Stroganoff Restaurant
http://stroganoffrestaurant.com/
418 Beach St
(between Jones St & Taylor St)
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 922-6663
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I couldn’t help but write about Stroganoff restaurant in San Francisco. It’s uniqueness is that it serves a combination of Thai and Russian dishes. A thought of mixing those two cuisines together made me curious, indeed. I have to say, the food is good quality and tastes great. You can find many Russian favorites at Stroganoff – blintzes with various fillings, meat dishes (including beef-stroganoff, of course), all your typical Russian salads such as olivie. If some day you are wondering about in the Marina neighborhood of San Francisco hungry, Stroganoff is certainly worth a stop.
If you are organizing a formal banquet or a wedding banquet then you will probably lay the table in the Russian style as it is considered the most formal.
The first thing to start with is the service plate. This should be placed directly in front of the dining chair. The rest of the plates should then be set at an equal distance around the table. Ideally this should be about 2 feet to allow plenty of elbow room. A soup bowl should then be placed on top of the service plate.
You are then ready to move onto the cutlery. To the left of the service plate moving outwards from the plate should be placed a salad fork, then a dinner fork and finally a fish fork. To the right of the service plate, again moving outwards from the service plate should be placed a dinner knife, fish knife and then a soup spoon. The blades of the knives should be pointing towards the service plate. Above the plate place a cake fork with the handle pointing towards the left and finally above the cake fork place a desert spoon with the handle pointing towards the right.
The bread plate should then be placed about the forks and a butter knife placed on it. The butter knife blade should be placed so that it is pointing towards the plate.
You are now ready to move onto the glasses. The three main glasses are a water glass, a white wine glass and a red wine glass. However on some occasions there may be a vodka toast as well in which case a vodka glass should also be laid. Start with the water glass which should be placed to the right of the desert spoon. It should be arranged so that it is above the dinner knife. To the right of this you should place the white wine glass and the right of this you should put the red wine glass. Napkins should be placed in the soup bowl.
One of the idiosyncrasies of the Russian style of table setting is that every place setting has their own salt and pepper shaker, so these should be placed above each setting. If you are using them, flower arrangements should be placed at intervals along the table.
Banquets and weddings are occasions when there are a large number of guests. This means a lot of crockery, cutlery and glass. The best way of acquiring these is to use a professional supplier of crockery such as Churchill Crockery. They have a large choice of ranges and you can easily buy the quantities you need.
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A friend of mine recently told me about European Deli Russian food store in San Ramon. It opened in December 2009 and has gained recognition and good reputation among Russian population of East bay area and beyond. European Deli is conveniently located close to freeway in a little shopping center. It has an impressive collection of kolbasas (sausages) and cheeses as well as a multitude of other Russian traditional goodies. Here is an exert from their website:
“Welcome to to San Ramon’s best kept secret – European Deli. We went across Russia, Eastern and Western Europe searching for the finest meats, cheeses, breads, dairy and deserts you can find. Our shelves are full of uniquly delicios exeptionally fresh foods that only Europeans enjoyed.”
European Deli
http://www.sanramondeli.com/
2211 San Ramon Valley Blvd # F
San Ramon, CA 94583-1231
(925) 820-2053
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A couple of friends of mine started a home business of pelmeni (Russian dumplings) production. You can now order pelmeni in bay area and they will deliver right to your door! How convenient is that??!!
Here is some info from their Facebook Group page (Radzivill’s Pelmeni):
“Our Dear dumpling’s fans,
We now offer homemade Russia style dumplings made from the scratch.
We use only the best quality ingredients from the trusted seller.
You can order freshly made pork, pork/beef or chicken dumplings for the following prices:
One pound – $6.50
Two pounds – $12.50
Three pounds or more – $6 per pound
To place an order or schedule pick up time please call at 925 895 5098 or send an email to aljonushkab@yahoo.com
(we are located in south San Jose)
Free delivery for orders of 25 pounds or more!
(bay area only).”
Update: Radzivill’s Pelmeni are no longer in business.
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Russia House Restaurant and Lounge in Washington DC has a great selection of vodkas. That, however, is not the only positive about it. Russia House features extensive menu of home-made like Russian traditional dishes. I would recommend trying Chicken Kiev and the Duck Salad – my personal favorites. Russia House gets busy on Thursday – Saturday nights, so if you are planning to go there – call ahead to make a reservation. I found it on OpenTable.com as well: http://www.opentable.com/russia-house
Russia House Restaurant and Lounge
www.russiahouselounge.com
1800 Connecticut Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC 20009-5704
(202) 234-9433
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I discovered this Russian souvenirs store by accident. A friend of mine asked me if I knew where she could fine Russian Matryoshka – a traditional Russian doll that consists of many dolls inside of each other. I did a quick search on Google and came across this store. Of course I had to check it out. Although it is not a Russian food store, I thought it would be worth while to add it to my blog since I get quite a few inquiries from you, dear reader, about where to find Russian collectibles and souvenirs. Not just I found a whole variety of Matryoshkas for sale conveniently available online, but quite a few other Russian collectibles. For instance, the wooden figurines of Ded Moroz (equivalent of Santa Claus) reminded me of childhood; amber jewelry peaces are also very typical Russian jewelry.
Liliana International store also has a physical address in Cupertino, but I have not been able to verify that yet.
Here is the website: http://www.lilianainternational.com/
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Update: this restaurant re-opened in Redwood City!
Russian Family offers catering as well as full seat-down service, deli and bakery. The menu and store hours can be found on their website: http://www.russianfamily.net.
Update: Took my American, Honduran, and Russian friends from work to Russian Family Bistro last Friday for dinner. It was quite an experience! The owner was very nice and did not try speaking Russian to us at all. Usually owners of Russian restaurants prefer Russian language even if the guests are English speaking. We had some rassolnik, solyanka, bliny, kotlety s grechkoi, gulyazh, pirozhki, and olivie. All of the dishes were very tasty. Olivie could have had a little less mayo for my taste though, but still good. Kindzmarauli and hvanchkara wines complemented our dinner very well. Still, the main reason for the success of that event was the company, of course.
Russian Family Restaurant
2086 Broadway St
Redwood City, CA 94063
(650) 369-2950
info@russianfamily.net
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I just could not resist writing about it. One of my favorite bands is Nautilius Pompilius. Their soloist – Vyacheslav Butusov – is coming to San Francisco in March (26th to be exact). Nautilius has been around for 25 years – the concert will be good – all the old good favorites will be remembered and performed to celebrate the anniversary and honor the band. A band called “U-Piter” will be performing alongside Butusov in Palace of Fine Arts at 7:30 pm on Friday, March 26th.
Here is the same info in Russian (also found on my Events page):
Пятница 26 Марта 2010
Palace of Fine Arts
San Francisco, CA
Вячеслав Бутусов и группа “Ю-Питер” представляют концертную программу “НауБУМ” посвященную 25-летию великой рок-группы “Наутилус Помпилиус”.
Преданные поклонники творчества легандарной группы смогут в этот день вспомнить прежние времена и порадоваться новому прочтению любимых хитов. Среди реанимированных песен будут “Шар цвета хаки”, “Титаник”, “Крылья”, “Я хочу быть с тобой” и многие другие хиты.
You can buy tickets at ZZgor.com . I don’t think they will last long, so you better hurry 
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I can’t help but write again about BZ Bee Russian food market in San Mateo. This is now my go-to shop to fulfill my Russian food cravings. I go to BZ Bee at least once a week these days. Every time I go find what I am looking for – fresh Russian bread, neatly cut Olivie salad, or whatever else I could possible want that day. BZ Bee is conveniently located on El Camino Real close to 92.
BZ Bee Market
2322 South El Camino Real
San Mateo, CA
94403-2214
(650) 627-9303
Open Weekdays 11am-8pm;
Sat 11am-7pm; Sun 11am-6pm
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I have previously wrote about Russian General Store in Houston. Thanks to your, my dear readers, recommendations in response to that post, I have decided to check out Golden Grain Russian Groceries and Deli in Houston, TX. I was pleasantly surprised by this store. Very good selection, fresh meats, produce, and baked products left me quite satisfied. I would highly recommend this store.
I found a few other reviews on B4-U-EAT as well: http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaurants/reviews/rsv4057.asp
Golden Grain
5406 Birdwood Road
Houston, TX 77096-2204
(832) 778-8255
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