The Aristocratic Stroganovs, Beef Stroganoff And Other Tales From StPetersburg

Stroganov residence

The Stroganovs were one of the richest and influential families since Ivan the terrible in The Tsardom of Russia. They financed the Russian conquests of Siberia and Moscow (from the Poles) and Peter the Great elevated them to royal rank. 

The Stroganov Palace (known in France as Stroganoff) is now part of the Russian museum and a prominent feature of the Nevsky Prospekt.

The story of that famous dish. Count Stroganov was throwing a banquet in honor of a general who happened to have one hand missing. The Count requested the chef to cut up some beef for the general and add some flavouring to facilitate the guest's meal.  Beef a la Stroganoff was born and proved to be very popular. 

The original recipe calls for beef cubed and sautéed and seasoned with bouillon, mustard and finished with smetana or sour creme. The French added the mushrooms and onions later. Multiple variations exist now including cooking it with buckwheat and rice. 

With buckwheat

Very dense and creamy served with rice. I obviously ate the dish repeatedly.

On the subject of Russian cooking, there is course borscht which is a soup made of beetroot, onion, tomato, potato, rib of pork, bacon all boiled then strained. The soup should be fiery red and clear, like a consommé.  It is served with a dollop of sour cream. 

Then, of course, there is chicken Kiev.  Chicken breast is pounded and rolled with cold garlic butter and herbs, then dipped into eggs and breadcrumbs which is either baked or fried. It's delicious and very seventies, even if it was invented at the beginning of the 20th century guess where?!! 

Caviar.  Russia is famous for it.

You can have it for breakfast, which I did!

Obviously not a cuisine for the calorie counter!

Also, we went to a restaurant that Putin celebrated his birthday twice at. This is the menu. 

Ummm, tasty? And interesting?!

Leaving the subject of food, Russians drink vodka, of course, so did we! Loads!

As for the nightlife, we had a few drinks in hotels (Four Seasons and Arcadia) and the odd trendy restaurant, but as far as nightlife is concerned, NYET (no in Russian) !!!!!

As my friend Liz says, it's not the ideal place for a boys' weekend!

To close this section on St Petersburg, the underground is beautiful (that's really random).

We really didn't have time to shop and didn't purchase any touristy stacking Russian dolls, photos of Putin with bears on coffee mugs, religious icons and fake Faberge eggs. Perhaps caviar and vodka at the airport?

We did, however, have time to take this photo.  A bit of kitsch every now and then is amusing. Can you bear it?

Still, a wonderful time was had in St Petersburg and it really is a must see!

I will say goodbye to the Arcadia hotel in the centre of town and its dizzying list of famous people's names plaqued onto both sides of each elevator...

But it does have the most amazing views.

Dos vidaniya St Petersburg!!