By this time, I’m sure most in our group were hungry. Our lunch stop was at Troika restaurant. Apparently, Troika is one of the best and finest restaurants in St. Petersburg. We got lucky! They have a highly acclaimed dinner show, which I would like to see, but as we were here during lunch, we would not get to see it.
We lined up outside while we waited for our time to be seated. Meanwhile, I walked to the corner and took a couple of photos of street life. As I looked around, I was shocked and very pleasantly surprised to find a sign in large letters reading “Jazz”. Another reminder to me of how jazz is played and celebrated internationally. How I wish we had time to hear some jazz in this place! The rest of the sign was in Russian. Translated, it read: Jazz Philharmonic Hall. I felt there was something special about this sign. Sure enough, it became the cover photo for my Jazz Around the World series on my sister blog Kanale Speaks.
Troika was ready for us and we were led inside. A bearded man in the full dress of Russian nobility was standing in the hall greeting some of us. He graciously posed for photos. His attire consisted of an embroidered purple kosovorotka shirt (skewed-collar shirt), finely decorated shuba (fur coat), Gorlatnaya or throaty hat, and carried a wooden staff.
We were seated in a smaller hall downstairs along with two or three other tour groups. The room had an exquisite décor with murals on one wall, etched, and lighted glass on another. The meal began with a salad. That was followed by caviar on toast (I admit I’m no caviar connoisseur, having only had it twice before now, but I seriously doubt it was Beluga or anything close to it), authentic Russian borscht, chicken in a creamy sauce (I didn’t catch the name), champagne, and vodka. Now I’ll tell you a little story: I had a bad experience in my early 20’s with beets fed to me in smoothie form by my next-door neighbor at the time, an increasingly eccentric but very sweet elderly lady. Since then I could not stand beets. But being that we were in Russia, I figured I give the borscht a try. Worse case, if I didn’t like it, I could leave the rest and no one’s feelings would be hurt. Surprisingly, this was actually good! I ate all of the borscht in my bowl.
On our tables were three glasses: one for water, the other two for the vodka and champagne. Vodka and champagne came to our table after we were all settled in. A toast would be appropriate now. I held back, waiting for someone to go first, but no one took the lead. I was not about to let this opportunity pass. I stood up, raised my glass of vodka, and said, “Nasdrovia!” Imagine. Me, an African-American man, in Russia, leading a toast in Russian because no one else in our group knew how to speak Russian. That is a memory I will never forget. (I learned later that ‘nasdrovia’ was not exactly right; I should have said za zdarovye, or better yet, za vashe zdorovye (To your health)). Our group seemed to loosen up a bit and more conversations started between us.
Lacquer Boxes
Following lunch, we boarded the bus and continued the tour. We stopped at a gift shop, which I think was on Nevsky Prospect (Nevskiy Prospekt), one of the main thoroughfares through the city. It is also one of the most well-known streets in St. Petersburg; for that matter, all of Russia as well.
Inside the shop were plenty of items to grab your attention…and the contents of your wallet. I picked up a few souvenirs for family and co-workers back home. My wife and I selected a bottle of vodka for her brother. I bought two bags of chocolate for me.
Another thing I learned here is that lacquer boxes are popular items in Russia. Some of them cost in the thousands of dollars. Made using a papier-mâché process, intricately painted, and covered by several layers of lacquer, these items are highly sought after and valued by collectors worldwide. Which of course leads to fakes and imitations. If you do fancy a Russian lacquer box, be sure to check it first to make sure it is the real thing. I did buy a small one as a gift for my co-worker and friend back home who taught me a lot of the Russian words and phrases I know.
After a couple of hours on the tour, I was starting to read a few Russian words such as restaurant, bar, bank, and stop. Ok, ‘Stop’ was an easy one. You can figure that out from the street signs.
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