Bizarre Foods of St Petersburg

[thompsongunner06]

Andrew Zimmers  show,,"Bizarre Foods" is on Travel Chanel Tuesday night,,will be from St Petersburg,Russia,,also features a Ban ya with a cute blond!

[aikorob]

Thanks,
This show---along with Anthony Bourdain---is a favorite at our house.

[thompsongunner06]

Just saw the show,,,Was regular food,no bugs or gross stuff! I don't think I will try the eel though. I can tell you the shish ka bob's are the best ever.

[Faux Pas]

I saw the show also and enjoyed it very much, I watch it every chance I get. I found it very helpful and informative. One subject I haven't been able to clue in on from the forum is Russian food. I am visiting St Petersburg next month for my first trip and Zimmern's show was very timely for me. Thanks for the heads up!

[groovlstk]

I caught Anthony Bourdain's episode in St. Petersburg, it was awesome. He can be harsh so it was great to see how charmed he was in SPB by the food, customs, and people.

[thompsongunner06]

We should start a "Food of Russia" area on the site! I loved the " Sasliesh" spelled wrong but thats what is sounds like, we call it sh-is ka bob. Also the baloney and other meats are great. Try some meat,looks like peperoni,but it has herbs on the outside! You will love it. They also make a kim Che type salad. It is cabbage and carrots shredded up and aged in a marinade,,,yum. All the food is fresh and  no preservatives.  They have a "ice cream" thing,,its ricotta cheese and its sweet and some have chocolate in the middle,or caramel, Its kinda frozen/chilled and way good! We also got rotisserie chicken from street vendors. They have some great cheese too. Now stay away from the "bread" soda. Stick with vodkas and juice sodas.

[Faux Pas]

The bread soda was the "childrens beer"?

[Jet]

Now stay away from the "bread" soda. Stick with vodkas and juice sodas.

wussy 

I'm pretty sure thompsongunner is referring to Kvas (KBAC). It's non alcoholic and non carbonated. Some people genuinely hate it, but I ain't one of them. I can state pretty confidently that if you've tried and liked amber beer, apple cider (the cloudy kind), or iced tea mixed half & half with lemonade, you will like kvas 

Some other foods you might want to try:

• yablaka sok (apple juice) tastes completely different from here, just like liquid fresh apples 
• Blini (pancakes) almost as thin as crepes but soft like American hotcakes and can be plain or stuffed with anything from eggs to fish. (My personal favorite was w/ sliced banana and a poppy seed sauce - Mmmm)
• Pelmini (similar to chinese "pot stickers" or fried dumplings)
often filled with pork or veal, boiled like ravioli and if you're lucky, browned in a frying pan.

• Kalbasa (the catch all phrase for all manner of salamis and sausages) try a bunch of different types, they're all delicious and all slightly different

A few things to steer clear of:

• Russian hot dogs - they look the same, until you try to gnaw through that casing that's more durable than shark skin 
• Russian ketchup -