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My Secretive Garden

Masha Mozolevskaya — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 07:09:00 GMT

For me there’s nothing more lovely in this busy, smoky city than a spontaneous picnic in some hidden place where I won’t be disturbed by crowds of emo-teenagers or suspicious policemen. And I must warn you that you should be ready for these 'amusements' if you decide to spend some time daydreaming on the grass downtown.

So when I'm looking for some quiet piece of nature I go to my secret garden – it's called Aptekarsky Ogorod (what means herbal pharmacy), which is more like a botanical garden of medical herbs.

Photo from Moscow-photos.com

You will never find it if you don't know the exact directions: just imagine yourself walking through the glass wall of a buisiness center ignoring the café on the left and the hairsalon on the right passing tourniket and finally finding yourself in the picturesque contyside somewhere in England – because what you see definitely can't be Moscow!

Photo from Moscow-photos.com

A huge pool with chineese carps which size I would compare to a chihuahua dog, a shallow pond with wild lillies and weeping willows, paths through bushes of rare herbs and unique blooming plants, benches under the archs of wild grapes and the snow-white terrace of the abandoned café – enough cosy corners to hide with a good book and a good sandwich.

During the week, the only threat to your serenity will be a few couples of wagging old ladies and on weekends – couples of newlyweds posing near a 200-year old oak. Just keep in mind that walking or slugging on the grass is prohibited. The garden was founded (by the way!) by Peter the Great and it is a conservatory area with rare plants treated carefully.

And I find it really funny that in the night, this quiet place becomes as mad as you can imagine – because of the café-club Fasol where the craziest retro-parties take place Thursday-Sunday. Frankly speaking, I do not like this crowd much (imagine midle-aged potato-faced clerks) but you should definetely once try a wild dance together with totally happy drunk dudes singing aloud Ottowan, Village People or Bonny Tyler, or whatever. And damn, there are romantic ballads too (oh, my axl rose!)! Dig out your favorite velvet outfit from the dusty cupboard – and get back to school, every Thursday!

Aptekarsky Ogorod; Prospekt Mira, 26. Metro: Prospect Mira

Go further: Read about Aaron's favourite green spot in Copenhagen here.

Best Diet Is A Juicy Cutlet

Masha Mozolevskaya — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:00:00 GMT

As a native Moscovite I never was a frequent visitor of Red Square. But now I have become one and I can't stop going there again and again! My magnet is a self-service canteen – I know it doesn't sound delicios but it became such an obsession for me that I'm ready to go through awful parking and crowds of tourists just to get there!

The case is that before Stolovaya #57 opened in the most far-out corner of GUM (it's our strike back to Harrod's) there were no good places to eat around Red Square .

Of course there is a Bosco bar at the ground floor of GUM with a view straight onto Lenin's tomb but for me it's just a tourist attraction. Yes, the interior done in 60's colours and shapes is nice but it seems stupid for me to pay double price for botchy mojito and ordinary pancakes – even if it comes with a cemetery view!

So once when I was rambling around the 3rd floor (which is pretty lifeless and where people mainly come because of the free toilets) I was surprised to find а fast-food looking eatery full of well-dressed young managers and trendy couples with kids.

Inside I've scored all the food I loved in my childhood and real gastronomic hits of Soviet couisine – beefsteaks with egg served with creamy potato mash and green peas, spicy vineagrette (kind of vegetable tartar with beetroot and marinated cucumber), crispy pancakes stuffed with minced meat and coated with sourcream… It smells like my granny's kitchen!

Help yourself and walk in with your tray in soviet-style dining room with retro-posters on the walls like "Bread is everything' head" or "Best diet is a juicy cutlet", retro limonade-automate and tables covered with retro oilcloths. Bite your kotleta, sip your kompote, pay maximum $10 for dinner and I bet you will definitely come back!

Stolovaya 57; Gum Department Store, 3rd floor, 3rd line, Red Square

Garage: The Biggest, The Best And Simply The First

Masha Mozolevskaya — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:00:00 GMT

The grand opening of 'Garage', Moscow Center for Contemporary Culture, was surrounded with rumors. The main reason was not the fact we are "oh-so-in-love" with contemporary art, but the personality of the center’s founder – the holy icon of all fashion magazines: 27-year old Dasha Zhukova - well-known as Roman Abramovich’ girlfriend.

We were all dying to come to the launch-party, but honestly it wasn’t to see the exhibition or share a table with the celebs, but to dance at the Amy Winehouse concert – a private show, which according to rumors here in Moscow costed $2 billions.

Now some time has passed and much of the buzz is forgotten, so isn’t it the right moment to come and finally see Dasha Zhukova’s art center - the first of its kind in Moscow - to find out if it really is worth all the hype?

The building itself impressed and amazed me. This former bus depot is a fine specimen of Soviet avant-garde (built in 1927) with all its red and white colors and sharp shapes. Inside you don’t feel like you are in a building that is nearly 100 years old but like in a newly-built house – and the space is huge, huge, huge! So big that I actually forgot about the art pieces and just gazed on the ceiling all in iron carcass and on the brick walls.

About the exhibition – they have promised to change it 4 times a year, though not as often if they only show one artist’s collection (as it goes now with Ilia and Emilia Kabakovu). I would like to come here more often especially now when they have opened a wonderful bookshop with great photo- and art-albums. In the future Garage will also organize lectures and film shows.

It would also be great if Garage’s web-site can be more informative and interactive – or maybe the costs of the Amy Winehouse show blew up their budget? I doubt it!

GARAGE; Obraztsova street, 19 A; Moscow

Mama Tao: Have Your Tea Served The Acrobatic Way

Masha Mozolevskaya — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 10:00:00 GMT

Every time my foreign friends come to visit Moscow, sooner or later they all get tired of the city’s trendy cafés and gourmet restaurants and end up asking for some Chinese food. For them this means going eating dressed in a pyjamas or kind of that stuff in one the billions of cheap and yummy Chinese restaurants you´ll find in just about every city across the world.

But for me it means we have to decide whether we want to dress up and mix up with local celebrities in one of the posh Asian restaurants like Turandot or Nedalnyi Vostok, or if we should go to the odd blocks in the suburbs of the city and eat at some of Chinese ‘greasy spoon’ at the Chinese part of the huge and multicultural Cherkizovsky market.

We really have some problems with finding cheap and delicious Chinese food here in Moscow – cause it just doesn’t exist! It is hard to believe but in this city of 10 million inhabitants we don’t even have a good Chinese take-away – everything I have tried was slops-like. The paradox is that in St. Petersburg there are myriads of tiny cafes owned by Chinese.

So when Mama Tao opened in Moscow I went there on the second day after the launch and had a wonton soup and sweet ‘n’ sour pork. Actually the food isn’t real Chinese at the place, its’ quite mild and not spicy, but the restaurant has some big hits such as the tom yam soup and a dessert called 'fried milk'.

To Moscow standards the food at Mama Tao is ok, but what I really love about the place is the interior – no red lights and no dragons, just simple and cozy.

However the greatest attraction of the restaurant is a boy who’s job is to pour hot water into your teapot. It is a little show that looks like a sword dance and it makes you forget all about your tea, soup and spring-rolls.

I Hope Mama Tao will grow into a huge chain so I can come in my pyjamas and enjoy this fascinating and dangerous tea-ceremony just around the corner from where I live whenever I want.

MAMA TAO, Pyatnitskaya Ulitsa, 56. Metro Dobryninskaya,

My Favourite Places To Wake Up

Masha Mozolevskaya — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:30:00 GMT

Every morning when I wake up I drag myself into the kitchen just to find out that there is not a drop of milk in fridge and that the sink is full of dirty cups. To me this is anything but a bad start of the day as the chaos in my kitchen gives me a great excuse to indulge myself in delicious coffee and pastry out in town before going to office. These are my favourite coffee spots in Moscow.

Artemy Lebedev’s shop&café

This small café that looks like a kitchen in a contryhouse is my latest obsession. The coffee here is great and there are plenty of varieties to choose between. The girls serving are really friendly and somehow they all look like librarians who would read Kafka and Baudelaire when they are not busy with preparing sandwiches and serving coffee. Until 2 p.m. they serve breakfast at Artemy Lebedev’s and I can highly recommend the fresh cottage cheese whipped with homemade apricot jam.

Artemy Lebedev is a famous web-designer here in Moscow, which might explain why there is a small shop downstairs with funny useless stuff that guys from IT-departments like to buy as birthday presents for their friends.

ARTEMY LEBEDEV'S SHOP&CAFÉ, B.Nikitskaya 35. Metro: Arbatskaya, Tverskaya

Coffeebean at Pokrovka

Photo: Funnyday

Location, location, location! This coffeeshop in a spacious pavilion is located at the Boulevar ring crossing Pokrovka street – the two best walking routes in Moscow in my opinion. In the summertime there is nothing better than to enjoy your café latte on the sunny terrace watching the trams, the bikes and the couples passing by. However it’s even more cozy at cold days when the pavilion’s ceiling-to-floor windows freeze at outside. People come here to play chess or cards at the huge common table or to work (Wi-Fi is free).

Coffeebean is a chain (the oldest coffee chain in Moscow) owned by an American and it is extremely popular among expats who come here for their Americano and for a piece of the cheesecake with fab strawberry topping. My choice is a cup of 'raf' and tuna toast.

COFFEEBEAN; Pokrovka 18/3. Metro Turgenevskaya, Chistye Prudu

Volkonsky bakery

This is the best bakery in Moscow. From early morning old ladies with grandchildren, the chauffeurs of oligarchs and expats are waiting in a huge line inside Volkonsky bakery for their croissants, baguettes and brioches to take away. The sweet smell of freshly baked bread awakes me better than a doze of coffee, but if it doesn’t work for you there is a tiny café too, where the hot liquid energizer is as good as cookies.

Guests can either sit at the huge common table or on the pillows along the window, while they enjoy their sandwiches (the one with salmon on black bread is fab!) or quishes. I try to convince everyone who I take to Volkonsky to try the brioche with blackcurrant and double sugar powder (available only in the bakery part). It is anything but diet food, but it will take you to heaven, believe me!

VOLKONSKY BAKERY; B.Sadovaya, 2/46. Metro Mayakovskaya

Go further: Read here where in Oslo you get pastry to die for.

Vernisazh: Weird Stuff For Foreigners And Locals

Masha Mozolevskaya — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:11:00 GMT

When I travel I always stick to one rule: the trip is incomplete if I haven’t visited a local flea-market. Therefore I fully understand tourists in Moscow who are looking for flea-markets to buy souvenirs or (pseudo) ancient and useless stuff. The problem is that here are none of those tiny and cozy flea-markets that are so common elsewhere in Europe.

The only place that I think could satisfy the tourists’ expectations is the Vernisazh in Izmailovo. The market quite far away from the city center (though only a 5 minutes walk away from the Partizanskaya metro) and to be honest I had never been there myself before.

However this weekend I went there for the first time and I found out that the market is a fantastic place to spend a Sunday even if you're not interested in matryoshka (wooden dolls with several smaller copies inside) or other Russian handicrafts.

Words will not help much so let the pictures tell the story:

The Vernisazh in Izmailovo is a huge territory near the Izmaylovsky Kremlin, which is a very strange construction that is anything but medieval and has a vodka museum inside. I was not too brave (or desperate?) to check it out. Next time maybe!

At Vernisazh you can find tons of traditional russian crafts.

Anything you want – from shawls...

to dolls...

and colorful coffee cups.

Things for sale can be rather absurd – like this huge wooden spoon...

or this typical matryoshka but in acid version. Cindyrella, Little Mermaid, Sponge Bob. Can you decide which one to choose? I can't.

I found lots of inspiration for how to decorate a New Year's tree, such as these wooden hand-painted eggs?

What I found was not only funny but also useful such as stalls selling traditional Uzbeck ceramics. The beautiful big plates (about $20) are great as wall decoration and the pots and pialas will be great for tea-ceremony. I actually have these ceramics at home.

What about carpets from Iran and Turkey. They are new but look pretty faded. Prices start from $200

I have always had a soft spot for Soviet porcelain statuettes.

What about fragile gypsies, pioneers or a bunch of asparagus which is actually a butter dish.

This plate with Lenin on is in perfect condition and it is expensive – about $300.

Retro–pins are cheap and pretty ugly

I chose this weird Mickey Mouse.

Despite the huge variety of items for sale the greatest attraction of Vernissage is people. How do you like this Venus in furs...

or this seller of antique statuettes?

Visitors are great too. Especially the tourists. This madame is my favourite. She definitely won’t get cold.

Soviet Fastfood With A View Of Canal Grande

Masha Mozolevskaya — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:37:00 GMT

There's no better time to travel than during a global financial meltdown. Price wars between airlines have led to plummeting ticket prices, and posh hotels are practically giving away their beds. Promotions on all kinds of products – ranging from hot chocolate to haute couture - make it possible for even unemployed bankers to get a taste of the good life. We asked our local bloggers to uncover the best deals, and to tell us about the simple and inexpensive pleasures that can always be found in their cities. With cheap tickets and insider advice, there's no reason why a shrinking economy should stop you from expanding your horizons.

Moscow

Sometimes good things come out of bad things. Take the financial crisis – they have in my opinion had a positive effect on parts of the restaurant-industry here in Moscow. Recently I was so happy to find out that an expensive but dull Italian restaurant has reincarnated into a cheap and yummy soviet-style café! Amen, there is justice in this world!

The new venue is called Sovetskaya Cheburechnaya and it serves 3 kinds of cheburek, one of the most popular Soviet-style fastfood. Cheburek is a pie made of thin paste, stuffed with minced juicy mutton with herbs or potato or cheese and then deep-fried

There is a special culture of eating at Cheburechnaya. It is self-service, so you have to wait in a line together with a rather diverse and flamboyant clientel consisting of drunk old men (cheburek goes great with vodka), students, homeless ladies, policemen sipping cheap beer…you never know who will turn up! Then you give your order to a bleak cheerless cashier (always a middle-aged lady!) and you better do it fast and clearly.

Finally you get your tray (take beer or vodka to look typical for the place) and you can find a free table (always stand-up!). Use only your hands to eat cheburek and if you are not full you can always order another two at the cashier. Don’t be surprised if another cheerless lady will clean your table while you are eating with a stinky wipe.

The funniest thing about Sovetskaya Cheburechnaya is that they haven't changed the interior of the former Italian restorant! The bathroom looks weird-glamorous, walls are decorated with Venetian lamps and on the main wall there is a drawing of Grand Canal with gondolas!

To make this even more absurd they have added a zeppelin with a USSR logo to the Venetian sky. Worth to see!

SOVETSKAYA CHEBURECHNAYA, Krasina str. 27/1. Metro Belorysskaya, Mayakovskaya or Krasnopresnenskaya

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Always look at the good side of strife

Getting happy at all hours - New York Stylee

How to go on holiday for less than 150 euro

Battling the financial meltdown: the Rudd response

Paris for recessionistas

Recession or not, New York is a bargain

Recession? Not for Istanbul's tourism industry

Food And Flower Markets That Make Me Blossom

Masha Mozolevskaya — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:37:00 GMT

I have a passion for food markets. It is not that I am the type of person who walks around the market for hours to touch and smell all the products in order to decide what to buy. Actually, I don’t usually go the markets to buy food. Rather, it’s because I think they are a perfect place to watch characters and overhearing funny dialogues. Personally, I think it’s more interesting – as well as positive – than visiting historical cemeteries, and much more entertaining than yawning in dusty museums. Because any food market is a slice of real life!

I’m lucky to live just around the corner from one of the best markets in Moscow which is called Dorgomilovsky rynok. It’s a giant pavilion with idyllic rows of stalls where sellers from all former parts of the former Soviet Union sell anything you can imagine. How many kilos of black caviar do you need? Looking for suckling pig to roast for your birthday party?

Just a 5-minute walk from this food market, near the Kiyevskaya metro station, there is a flower market, which is the biggest, craziest and cheapest in Moscow. The market is famous for its great selection of roses – so if you feel like killing your girlfriend with a scratchy monster of 101 bloody red 2-meter long roses (if you prefer Caucausian style of dating), this is definitely the place to purchase them.

For more sophisticated (and still very cheap!) flowers you should head for Rizhsky rynok. This is one of Moscow’s historical market places, and it is also housed in a huge pavillion with obvious signs of dilapidation. One row is occupied with wholesale flower sellers, and their huge and varied selection attracts smaller florists and those who are just looking for pack of tulips or sunflowers for a sweet price. The market is just the perfect hangout for me, as it is both a flower and food market. Here you’ll find all kinds of meats, colorful dried fruits, marinated vegetables, homemade sausages and last but not least, great characters. I bet you won’t leave with your hands empty!

Go further: If you unlike Masha like to explore cemeteries you should definitely check out Momondo's cemetery-serie Beyond the Grave.

Solyanka: For The Young And Not So Young Moscow Hipster

Masha Mozolevskaya — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:08:00 GMT

Photo: www.s-11.ru

If you stop any hip-looking person in downtown Moscow and ask about what’s the best club in town, I bet that he or she will send you to Solyanka. This venue, which occupies three floors in an old mansion, is indeed the most vibrant place in town on Fridays and Saturdays. It’s a hipster’s paradise and if you’re looking for the company of androgen girls/boys in skinny jeans and Rayban Wayfarer you have definitely come to the right place.

Photo: www.s-11.ru

The atmosphere is easy-going, parties are wild and the bright&young crowd is always very lively and amusing, just beware that you might feel old if you are over 25.

I used to be a regular at Solyanka’s night parties, but now I prefer to pop in for the lazy Sunday lunch (argh, I am getting old!).

I love to sit in the big retro armchair, drinking mint tea or enjoying a bowl of hot soup while looking around Solyanka, which looks like an apartment with its high ceilings, plants in the windows, faded wooden floors and carpets and retro-furniture, imagining what this place must have looked like when some wealthy family lived here ages ago.

The yellow glass windows imitate sunshine, a perfect therapy after two weeks of heavy rain here in Moscow.

In one of the rooms there is a small shop with a delicate selection of clothes and accessories, which is definitely worth a visit.

SOLYANKA; Solyanka Street, 11. Metro Kitay-gorod

The Sunday Market That Made My Life Much Easier

Masha Mozolevskaya — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:41:00 GMT

When I’m in the mood for shopping I avoid going to the huge malls here in Moscow with all the international brands and crowds of teenagers who make my blood pressure go up. After a short stay in a shopping mall I always need a boost of energy and even the strongest espresso is usually not enough.

Instead of huge shopping malls, I prefer to refresh my wardrobe in smaller shops with a small but delicate selection of brands. These shops are even more attractive to me is if they are situated within a walking distance from eachother and more important: if they have a sweet ‘SALE’ sign in them. Therefore the new shopping trend here in Moscow called Sunday Up Market, which combines all this in one, has made my life so much easier.

The Sunday Up Market is a once-in-a-month event gathering young designers who have just began their career, small companies who sell new and vintage clothes they’ve bought around the world, leather tailors and producers of various funny trash items that would work perfect as birthday presents.

The market is like a huge showroom where each seller has its own stall. Many people just come here to meet friends, but if you are looking for a new dress it’s definitely the place to go.

My favourite shops are AIR with cool japaneese brands (not cheap!) and Oh My Coat! where two girlfriends sell a nice mix of accessories and clothes designed by young European designers. Clutch-bags, t-shirts, belts and pants in basic colors – items that are absolutely necessary for everyday life!

The Sunday Up Market is a living creature- it grows and changes from month to month, so you never know what you will find the next time. And keep in mind that the market changes location too. Currently it is located on the territory of art-space Winzavod, but you better check the address on of the Sunday Up Market before you go.

WINZAVOD; 4th Syromyatnichesky sidestreet, house 1, bld.6. Metro Kurskaya
Винзавод; 4-й Сыромятнический переулок, дом 1, стр. 6. метро Курская

Believe The Hype: Vodka Is Back

Masha Mozolevskaya — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:50:00 GMT

Photo: Sugarcoma

Do you know what is the trendiest thing to drink in Moscow these days? Vodka! I can’t believe it, but vodka really is back. Not that it had ever disappeared, as it has always been an essential part of weddings, funerals and kitchen-parties where people during the long winter evenings gather around a big table to talk about the meaning of life (a very typical Russian topic) while drinking gallons of vodka.

Photo: Oskarlin

However what I have noticed is a totally different story – vodka has become a party-drink. Not as an ingredient in cocktails or energizers such ‘vodka-RedBull’ but in its pure form.

I was really surprised this weekend when I several times witnessed how groups of glamorous Moscow girls in backless silk dresses were ordering vodka in the bar. Three months ago they would have went for whiskey and cola or mojito, but not anymore. Now all they want is pure vodka served in a shot-glass with a piece of lime, basta!

Photo: Erin.kkr

I guess it’s the credit crunch, which have made the party animals here in Moscow return to their (vodka) roots. In many bars a mixed cocktail will cost you $15, while you for a maximum of $10 can get enough vodka to radically improve your footwork on the dance floor. So everybody seems more than happy about saying goodbye to the mojito and hello to the vodka.

Many of Moscow’s new bars such as Lilienthal have grasped the vodka-hype. Lilienthal is a tiny place with a huge bar where the walls are covered with retro-pictures of famous pilots and their machines. The bar is always packed with a young crowd, especially on Wednesdays when Rolling Stone magazine organizes parties where the editors are dj’ing playing everything from heavy-metal to the sweet tunes of MGMT or ABBA.

Not only is Lilienthal a great place to go and have fun and meet people, I also love the bar’s location in the cozy and quiet Rozhdestvenka Street, which looks like a piece of the old Moscow.

BAR LILIENTHAL; Rozhdestvenka Street 12. Metro Kuznetsky Most, Trubnaya.
Рождественка ул., д.12, метро Кузнецкий мост, Трубная

Eat And Chill At The Swan Lake

Masha Mozolevskaya — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:05:00 GMT

Photo: Ptitov

A popular expression here in Moscow goes: “Moscow has everything one can desire…except the sea!”. Nor do we have many shady parks, where one can escape from the heat on hot summer days, when this city of asphalt and concrete feels like a frying pan. The only green areas you can find in downtown Moscow are the narrow strips of dusty grass in the middle of the noisy boulevards and even here you should book a free spot in advance as every square meter normally is occupied by gothic teenagers drinking cheap beer or homeless guys working on their suntan.

Photo: Ariil Davidoff

Apart from the life on the boulevards, Moscow on hot weekends seems totally abandoned as every living creature has escaped to their dacha or to any muddy lake in the surrounding countryside. However there is one place in downtown Moscow where I seek refuge from the heat on those summer days when the outside temperatures reach body temperatures, and this place is called Lebedinoe Ozero.

Photo: Ariil Davidoff

This open-air café opened in the summer 2008 and has given new life to Gorky Park, which lost its appeal long ago and to a majority of Moscovites is less attractive than McDonald’s is to a left-wing vegan. The café is hidden in a far corner of the park on the banks of a small shallow pond with white swans (in Russian Lebedinoe Ozero means ‘Swan Lake’). Lebedinoe Ozero has two sections. There is a shady wooden balcony, which is furnished with tables and comfortable sofas that are perfect for chilling in while smoke a waterpipe in the early evening. However, my favourite part of the café is the sun deck with a swimming pool so tiny that one could confuse it with bathtub.

I love coming here early in the morning during the week when the café is nearly empty as everyone else is sweating in their offices. There is nothing better than to relax on one of the Thai cotton mattresses and daydreaming while licking the sun. To cool down I order lemonade with kaffir lime leaves and a big bowl of svekolnik, which is cold beetroot soup. And if I am really hungry I go for the chicken shashlyk, where the meat is so tender and light that I’m always tempted to order a double portion.

Evenings and nights at Lebedinoe Ozero are very buzy really lively, so it’s better to book a table in advance.

LEBEDINOE OZERO Krymsky Val, 9, bld 22 (Крымский Вал, 9, стр. 22). Metro Oktyabrskaya