Gogol restaurant, Saint Petersburg, Russia

The receptionist politely reminded us to return the table in an hour because it's fully booked.  We thought they might be rushing to serve everything in a minute, but every dish was served in a very good timing.  Though the place was very historic (over 100 years old), it was very clean and tidy, as noted from the curtain, linen...etc.

We were first served with 2 warm breads - one multi-grain and the other onion cheese.  It's not just me who finished these 2 breads in a minute but most others did the same.  Then we had a double boiled beef soup and a borsch.  I was much surprised the double boiled soup was quite Cantonese style.  The only difference is the freshly chopped parsley which was western style.  The borsch was a bit sweet to me though.  As for the mains, we took beef stroganoff and a steamed fish cake (blended salmon and perch meat).  I actually took a bet for this fish dish because steamed fish is a very difficult one.  It could be very smelly, mashy, or rough.  The first bite told me I got a good bet.  It reminded me of the steamed fish patty with tofu (老少平安), a very family Cantonese dish.  It was really a fusion food to me when I had the raspberry beetroot sauce and the garlic butter mashed potato.  The beef stroganoff was the best among all the others we had tried.  Noted that it wasn't in a heavy creamy sauce.  Another pleasant surprise was the raspberry dumplings.  At first, I doubted it might taste quite weird, but it tasted very refreshing and the dumpling wrap was nicely done - not too chewy but not too soft.   

A happy meal in Phali Hinkali (Georgia) restaurant, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Noticed quite many restaurants showing "Georgia".  At first, I wondered if that's some common name of specific food of Russia, and even thought about the State Georgia of U.S. (but of course it's almost a zero possibility).  So I googled and found out that was what I often watched on local travel programs about Caucasia for Armenia (亞美尼亞), Azerbajian (亞塞拜疆).  These country names in Cantonese sound very literal and cultural to me.  So this is 格魯吉亞 Georgia.  Those beautiful scenery as I watched on the TV flipped in my mind.  This restaurant was so crowded that I made a booking for the next day.

So we ordered a pickled platter, Borsch soup, grilled pork on crepe, beef stew and their house signature dumplings.  The waitress was so nice to recommend us to try their mixed fruit drinks.  The hot one in pot is cranberry, goosenberry and barley tea and the cold one is raspberry green apple lemonade.  Good to have these 2 drinks to go with the meal.  On the pickled platter, there are garlic, jalapeno, beetroot, cucumbe, red cabbage and I guess it's cow sip flower on the right bottom.  Those were marinated in various vinegar, salt and sugar.  So it didn't taste the same.  The soup was nice though the beef was a bit too chewy.  Think it might be too early for us to visit and it's not shimmered enough.  The grilled pork on crepe was so aromatic with light herb and salt.  The beef stew wasn't too impressive though it's not bad.  The highlight was the dumplings.  You can order 2, 4, 6, and so on.  So I ordered 6 as I wanted to save room for dessert.  When it was served on the table, the dumpling size was almost 3 times bigger than what we usually have.  So RUB45 (HKD5.5) for one dumpling at this giant size was the cheapest but a very delicious one.  I chose beef/pork filling and it's with some.chopped parsley and celery inside. It was so nice to have this freshly made dumpling in this cold weather and yet it was so hearty and homey.  The waiter told us how to eat it.  Hold the top of dumpling and eat it upside down so as not to let the juice spill out.  What a nice way to have that "handle" of dumpling.   The whole meal including drinks was just about RUB3,000 (HK$350).  

Restaurant Victoria, Hotel Taleon Imperial, Saint Petersburg, Russia

It was 9pm after having settled the check-in at this hotel Taleon Imperial.  Felt so sleepy and hungry that there is no choice other than getting something quick inside the hotel.  However, the lobby lounge claimed that it took 40 minutes to get the food and advised of coming to this restaurant.  

The first few items I had in mind showed on the menu - Russian Borsch soup and beef stroganoff.  Russian Borsch is even the most popular choice as claimed to be one of the 2 soup choices as "red" soup and the other "white" soup (cream soup).

This time the soup was very different from those HK style.  The soup was made with pickled cabbage, beet root, beef and served with sour cream on the side and a bread with onion/minced beef filling with some chopped marinated lard on top.  I recall how my Russian business friend told me to eat some marinated lard before drinking vodka so as to avoid getting drunk.

The beef stroganoff was very aromatic though a bit too heavy.  It was in a sandwich stacks with pan fried hash brown and sour cream on top.   The chopped celery/peas/chicken salad was quite refreshing after the 2 savoury dishes.