When I lived in Poland back in 1991, I loved the food. I was warned that the post-Soviet economy would mean line ups, inflated prices and scarcity. Nothing could be further from the truth for the experience I had in my Baltic resort city of Kolobrzeg. But even with the zap-shacks, bigos domovi, and one buck wild boar in a can there was nothing like the snacks you can apparently get in this bar in Moscow called Grossbir:
The beer snacks section is certainly not a typical assortment -- there are such dishes as prosciutto di Parma (130), Milano salami (130 rubles), ventricina pork sausages (120 rubles) and Spianata Romana salami (120 rubles). A mixed plate that includes all of the above along with green and black olives costs 670 rubles. A more traditional beer-snack selection is found under the hot snacks heading where there are calamari rings (180 rubles), onion rings (120 rubles), buffalo chicken wings (250 rubles), pork ribs (270 rubles) and the old Russian favorites, boiled prawns (230 rubles) and fried garlic rye bread (90 rubles). Naturally, there are bangers, including hunter's sausages, lamb and beef, pork and beef, pork and chicken with sun-dried tomatoes, all of which cost 360 rubles.Holy Moly! A bar where you can nibble on lamb sausages or fried rye. I could go on. Couldn't we all? It may be just the protein hog in the novice masters shot putter in me but aren't bar snacks some of our favorite, you know, snacks? Whether the braised lamb shoulder chops at the inn by the Brig O'Doon in Ayr, the cheap steamed mussels in Halifax taverns or that odd little grilled squid and cheese dish you could get at the state-owned diner back near the Polish Baltic coast, bar food actually constitutes about 87% of my fondest memories. Did I mention the smoked seafood chowder (as illustrated) at Three Dollar Dewey's in Portland, Maine? I did now.
I am not much of a sit-down formal eater as we, on one side of the family, "come from service" - meaning we were the cooks to the posh a couple generations ago. The traditions and skills have been passed meaning I've been more than once disappointed with something preceded with the adjective "gourmet" and am more comfortable with the cooking and the eating on the go . As a result, I have been caught on more than one occasion eating the main dish with a serving spoon before it got out to the table. Our guest understand that now. Good bar food is like that.
Comments
Leigh - April 16, 2008 3:40 AM
wow - that sure is some great bar snacks there, almost tapas-like! imagine how your beer choices would be affected if faced with such great food. yeah, some of these nibbles rank among our faves - who wouldnt love a cheeky bowl of mussels? great post!
Paul - April 16, 2008 9:11 AM
Alan, this is nothing short of pornography :-)
I was never offered anything like this when I went to the USSR in the Eighties
Spencer - April 16, 2008 1:13 PM
"Gourmet" to me means "we want you to think this is something special, but really we tarted up something really cheap with some fake extra flavoring or something." I.e., "Gourmet" flavored coffee is usually the cheapest coffee you can find soaked in enough artificial flavoring so that you can't taste the stale bad coffee flavor anyway.
Alan - April 16, 2008 1:24 PM
My issue is not that so much as I love to access great ingredients directly and do the cooking myself. Add to that the possession of a great beer stash and one of my favorite patios to have a beer and bar snacks turns out to mean my own. I also grow a lot of herbs and other snack makers and that also provides me on the cheap with those things others buy for mucho.
zak@portlandbeer.org - April 16, 2008 1:27 PM
Mmmm..... sausage and fried rye....
I love real bar food.
Knut Albert - April 18, 2008 5:27 AM
I am planning a post about this - the best beer snacks I've found would be a bar in Sofia,where you get lovely tapas sized stuff.
But I, somehow, doubt that calamares is a traditional dish in Moscow.
Alan - April 18, 2008 8:19 AM
I don't know about that, Knut. We Nova Scotians certainly had a sea shanty we sang in the taverns of the dock area in Halifax back in the 80s about the Soviet squid jiggers. I just assumed everyone did.
Knut Albert - April 18, 2008 10:31 AM
I thought they were more of the pickled herring & cabbage school of cuisine.
Alan - April 18, 2008 11:43 AM
When I was a kid in the 1970s, the Soviet fleet fished herring off the shore in huge factory ships that you could easily see on the horizon. It was quite the thing. So we, of course, sang about that, too.
Nelson - May 20, 2011 9:44 AM
MF Putina Company, offers delivery of fish snack from Astrakhan, Russia on your market, we MAKE:The dried up sticks made of the Astrakhan fish (the bream, the rudd, a vobla, a crucian,a catfish, a perch, a pike)
Very tasty and qualitative production, excellent snack for beer
We Our company situated in Astrakhan,Russia
Best regards
Nail' Kurmaliev
Manager of MF "PUTINA"Co.Ltd
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Alan - May 20, 2011 10:49 AM
I usually delete spam but this is both topical and just nutty enough to deserve posterity. More on Astrakhan.
My only source for "dried up sticks made of the Astrakhan fish".
Daramy - October 6, 2011 12:21 PM
I saw these hot nuts on a blog and they look amazing in case you wanted something less filling. http://ahintofgarlic.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/perfect-with-an-ice-cold-beer-2/ I think they were from the bar at Union Square in New York?