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July 23, 2008 / Wednesday
Band-Aids and Blini
Now that I'm doing the solo-sightseeing Metro thing, I've been doing a lot of walking. I really hadn't planned on this much walking, and brought only one pair of walk-friendly shoes. Those shoes, however, are bright red, and I thought perhaps I shouldn't wear them to the office. Since I've been visiting sites on my way there, I've been doing a lot of walking in my sandals. Today, I wore a little hole in my foot from the sandal strap. Ouch.
I remembered that there was a drugstore (аптека, they're everywhere, and you can figure out what they are by the square cross on the sign) on the way from the office to the subway station, so I decided to see if I could pick up some Band-Aids there. This drugstore, however, was a dinky little shop, and the only way to get something was to ask the woman behind the little hole in the product display wall.
I didn't see any Band-Aids (or plastic bandages, now that I remember the generic term for them) on display, so I was going to have to make this work without anything to point at.
I opened with my usual question. "Excuse me, do you speak English?" I'm getting really good at saying that in Russian now. The answer, as usual, was no. I asked in Russian if they had Band-Aids, and got a blank stare over the term "Band-Aids". So I resorted to charades. I peeled an imaginary Band-Aid and stuck it on my hand. She immediately returned with a box of plastic bandages. Score one for charades. :)
I hopped on the Metro and headed home. Next stop: Teremok. It's a fast food blini (блины) joint found all over the place here. They have both sit-down stores and little round huts out in the open. Check out their savory blini. Red roe blini? Caviar crepes! Aaron says I should try it, but given that I'm not a fan of savory crepes to begin with, I might make myself sick if I try to eat one stuffed with fish roe.
I was in a sweets mood, so I ordered a chocolate banana blin (singular of blini). See how the banana is cut up into nice little chunks in the picture? They don't serve it that way in real life. I got a whole banana covered in chocolate and wrapped in what can be pretty accurately described as a crepe shell. Interesting visual, eh? It tasted pretty much like a crepe.
I also had some mors (морс), which I've had quite a bit of since arriving here. It's a common cranberry-based juice drink. I much prefer it to kvas (квас), another common drink made from fermented bread. Sergey and my boss had kvas everywhere we went; I think it tastes like beer without the buzz. Beer, blech!
July 23, 2008 10:42 AM | Food:St. Petersburg
Comments
OK, so when is the pelmeni? Did you ever go to that Russian restaurant on College near Ashby? Oh man, their Siberian Pelmeni made me moan. So good.
Sorry about the bed-bug scare. I was hoping to solve the bug-bite problem. (I'd be spraying the mosquitos with DEET. Then they can't stand themselves!)
Posted by: Jennie at July 23, 2008 04:23 PM
I didn't know there was a Russian restaurant there! I've only ever had pelmeni at my boss's hour. It was good, and that was from frozen, I think, so I want to try some good stuff while I'm here.
I'm laughing at your DEET suggestion. Nauseated mosquitoes moping around...
Posted by: Viv at July 23, 2008 10:02 PM