The blue market

We have now been in the USA for a few months now (yippee!!) but I promised myself I'd do a couple more grocery store posts and I really do want to showcase the different types of stores, since it's pretty interesting. Needless to say, these days when I go shopping at the local Publix supermarket, I really, really, really (how many really's can I include to show how much I mean it!) appreciate all of the beautiful, plentiful, fresh foods they sell. Anyway, on to what Scott and I called the "blue market," because of its blue sign. 

This market was across the street from our apartment building, on the same side of Tverskaya, and quite easy to get to. From the outside (wish I'd taken a photo of the outside, oh well), it looked teeny-tiny, but it was surprisingly large once you got inside. Lots of little rooms with shelves of food that were tough to navigate if you had a stroller. We used this market as our source for Diet Pepsi when our usual, big supermarket ran out, which probably happened once/month. You'd think the bigger market would have no supply issues, but for whatever reason, that was not the case, and this little market almost always had our diet soda. We also went to this market if we ran out of a non-perishable staple, like pasta or rice. This was not, however, our "go-to" for last-minute meat or fresh fruit/vegetables. Another post about that market to come.

Front and center for the beer. You had to walk past this to get inside to the rest of the food.

Milk aisle. This market didn't sell any refrigerated milk at all; everything was in a box and shelf-stable.

View into the 2nd room, which contained cookies and cakes. To the left is refrigerated for yogurt, sour cream, cheese and kefir. To the right is the non-refrigerated, boxed milk (see above).

Mysterious fridge containing all kinds of salted and cured fish in small packages.

Bread selection, none of which tasted very good. Nor did they last longer than a day or two (no preservatives? I guess that's good, but...)

"Fresh food" section. Literally this is all they carried, which is essentially the ingredients for people who want to make borsch (potatoes, carrots, beets, onions). Those iceberg lettuce heads were a surprise - usually this market didn't have any lettuce or other salad-type ingredients. 

jams, canned veggies/fruits and oil. 

Cereals and pastas. Below was a freezer case with some frozen meals in boxes that I could never figure out.

New Metro Observations

Went to Metro again and because I'm getting to be slightly more comfortable shopping there, I noticed a few new things!

1) Sooo much sour cream! This is actually next to the infamous wall of mayonnaise and it's a wall of sour cream!

2) Tons of unidentifiable fresh fish. Just sitting out, for anyone to help themselves:

3) Whatever the orange stuff is that's in the back and to the right, it's not cheap (~$55/kg!):

4) Some long slimy looking things. Maybe some big eel? They're all from Russia is really all I can read on the little signs:

5) Live sharks, crayfish, and others, all in large tanks:

6) There's also a ton of different types of SALMON:

7) And we must not forget the caviar. The pricey stuff is in the locked fridge 

-within-the-fridge on the far right:

Just all stuff I hadn't really noticed before - probably because I don't use a lot of sour cream nor do I feel comfortable buying fish here. :) I must remember to take some photos of my "usual" grocery store for comparison.

A Wall of Mayonnaise

Finally did some shopping at Metro Cash & Carry. Quite an experience. Metro (pronounced "may-trah" by the Russians) is Moscow's version of Costco and Walmart all rolled into one. You need a membership card, it's in a giant warehouse out near the Ikea and a lot of their products are sold in bulk, but then again some are sold individually, which is why it's kind of a combo of those 2 stores. As I have mentioned in the past, grocery shopping in Moscow stresses me out. At Metro however, I actually wasn't stressed out; instead, I was just exhausted. The store is so big, it's a workout just walking from section to section!

The other interesting aspect of shopping at Metro is that the Russians go crazy there, loading up multiple carts with everything but the kitchen sink and then maybe even buying a kitchen sink (since they sell appliances there too)! The amount of consumption occurring at these stores is astounding.

I took some highlight photos. What I didn't manage to capture was someone at the checkout with 2 hugely overloaded carts, because it just would have been too awkward and too "Americanski" of me to whip out my phone to take a photo. As it is, I got some funny looks taking these.

Xmas decorations on steroids

more holiday decor

speaking of steroids....here's the fireworks...new year's is a BIG DEAL in Russia (bigger than xmas really). of course they have a security guy watching the explosives.

One thing that's different from the States, people just leave their carts at the end of the row and walk down the aisle to get what they want. So there appear to be stranded carts everywhere, when really it's just their shopping norm.

Gouda cheese. 965 rubles, which is approximately $30. Holy crap this cheese is made of gold!

The Wall of Mayo! Seriously, 2 out of the 3 sections on this wall were dedicated solely to MAYONNAISE.

Meat locker, aka freezing room stocked full of meat, meat and more meat.

the ubiquitous RECEIPT STAMPING to make the purchases official. you can't see here, but the receipts are printed in triplicate on dot-matrix style printers.

Here's my receipt -- I wasn't kidding about the dot-matrix printing. Note the official STAMP at the bottom. And then, just to be safe, we have the normal receipt too, stapled on top. I didn't even buy that much stuff!

PS Oh and here was my treat for myself for successfully navigating Metro alone: chocolate dipped heart and star-shaped pretzels! Just kidding, not really pretzels. They turned out to be gingerbread cookies dipped in chocolate, SHAPED like hearts, stars AND pretzels. Oh well.

Where Matryoshka Dolls (aka Nesting Dolls) Are Born

This weekend I went shopping for souvenirs at Izmailovo Market, a GINORMOUS craft market on the outskirts of Moscow where you can get tons of great Russian-made creations, the most popular of which (in my mind at least) is the Matryoshka Doll. This is a set of 3, 5, 7, 10 or 20 hand-made wooden dolls, one nested inside the other, getting smaller and smaller.

Overall the outing was extremely successful: the weather cooperated and I think I even managed to negotiate (in English and Russian) a couple of good deals (I think...). Win-win for me!

Typical Matryoshka Doll display at Izmailovo. There are probably 100+ vendors selling these cute little dolls.

My taxi driver: business in front, party in the back, baby!

Lacquer boxes - aside from the nesting dolls, this is another classic Russian souvenir.

A man selling fur hats.

Used Soviet "treasures" for sale.

Iconographic paintings.

Two Russian vendors doing business.

Snack cart for the vendors (since the market's location is somewhat isolated): Vodka, Whisky, cookies and hot tea / coffee. "These are a few of the Russians' favorite things!"

The Dry Cleaning Babushkas

Dry cleaning in Moscow. 

Ah yes, this deserves a sub-heading of its own. It is one of my favorite crazy-making activities in Moscow. I think it is basically a few decades(?) behind the U.S. and it is a Big Deal to get something dry cleaned here. What makes me crazy (and why it's a Big Deal) is two-fold:

BIG DEAL REASON #1

The system is very, very inefficient so it takes a long time. Like 30 minutes, maybe even more, to drop something off. And an additional 10-15 to pick something up. Seriously.

The place we go uses computers to keep track of everything that you bring in, but they ALSO create a hard copy receipt for every item in each order. And what goes on this receipt? Oh, these receipts contain state secrets!

The dry cleaning babushkas (as Scott calls them - these are the middle-aged/older ladies who work at the counter of the place we go) actually go through and look at each item in extreme detail. They count the buttons on the shirts and write down detailed descriptions of the color, cut, and style. Further, they will make a note of the color of the lining inside the waistband of a pair of men's trousers, the type of waist closure that it has (hook or button) and whether or not it has cuffs. I'm sure there's some kind of note about pleating too. All written by hand AND all re-typed into the computer. FOR EVERY ITEM THAT YOU DROP OFF!

Here are 2 examples of receipts that have not been signed yet. Very important!!

Pickup is no more efficient. You MUST have your receipts in order to collect your stuff, and if you don't, it is a HUGE catastrophe for the babushkas. Scott and I have gotten lots of dirty looks for showing up empty handed! Without original receipts, you need to present your passport to PROVE that yes, the clothes are really yours.

Then once you've proven you really are not a closeted clothing thief, the babushkas count the pieces and you put your initials on each and every hard copy receipt (keep in mind, there's a whole page of information that was documented for each piece of clothing). Then each initialed receipt gets an official stamp. Oh, the Russians love their stamps! This is very important stuff we're tracking here...

BIG DEAL REASON #2

It's very expensive. So not only does it take a ridiculous amount of time to drop off and pick up, it costs twice as much. One would hope that by paying so much more money, EITHER the quality of cleaning would be leaps and bounds better than in the US, OR the speed at which it's all processed is miraculous. But.....it's neither of these. I mean, how do you dry clean something better than someone else?? And we already know that the price paid is not for efficiency.

Here are the ladies, hard at work doing their best to keep the city of Moscow's pants and shirts in order and with their proper owners.

The infamous computer with duplicate info. This lady is actually stapling the hard copy receipts right now and not paying any attention to the machine in front of her.

The one saving grace of this highly inefficient system is that our babushkas happen to be located inside a nice grocery store. So what we do (Scott invented this technique for us, thankfully) is drop off the clothes and then head into the grocery store to do some shopping while the ladies do their paperwork. Even then, sometimes the receipts are not ready (since you have to sign and they need to be stamped). And of course if you're picking some things up, you still need to wait and sign all of those receipts. BUT, at least you get some groceries out of the deal while you're there.

So this is why it's crazy-making and a Big Deal.

Saran Wrap take two

As mentioned in my previous post, I was on a plastic wrap mission. The best part is that I don't even really have all that much that needs to be wrapped...I just feel like a functional kitchen needs to have it, like salt and pepper or paper napkins.

I asked around and the consensus was that Russia's version of plastic wrap isn't very good but if I must buy it here (most women suggested bringing it back with me from the US) that the big department store Stockmann's would have it.

Sure enough, I went to the aisle with all the paper supplies etc and carefully, very carefully studied all the packaging again.

And wouldn't you know it, they had that darn cellophane (yellow box) mixed in with everything else again! I just don't get it. Put that stuff with the gift wrap, will you?!?

Anyway, once again after looking a while, I found one whose box had a little medal cutting edge with teeth and figured this HAD to be what I wanted.

And.....BINGO! I got it!

Got it right this time!!

Such a small victory, but very satisfying. :)