Parties, Parties

Photo: Modern version of a Russian icon by painter Andrei Yeletsky


These last days before my return to the U.S. are busy ones, so there’s less time for writing. One evening we went to the opening of a new art gallery, featuring paintings by Andrei Yeletsky, a friend of Slava’s. Last night we went to an unusual production of “Die Fledermaus,” sung in Russian and presented in modern dress. Instead of period costumes from the original setting of 1890’s men wore business suits, and two teens wore punk outfits. One character sang into a cell phone.

Friday and Saturday nights we’re hosting dinner parties. The first one will be with Dima and his family, including in-laws Alla and Alexander. The second one will be with Yuri and Tamara Izyumov, friends of ours. I learned from my mother that having parties back-to-back saves a measure of effort. In this case extra portions of the cold dishes I prepare for zakuski Friday night will be available for Saturday.

I’ll be curious to see how Russians react to the black bean and corn salad I’ll prepare with diced peppers. Beans aren’t commonly eaten here, and black beans are quite unusual, although I did find some. Ratatouille should be well received, because the ingredients are familiar. We’ll have salted cucumbers in sour cream with fresh dill, mixed mushrooms, Korean kimchee, a Russian version of cole slaw, sliced tomatoes and pepper rings. I plan to make carrot curls and crisp them in ice water. They’ll be another unusual feature of this zakuski table. Slava will choose some salted or smoked fish and get fresh bread.

At the moment I don’t know what will be the hot dish – and it’s only hours before the first party. Last weekend Alla had said that she’d bring a family favorite, golybtsi (stuffed cabbage). Yulia said that she’d bring a fish pie. But it is very, very unusual in Russia for guests to bring food, and Slava startled me just now by saying he wasn’t sure that they really are going to do so. As I followed the conversation last weekend I heard “We’ll bring…” “Oh, no, you don’t have to…” “Oh, yes, we want to…” I thought it ended that they were indeed going to bring food. But if not, then the French-boned chicken I was going to prepare for Saturday night will be plopped on the table Friday.

Dessert on Friday will simply be vanilla ice cream, served with Massandra dessert wine for the adults. The kids will get some freeze-dried ice cream I brought from the U.S. On Saturday dessert will also be simple, a store-bought torte. There’s no social requirement for a hostess to knock herself out on dessert.

Before the guests come I hope to connect with family in the U.S. by Skype service on Internet. We have pre-arranged for calls 7:30 – 8:30 am EST, which is 5:30 – 6:30 pm here. It is amazing to think of videocalls being free and easy. The wide world is shrinking!