Who would have thought that a day that started out so crappy would end up being a total delight? We had the best dinner we have had in either Bahrain or Moscow last night and the wines, well they were out of this world. As you might have guessed, I decided to cook last night but I wanted to make it a very special meal since I knew in my head what I wanted for my birthday dinner. I decided to splurge and went to a very, very high-end grocery store. This is the kind of store where they do a credit check on you before letting you in! This is the kind of store where they sell ten baby French green beans in a little package for only eight dollars! It is however, the only store that I knew would have what I wanted so off I went, shopping bag in hand and thousands and thousands of rubles at the ready.
This is a clean, well-lighted shop, almost devoid of people at four in the afternoon. I had my personal floor cleaner following me as I walked around in my snow sneakers leaving black melted snow and dirt with every step. I started with the smoked salmon - they had about fifteen choices - and I decided on Scottish Smoked Salmon because it looked the best, had the freshest date on it, and was cheaper that some of the other varieties from Russia. I lingered over the caviar, but with one ounce costing more than $100, I reluctantly moved on to the meat department. I’ve not been in a Russian butcher shop yet - they are few and far between around here -but this little meat section was one of the most elegant I’ve seen outside of Harrods in London.
While the butchers here don’t wear straw hats, they do wear paper ones and they are women, not men. I looked around and almost decided on rabbit but then I saw what I really wanted, tucked away in a little corner of the display case. It was a perfect set of rack of baby lamb, two eight-bone racks, trimmed of most of the fat and all of the felt: They just sat there glowing and calling out my name. With that in my bag, I went to the ready-made food display case. At this late hour I really didn’t want to start cooking the entire meal so I just looked for things that I thought would be great. I found a lovely looking treat of eggplant layered with tomatoes and topped with what looked like some kind of cheese, but was really GARLIC. I then saw these wonderful looking straw potato patties and I carefully read the first word on the label and sure enough it was potato, and that is what I asked for in Russian. I figured the second word was patty or something. I saw and purchased six little broccoli blinis for the salmon, and then it was over to the fresh veggie area where I got one onion. The lady in produce weighed it and placed it in my basket; I guess no one wants to touch food. Now so far, I had interacted with four people and all of them had smiles, greetings and lots of thank yous, well worth the prices they charge.
I dashed over to the bakery section and got a crisp whole grain loaf of French style bread and three of the most adorable little pastries you have ever seen. Two were fruit tarts, cherry and apricot, and the third was a Napoleon, and they were beautifully wrapped and placed in a violet box with matching ribbon for my hair.
I raced home, put on my cooking clothes and started to make the base that I would place the roasted lamb on. It was caramelized carrots, onions, garlic and fresh ginger and it filled the apartment with tantalizing odors. While that slowly cooked I set the table and opened the red wine. I prepped the salmon and the lamb and laid out everything I would need for the final cooking and assembly.
I quickly shaved and showered and got into some clean clothes and by 5:15 I was ready to party. When Cindy came home we had a quick Kir while finishing the blog and getting organized. She was mighty surprised that we were not going out but I told her she would not be disappointed, plus she would be able to get to bed early since she had a very early meeting the next day. I opened a bottle of real Champagne and we sipped it as I received my lovely gifts. There was a homemade card, in Russian, a Russian child’s picture book called My First Thousand Words - which I love - and two extraordinary bottles of French white wine. Soon it was time to retire to the dining room.
The first course was the salmon served with a curried crème fraiche and the blinis, which was accompanied by marvelous Chablis. We lingered over the Chablis while I got the oven as hot as I could. I then popped the potatoes and the eggplant dish into the oven while I seared the lamb chops. Once they were brown and crispy on both sides out came the potatoes and eggplant and in went the lamb to finish cooking for about eight minutes. I prepped the plates and as soon as the lamb came out, I placed the racks on the carrot dish and served it right away, along with a rich Cote du Rhone. The first surprise for me was how perfect the lamb was cooked and how great it tasted. It was much better that most I’ve had in good restaurants. The second surprise came when Cindy asked if the potato dish was chicken. I was quite perplexed since Cindy has a great palate and I told her no, it was just potatoes. Well, of course she was right. I had not gotten to the potatoes yet and when I did I realized that I had purchased two chicken breasts wrapped in potatoes, that darn second word on the card was chicken, not patty! Oh goodness did we laugh.
The food, the wine, the conversation - all was just over the top and I was so happy I had decided to cook instead of going out. You can take a visual look at The Birthday Dinner by clicking here. It is best viewed in Mosaic mode.
Cindy insisted that I sleep in this morning, which I did. I took a long walk today and ended up at an optical shop where Cindy wanted me to price contact lenses. It was fun to go in with my prepared sentence and even more fun when they seemed to know what I was asking. I don’t think they were prepared for me to not purchase anything; I suppose most folks don’t window shop for contact lens! I took a shortcut through a Metro stop; it was the fastest and warmest way to get across a major road. Our good friend Robert from DC sent us this article from the Washington Post, which was most appropriate today. Most of the pictures are of our station, Belorusskaya, and I can assure you that every word in the article is correct.
One more day until we are heading home and I know that Cindy will want to sleep for days and days once we are back in Charles Town. I’ll leave you with two items related to Moscow Traffic. The first is a clip of a new record for traffic jams. The next is a rather graphic example of Road Rage Moscow Style.
Best wishes to all, Cindy and Wm
No comments:
Post a Comment