The first stop was McDonald's. Here I had what I have had the last two days, blini with honey. Blini are, essentially, crepes. I am convinced that every country between Versailles and Vladivostok has some version of paper-thin pancakes stuffed with something. But the Russians are convinced that blini are uniquely theirs. Go figure.

There is no shortage of ways to serve blini in Russia, as I have found out in only a short time here. So far, I have had them with jam, honey, cheese, mushrooms, and salmon. There is a stall near the entrance to the Novoslobodskaya Metro station where I tend to get them (aside from McDonald's). Here they can be had with vegetables for as little as 80 rubles or with red caviar for as much as 180.

About 10:30, I went over to said blini stand and tried something they call a "blini e-mail", with cheese and mushrooms. Mushrooms are another Russian culinary obsession, as I've learned from perusing a few books on Russian culture. With it I downed my first serving of kvass, a nonalcoholic drink made from fermented rye. It tastes a little like beer, yet different enough that I find I rather like it. I will have to start keeping kvass in my fridge when I put myself on a more reasonable food budget (this will probably happen Monday) and start eating more meals at home, the way Russians do.

Eventually, my feet felt well enough for me to venture out further into the city. I decided to go to the Old Arbat, the erstwhile center of bohemian Moscow, which I failed to see on my travels yesterday. From being the dwelling place of Pushkin and Turgenev, Old Arbat Ulitsa has fallen into being a pedestrian mall and general tourist trap. I gather that it is the place to go if you need a matrushka doll whose pieces all look like various players for the Green Bay Packers. I took a note to come back in order to buy a Chicago Cubs themed doll for a certain Cubs fan I know back home but otherwise to avoid the place.

While I was there, I sat down to eat, again. Right now, I am not concerned with how much I spend on food, because I think of this as a period of getting to know more about what Russian food is like so that I can figure out what to try to make for myself at home. I decided to go into Yelki Polki (the name literally means "fiddlesticks"), a Russian chain I had heard quite a bit about.

There, aside from blini and blinchiki (smaller blini fried after being filled), I saw various kinds of chicken cutlers, meatballs swimming in some kind of unappetizing sauce I was sure was dairy, and Russian salads of all description. I ended up paying 240 rubles (a bit under $10) for a chicken cutlet, potatoes, and a Pepsi. The cutlet was palatable but nothing particularly special.

No amount of time sitting, it seems, really makes my feet feel much better. So instad of exploring more of the area around Old Arbat, I decided to go home and rest for a while. On my way back, I stopped in at the grocery store across the street from my building and picked up my first (and last!) bottle of kefir. Kefir is a kind of soured yogurt drink the Russians are crazy about. I discovered that I'd sooner drink lighter fluid.

When I got home, I took off my shoes to discover I had developed an enormous callous on one of my big toes. I have not had one of these since my first week in New York as a Columbia freshman, when I found myself doing more walking than I ever had in my life. Right now, Moscow is much the same, since I am trying to find my away around and can't rely much on trams and trolleybuses, since I don't have any sense of where any of them go. It seems that I sit or lie down for an hour, find my feet somewhat better, walk for five minutes, and find my feet hurting as much as they did before I sat down in the first place. I think this feeling will go away after a few days, but for the time being, it's getting to be really irritating.

After a couple hours, I decided to go change some money and to grab another bite to eat. I finally figured out where to get the tram that will take me in the direction of my school, but also figured out that taking it costs 25 rubles (about one American buck). This is more than twice as much as the Metro, and since the walking time is only about 15 minutes, I don't imagine I will take the tram on any but the coldest days in Moscow.

Once I had changed money, I wound my way to a place called Vakzhal (Train Station), which my DOS had recommended to me as a place to eat closer than McDonald's. It is not, unfortunately, open for breakfast, but I decided it was worth a shot trying it for dinner. I ended up having some kind of meat filled with oil and parsley, more potatoes, and another glass of kvass. Not bad, but not worth the almost $10 I paid for it, either. I expect Vakzhal will not be a place I eat often.