Views of Yekaterinburg

One of the many new Othodox churches here

Before concluding this blog of time in Yekaterinburg, I will use it as a record of the menu for the big dinner I prepared for seven this weekend.  It was Russian in style, with some American elements.

The table was set with platters of zakuski, or appetizers. These included poached salmon with dill and lemon, salted mushrooms, avocado slices and cucumber spears, tri-color pepper rings, wedges of brie with toasted lavash, black bean-corn-tomato relish, ratatouille, quail eggs dipped in toasted sesame seeds, and two kinds of canapes.  After an hour or so came the hot dishes:  sliced pork tenderloin studded with cloves, buckwheat kasha with vermicelli, and sauteed Chinese cabbage.  For dessert we had bakery pastries, chocolate covered cherries, and a platter of grapes and plums.

My guests had never split lavash and toasted it, I learned, or had toasted bread of any kind -- Russians eat bread fresh.  The black beans were totally unfamiliar to my guests because they had come from the U.S. in dried form a couple of years ago, and I found them in a cabinet.   Vermicelli mixed into buckwheat kasha was different but acceptable.  The hit was the quail eggs. They are difficult to peel, and I was asked, "How did you peel them?"  The answer:  "Very carefully."  (It's important not to shatter the shell, and to try to get it off in just two or three pieces.)

A dinner party always means left-overs.  Tonight I don't have to cook!

Bronze statues in a pedestrian area

The sign says, "Legendarni vopper na gril"