Valdivostok, a destination for fine dining?

So says Saveur magazine, which does not dole out food compliments lightly, in its September issue.

In a story entitled "Land of Plenty", writer Sharon Hudgins takes readers to the biggest city in Russia's Far East, a place she last visited in 1993-1994. Back then, she and her husband were teaching economics and communications at a university there. Now, she is astounded by the changes: modern buildings, new roads, and most of all: lots and lots of food and beverage options. Coffeehouses and sushi bars, gourmet supermarkets and gourmet restaurants.

It made me scratch my head in disbelief. When I was in Vladivostok for my first adoption in 1999, eating was strictly for survival and definitely nothing to write home about. I lost 10 pounds during the three weeks I was there.

While Hudgins lists a few restaurants and food markets at the end of her story, this isn't a restaurant or food store review piece. She actually spends most of the story chronicling meals eaten in private homes, including one very lavish offering of appetizers, or zakushki.

But the most nagging question for me, after I finished reading the piece, was what use Vladivostok cooks made of fruits lavishly photographed on the opening page. There are several large jars of white currants, raspberries and gooseberries. The photo credit says they were photographed at a local market, and they are not used in any of the recipes that accompany the story. I have written before about the foods my kids prefer to eat, and their connection to Russia. But ever since my older son was old enough to voice food choices, he has demanded white currants when they are in season at the farmer's market. And last year, when we were browsing a plant catalog to choose some new berries for the garden, he emphatically chose gooseberries, though I had never fed them to him here. I am at a loss to explain it, particularly since gooseberries don't even seem to be native to Vladivostok (Wikipedia says they are indigenous to Europe and western Asia).

Alas, the full text of Hudgins's story is not online, but you can read the recipes here. There's even a recipe for Okroshka, a summer soup made with the Russian small beer kvas that I wrote about a few weeks back.

Image Credit: A Good Friend