It Might Have Been Something I Ate

Photo of the place where we are staying

 First let me describe what I ate yesterday, and then I'll describe my nightmare.  It's 3:30 am and I can't sleep.

It may not be fair to blame the food.  We had breakfast at a nearby restaurant and were certainly hungry by the time it opened at 9:00.  (We tried to get in at 8:55 and were turned away.)  There was no menu; we were offered the standard breakfast -- fit for the downhill skiers who will populate this place in a month.

We started off with a nice plate of buttered oatmeal, followed by blini pancakes with swirls of sour cream and plum jam. Then we had yogurt and buttered bread with cheese.  I brought the yogurt back to the refrigerator in our hotel room, and skipped the bread and cheese. I had the lamentable thought that Russiian restaurants are following the bad American practice of serving too much food.

We weren't ready for lunch until 3:00 pm.  As I puzzled through the menu selections getting the Big Idea but missing the subtleties of preparation, Slava ordered for us. It was a four-course meal. Russian tradition is to have dinner in the middle of the day, to be followed by a light supper.  The meal we had in this out-of-the-way place was one of the best in my life.

The first course might have been called a salad, but the arrangement on the plate made me think of taking up still life painting. It was gorgeous and delicious.

Dinner, by definition in Russia, requires a soup. Ours was garden vegetable, and truly from fresh garden vegetables.  The broth was also vegetarian, so very light.

For the main course I had forel, which I think is steelhead trout, but nothing I can find on Internet tells me for sure. Anyway, this delicately poached fish was topped with champagne sauce and red caviar.

Dessert was not necessary, but Slava was in the mood for it, so he ordered apple strudel for us. Now I don't have many points of comparison to variants on apple strudel because I've never been impressed by it.  The Germans and the Austrians are proud of theirs, but I'd like to send them to this little place in Bashkiria to learn how to do it right. First off, don't prepare it in advance; make it fresh for each customer. Puff pastry is crisp and delicate when it first comes from the oven. When it's layered with cooked apples it becomes soggy in minutes. Serve the strudel before that happens.

Actually I took most of my strudel home because I couldn't finish it then. And predictably, just now when I sampled it, the puff pastry was not the same. But I could appreciate the apple filling better.  Ah...

Our last meal of the day was in the hotel at 8:00 pm. Everyone was served a cabbage salad (calling it cole slaw doesn't do it justice). Then we had some sort of fish, which was a little bit dry, and an intimidating mound of buckwheat kasha.  I do like kasha, but I had planned on eating light. With hot tea we were served fresh yeast rolls with gooseberry filling.

I'm going to go back to bed now and try to sleep. I think I'll describe my nightmare tomorrow, and you can decide for yourself if it was caused by something I ate.