Scorpions, hearts, birds and dog
One of my main motivations for this trip was to sample some strange and usual food from around the world. We’ve had some very interesting things to eat on our journey so far.
Russia was as expected, the food is generally average. The best food to be found is the home cooking which can be sampled when staying with families. Soups are definitely the highlight of Russian cuisine. Prepared as borscht is the only way Rhian will eat beetroot. The salads are also generally good, they know how to turn few uninspiring roots into a tasty salad and they have a good way with raw shredded cabbage and carrot.
On my previous trip to Russia the general poor quality of the food we ate at restaurants and canteens was compensated by the low prices. Russia is no longer a cheap place to eat. The high prices, higher than the UK, make eating out terrible value for money (the same can be said of Russian hotels, specifically those in Moscow). The only place we could afford to eat in Moscow was a cow-themed chain of canteens called Moo Moo. We once tried a recommended, Georgian restaurant where a single skewer of mutton, with no accompaniments cost eight pounds.
The food of Mongolia, especially when staying with the herdsman, was a mutton and dairy fest. I wasn’t aware that it was possible to make as many different dishes with milk. Some we tasted were good and some not so. Something described as ‘dried curds’ was rather good but a sour paste made by mixing flour and sugar into slowly simmering sheep and goat’s milk was unpalatable. The mutton ribs, soups and dumplings were all very good. An interesting addition to the soups was dried mutton. On first sight this looked pretty unappetising but when pounded in a pestle and mortar and rehydrated in the soup it added a good flavour.
China bombards all the senses, taste included. We’ve enjoyed the good (roast duck and hot pot), the bad (a fishy, sweet and spicy snack on the Huangpu river cruise) and the downright ugly (dog meat and preserved eggs given to us by a friendly man we shared a compartment with between Beijing and Shanghai). Our travel companion didn’t tell us that it was dog meat when he first gestured for us to cut a slice for ourselves. I cut two small slices but before I knew it he’d taken the knife from me and dropped a huge wedge of meat into my hand. It was whilst chewing my way through this that the guessing game began. It didn’t take us long to workout what we were eating, his dog impression was very good.
Whilst in Beijing we visited the Dong’anmen night market. Here is is possible to buy all manner of strange foods grilled on skewers. The scorpions were a disappointment, no real substance, just crunch like exotic breakfast cereal. The chickens hearts were good and so were the whole small birds though the bones required a fair bit of chewing and a gulp or two of Tsingtao to get through. Rhian said I looked like a cat whilst eating these, chewing on the body whilst the head and beak dangled out of my mouth.
August 4th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Which did you find more expensive Norway or Russia?
The memory of that night food market is coming back to me… It’s put me right off my bacon butty! By the way the bacon buttys at the beeb are good but don’t quite compare to Dicksons
yL
August 7th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Russia is strange. Eating out and hotels are expensve and terrible value but food and drink in the shops is pretty cheap. Most Russia buy a bottle of beer from a street stall or shop and drink it in the street.