Smouse's Profile
Food foreigners take back home when they visit America.
That would be kvass, sunshine 842.
CAVIAR IN MOSCOW
Eliseevski (http://eliseevskiy.ru/e_home.htm) is a shop on Tverskaya. Don't buy caviar there - talk to your coworkers, get a contact, sort it out this way. Then you get good quality at the right price.
trip to riga and vilnius
Was in Riga last weekend. Don't have any recommendations for outstanding places, but the Blue Cow (http://www.zila-govs.lv/ZG_edienkarte_EN%20B.pdf) had excellent soups (we tried the chanterelle soup and the cold watercress soup with trout caviar) and a delicious ginger, plum and cinnamon compote. Not super cheap, but whoever was in the kitchen knew what s/he was doing with flavours.
Del Popolo, in the old town, also had some lovely soup (onion with shrimp and thyme) and decently cooked pasta dishes. Didn't have enough space to try the marscapone with tomato marmalade, but the waiter was kind enough to bring me a taster of the marmalade (jelly made of green tomatoes coated with sugar - too sweet for me, but I appreciated being able to try it). Again, the food wasn't what I would class as astonishing, but the cooking showed a nice level of attention to detail, service was calm and unobtrusive, and prices weren't overly high.
Sunday Roast, Oxford Center Pub
If you decide to go to the Trout, you can do it by bus/ walking and it's quite a nice walk from Wolvercote along to the Trout.
The No. 6 bus goes from Oxford City Center (outside the Randolph hotel). Takes about 15 minutes to the last stop, where you get off. It's then about a 10 minute walk from there.
A black cab to the Trout will probably run you around £15. Return fare on the bus will be £3 per person.
If you're here when the weather is nice, the Trout is absolutely packed on sunny days, so book a table.
Sunday Roast, Oxford Center Pub
And as a follow up for anyone else looking for Oxford suggestions - the Black Boy does do Sunday lunch, although the type of roast changes from week to week.
Also a good idea to book, as apparently they are crazy busy at the weekends.
Sunday Roast, Oxford Center Pub
Sadly, Oxford city centre is distinctly mediocre for food. The Turf tends to get pretty packed during the summer.
If you can find the energy to go slightly out of the centre, the Black Boy in Headington (http://www.theblackboy.uk.com/index.php) has very good food - email them and ask if they do a Sunday roast. They also run cooking classes for children, and Abi, who runs the place, is very friendly and flexible.
Takes about 10 minutes by bus/ cab from the city centre.
Cookbooks in St. Petersburg?
There's a big bookstore (Dom Knigi) at Nevsky Prospekt 28 which should have Russian language cookbooks. (A lot of them will probably be translations of foreign cookbooks, though).
For English language ones, there was an English language bookshop (Anglia) at Fontanka 38, but it's unlikely they'll have much, if anything, and prices will be high. Makes more sense to order off the Internet - favourites of mine are A Taste of Russia and The Georgian Feast by Darra Goldstein (http://www.amazon.com/Taste-Russia-Cookbook-Russian-Hospitality/dp/1880100428/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243594822&sr=8-2)
And if you're browsing any antiquarian bookshops or flea markets and come across a copy of "Книга о вкусной и здоровой пище" (http://focus.in.ua/article/25381.html - scroll down for picture) buy it - it's a classic. It has been re-issued but I've not looked at the new editions, only the early ones.
