Vlad Eats

I've been thinking of writing something about the food we're eating over here, and this weekend provided one interesting thing to say about that. We tried a recently opened restaurant called "Syndicate," a 1920s-, Al Capone-, Prohibition-themed steakhouse. I know, sounds cheesy. The logo here also would indicate that this is a place to be avoided. But, remember, we are in Vladivostok. We have limited options. So we went.

Be advised that the restaurants here in Vlad -- well, for that matter, most foods and manufactured products -- are actually no cheaper than in the US, and in many cases much more expensive.
A while back we poked our heads into a sushi place in downtown Vlad that people say is good, and were shocked to see that a small dinner of a few rolls, which probably wouldn't even fill us up, could easily cost over $100. The expense is not surprising in a place like shiny, world-famous Moscow, but that bite out of your wallet hurts a little more in a place like Vlad.

So we knew that Syndicate might be a little pricey. And we expected cheesy. But we went, together with a colleague and his girlfriend, and it was actually a quite a positive surprise! Dan in particular was raving about the place for hours after we went. It was not really overly expensive, considering that it's steak we're talking about. And the steak was surprisingly good -- cooked to just the level of done-ness that Dan wanted, pretty much medium-rare, and very juicy and flavorful. They evidently import their meat from Australia.

The interior was actually very comfortable and pretty -- lots of dark wood and brass, comfortable booths. The quiet recorded jazz playing when we first sat down was a welcome change from the booming dance music that is usually playing in places you go in Russia, and even the live music (played by two guys who probably unwittingly fit the contemporary visual stereotype of a Russian gangster very well -- a little scary), a violin and guitar, with the inevitable drum machine in the background, wasn't terrible.

One of our friends and I had burgers, which were not a total success (kind of just cooked, but not exactly tastily grilled -- probably also suffering from having been pre-formed patties, and also overwhelmed by all the other stuff that the "superburger" was dressed with). I think I'd get a steak next time. And as for the 'taters, as our friend said, "they have fry issues." Undercooked issues, to be precise. Our other friend had the seafood soup called "The Hudson is Resting" -- if anyone understands that joke, please let me know, because our Russian friend laughed right away, but I wonder whether her interpretation is what an American would also assume was meant. Anyway, she thought the soup was very tasty. And, for Russia, the service was actually bordering on friendly. That was another reason we are thinking this may just turn out to be a regular place on our circuit.

Oh, and I almost forgot: dark Leffe beer on tap! As well as Hoegaarden and (according to the menu) Stella "Artua."

In other food news, Anya is taking to solid eats, as our Flickr pictures and YouTube videos recently showed. She is almost bored with rice cereal and has shown enthusiasm for applesauce and pureed pears. Next we are deciding between peas and plums. Both are waiting in our freezer, dolloped into little servings in an ice cube tray especially reserved for this purpose.

And we continue to prepare a range of food at home that is not half bad: homemade Mexican -- with refried beans from scratch -- is helped greatly by the tortillas we make at home, and by the Armenian lavash flatbread we use when we are lazy; Georgian stews have turned out well thanks to our adoptive Georgian mom's spice reserves and recipes; chili has turned out well in the slow cooker, and skillet cornbread was just as successful as at home; and we have even added a new pizza to our repertoire: thanks to our neighbor's deepdish pan that was the only form available before our household shipment arrived, we now make a pie that -- blasphemy, I know -- rivals SF Bay Area Zachary's!

P.S. I can already tell that this article is being read and forwarded by many back in the US, but I'll get on that bandwagon myself and say that the recent "Unhappy Meals" piece in the NYT Magazine has had me thinking even more critically about food lately. Although I have to say, the reason I am so in love with the article, and Michael Pollan's other recent writings, and itching to read his book, is that this just echoes so closely what I've been thinking about food and eating for a while already, independently of what Pollan or others are writing (despite my admiration of a good steak...).

Ice, Ice, Baby

Ice, Ice, Baby
Originally uploaded by lkwalker71.

There hasn't been a lot of news lately, which I suppose is the inevitable result after the holidays (even though our holidays weren't even that exciting!). I did want to report on a Sunday outing last week, though.

We went out to brunch at the famous Vlad Motor Inn, and it was such a crisp sunny day that we decided to take a walk afterward out by the beach. This is basically an area full of recreation points and "sanatoria" in the best Soviet style (hence the fact that the electric commuter train stop there is called "Sanatornaia").

The little park by the sea has an ice rink and little windows where they sell tea and snacks and things. And then just steps away is the Amur Gulf, which in summer I assume is lovely to take a dip in. This time of year, especially when we've had several good days of temperatures in the -5-10C range, it is covered with a thick layer of ice.

Last Sunday when we went, there were just people everywhere, skating at the rink, walking along the paths that run parallel to the shoreline, stopping for a sandwich and a thermos of coffee or possibly something stronger, playing with their kids (the preferred mode of transport for anyone under about 8 and over about 1 seems to be the sled, dragged by a parent), etc. There must have been people out on the ice fishing, too, but mainly it was peppered with people out strolling and having a good time. It was cold, but the sun warmed us, and there was no wind at all: just perfect. We had Anya in her stroller (see Flickr photos for a dissection of how bundled she can get for these outings), and she slept most of the time. I guess I am having trouble coming up with much detail beyond this to convey what a great time it was, but maybe I have given a flavor of it: just a simple day out in the sun, feeling good, having fun with the kid and with each other, and seemingly enjoying something that many of our fellow Vladivostokians were also happily partaking in around us.

Of course, we forgot the camera, which was a real annoyance -- we could have conveyed it better with a few thousand words worth of pics. And we could have snapped photos of the interesting ice textures that had been created by freezing and thawing so far this season, as well as the hood of a truck that was sticking out of the ice about 50 yards out from the shore. And the interesting high Stalinist architecture of the main sanatorium building in the complex for the Ministry of Defense, complete with many columns, arches, and reinterpretations of Greek athletic statues.

But we didn't, so we couldn't. I took this photo today, over a week later, because the natural scene here on the Gulf right near downtown Vlad resembled what we had seen out at Sanatornaia, although it was much less populated since it was already Monday morning. Hopefully it won't be the last Sunday stroll we'll have out there, though, and maybe we can catch all the ice activity on film at some point soon.

Tasty Keys

Tasty Keys
Originally uploaded by lkwalker71.

Not a lot to report now that the holidays are over -- just getting back into the "normal" swing of things, to the extent that we had a routine before the holidays.

For her part, Anya seems to be the one with the most news to report: we think she is beginning the process of teething. At least the best evidence of that is her new habit of biting me while nursing. We are trying to give her good alternatives to that, teething rings mostly, but she is trying her best to substitute these keys here, too.

Of course, even aside from teething, she is in a stage where her preferred sense for the purposes of exploration is taste. Also this week she has been a lot more active and successful in reaching out and grabbing the things and human faces that happen to be close by. She is getting good at sitting with some support, and maybe someday soon will even be able to sit up on her very own.

Holidays on Ice

Well, I sat at the window this morning and watched the cars tiptoe their way down the "Church Road" -- the sort of steep road, but not as steep as another more major road, that leads from our location up on the ridge down to the lower elevation where the Consulate and downtown Vlad are located, and which is visible directly out our front windows. I find it kind of fascinating to watch the activity on the road and judge from that what it's like outside. Today what it tells me, or really confirms for me is: the slipping and sliding that everyone predicted for the winter has begun.

We had our first major snowstorm on Saturday, which was kind of exciting. It basically snowed all day, with the temperatures hovering around zero, and then when the snowfall stopped (see the photo), the wind picked up and the temperature began to fall. From Sunday (which turned out to be a White Orthodox Christmas) onward, it has been colder again -- minus 5-10C -- and, due to the lack of any salt or sand distributed on the roads, pretty slick. Happy to say that the XTerra does great in the snow, especially in 4WD, it's the other guys that you kind of wonder about!

Until today, however, at least there weren't many other drivers on the roads, since it was "The Holidays." I don't know whether you have seen this article in the New York Times about the winter vacation here in Russia, but it is pretty interesting: http://tinyurl.com/yzpl2h. Basically the whole place shuts down for a couple of weeks surrounding New Year's and Eastern Christmas. In fact, I hadn't really realized that this was only made official by Prez Putin in 2005 -- I remember things shutting down, in I guess what must have been an unofficial capacity, during my other winter stays here, too. Unfortunately Dan was down with the flu, or recovering from it, for the better part of the week, which he too had off from work. But we did manage to take a couple of drives and relax a little bit during that time, photos of which are on Flickr.

Happy 2007!

It's taken us a few days to comment on our Vladivostok New Year's. And even in the several hours of delay between uploading a little video of the merriment and writing this, I've already got questions about it on YouTube!

We spent a generally rather quiet evening at a colleague of Dan's, an American who actually doesn't live in one of the 5 townhouses where we are. He is just over the hill, so at about 7:30, we got a sleepyheaded Anya suited up in her outerwear, suited up ourselves, put the munchkin in her stroller, grabbed a flashlight, and climbed first up and then over and down the little road that leads from our house to his. Once there, we had a pleasant time, eating tasty Russian salads and roast chicken, care of our host's Russian girlfriend, listening to music, and awaiting midnight.

Actually, we were informed that Vladivostokians begin the salute of the new year at 10pm. Why? Because that's when the first of their neighbors to the east pass over midnight, out in Chukotka and Kamchatka, etc.

By the time our local midnight finally rolled around, we had heard plenty of commentary about how spectacular the fireworks would be, and we weren't quite sure how they could really live up to the predictions.*
But hopefully the video linked to the picture above will give some impression of it: completely different from any kind of fireworks you'd see in the United States (mainly for legal reasons), yet still mesmerizing and amazing. It seemed as though literally every individual household had stocked up on fireworks in nearby China or in local markets supplied by Chinese sellers -- our friends estimated that 1000 rubles, or a little more than $35, was probably the average spent on each display (spending habits here are just plain different than in the States).

Because of Vlad's hilly geography, and our position way up on one of those hills, when the clock turned midnight, we were able to go to the balcony and see thousands of explosions big and small (and many of them quite loud), all over the city, apparently coming from every other free balcony or front stoop. The wealthier "New Russians" living in the fancy houses neighboring our host's were setting them off right in front of their townhouses, triggering car alarms in the process, and by all appearances having a blast themselves. The show lasted for the better part of the hour following midnight.

We joked morbidly that more than a few fingers must be lost each New Year's -- and in reality I think fires and injuries can't be uncommon. And I think each of us wondered whether any of the rockets were going to hit the house. But despite all the safety issues, I think we were all pretty amazed by the sight of so many fireworks going off, for as far as the eye could see, the whole horizon filled with bright explosions. One of our friends commented that it was like a visualization of all the thousands of lives being lived out there in the city, all around us, each party welcoming in the new year with a private firework display, but in concert with everyone around them.

* I realized after writing this that I neglected to include one detail from life here in Vlad that may help explain our skepticism: practically every night here we experience some sort of fireworks being set off just to the west of us on the ridge along which Prospect Krasoty runs [see this previous post for a little geography]. It's actually become kind of a running joke that fireworks here are so prevalent and that any evening appears to be an occasion to light off some rockets. It's kind of made fireworks a bit of a mundane event for us. Given that, you can probably imagine a little better our puzzlement at the fact that New Year's Eve could even hope to improve on these nightly displays... Little did we know! [Link back to text]