Belini, Beer, the Black Continent Cafe, and Pushkin: Finding the High Life in Russia

So I have failed to write for like over a week, but let that be a testament to the BLASTY blast I have been having.

Ok Belini, I think I did a run down on these earlier but let me restate, they are the light of my life. I mentioned to my mom how much I freaking LOVE cheese. (Russians ALL eat watermelon like its injected with crack or MSG or something) So I told her, I eat cheese, like Russians eat watermelon. And her eyes got REAL big and she was like That is a lot. Following this, she now finds me all kinds of cheese to put on anything and I am in hog heaven. Russian cheese is probably the only thing I will love almost as much as Wisconsin cheese. Holy jeez its good. OK so today I was dying ill. I woke up late, with a migraine, and a cold. She took one look at me and started bustling about, calling my profs telling them I wouldn't be in and pour hot tea berry currant honey mixture down my throat and WATCHING me take medicine to be sure I did it. I slept for a total of 16 hours today, and when I woke she specially made me my favorite soup: shi. And CHEESE FILLED BELINI. I felt a lot better. And of course had more tea juice honey.

Let's go over another favorite of mine as a Russian foodie: Smetana, SOUR CREAM. Do you ever feel your food is missing something? How about adding sour cream? It will always make it better. Veggies in a bowl? Add and its a SALAT. Cabbage soup? Add and its the greatest bowl of soup in your life! Potatoes and mushrooms? Slather, and TADA sauce. Smetana makes my world go round and I dont care what people say I am going to put it all over everything. See my Russian Mama just came and asked me if I wanted chicken with pasta or rice, I said pasta because I know I am going to throw some smetana on that and be happy as a clam. Who knew doing a dollop of Daisy was REALLY a good idea all along.

Piva, beer, is so ridiculously cheap and always amazingly delicious. All single 16 oz cans of beer are around a dollar. I am as always a HUGE fan of Baltika, and highly recommend it. Not only does it come in varying degrees of alcohol percentage. it is always delicious. I am a fan of Baltika Sem, 7. You should allll go to your specialty liquor store and try it. Unless you live in the Cities in which case go to Kramurczurks and get it there with some delicious Ukrainian food. Also tried a white Russian beer, very very good, even Lydia, who is no fan of beer, likes it. Also Hoegaarden is a fav of Lindsay and I, which is def available in the US. Lydia had a "Fresh Lemon" beer from a company named "Gold Mine" in Moskva, Moscow, and she didnt mind it but I definitely felt like I was sipping a liquid Halls-Honey-Cough-Drop-Beer. There was something funky going on there, so I dont recommend that until we see if anything happens to Lydia for drinking it ;)

Our new favorite haunt is Chyornyi Kontinyent, Black Continent, which is a diamond in the rough here in Russia. (Yes it is called Black Continent....) First let me explain: THERE IS NO absolutely ZERO drip coffee in Russia. And it might kill me. Fortunately we found out MacDonalds of all places has drip coffee so who knew, I might be needing to hit that place up. Sad but true. I have vices and coffee is one of them. Chyornyi Kontinyent, has espresso at least in varying forms of addicting. I had a Baileys concoction which is delish, but expensive around 5 or 6 bucks for a smallish glass. There is Arabic coffee which is espresso with caramel, and Russian, which is espresso with chocolate, and some other kind with has spices and a pepper kernel in it that is good, all for around a buck or 1.50. They also have tasty belini, my addiction, for 2-4 dollars. Its got great atmosphere, other than the weird sports channel. So if you are ever in Novgorod dying for a moment of coffee shop splendour go to Chyornyi Kontinyent.

Classes are boring boring, except for Literature with Marina Anatolyevna who is the most powerful intimidating woman I have ever met. She is broad shouldered and a little bigger, but its pure muscle I SWEAR and I think, as I told Stephanie, that she is secretly running Russia. GOD love her. So she has us reading Pushkin, The Queen of Spades, which you all must read. I read it in English once, but reading it in Russian is like, THIS is what I wanted to do. READ PUSHKIN in RUSSIA. Its incredibly hard, but the reason Pushkin is like the Demigod of Russia is because he was the first writer to actually write in RUSSIAN not highfalutin  bullshit. And he wrote about real life things, granted these were 1800s real life things, but still! So I think every one was just like FINALLY when he started publishing, and he really is a master. So I must go attend to that translating business. But definitely go and check out ANY Pushkin. Or Blok who is my favyfav of all Russian writers.

I am going to leave you with one last story. Andrew and I went to Cafe Le Chocolat, which is over by the hotel because its like the expensive coffee shop where all the rich tourist go, but we went in to have coffee and SUSHI. And they totally gave us the Russian menu. WE were MISTAKEN for RUSSIANS. It was the best, and we were very very happy. So I officially look like a Novgorodka, a girl from Novgorod, anddd I am still living it up. I miss you all, but I don't miss America one bit.

PICTURES this week I promise.

Chmok Chmok,

Taan Taan