April 14th 2015: Russian Dinner at Cafe St. Petersburg, Newton

Today after work, I had a meetup dinner to go to at Cafe St. Petersburg, a Russian restaurant in Newton.

Before that, I went to use my deal at Pronti Bistro, an Indian cafe in Needham.

I had to get a lot of food here, getting the Mango Lassi,

The Patriot Maharaja Pronti (beef),

the Lucknow Special Pronti (lamb),

The Spicy Potato Cauliflower Soup,

And the Jammu Jamun (Vanilla Ice Cream with Warm Gulab Jamun on top)

The drink was much creamier and less sweet than yesterday's, and in general, I was really happy with the crispiness of the prontis. We call them pratas back home. The lamb was a little hard to pull apart, but both prontis were pretty good, especially the beef one. The soup was a little spicy with not much other flavor though, and by the time I got to the dessert, I was already pretty full.

Overall, I have to say the food was pretty good and unique.

Next it was on to Newton for some Russian food. Pretty nice place in the basement, although the entrance is a little nondescript.

With respect to food, we ordered a lot of different stuff. My friends got things like the Boneless Duck Breast (Prepared in traditional spices, garnished in a sweet black currant brandy sauce and sliced apples),

the Siberian Pelmeni (Russian style meat ravioli, served with sour cream), which was pretty good and apparently very authentic,

and the Chicken Kiev (Chicken breast stuffed with herbs and butter, breaded and deep fried).

I got the Fish Zakuska For Two (Salmon Caviar, Norwegian Salmon, Russian Herring),

the Russian Solianka (At least 15 varieties of julienned meats, vegetables, capers and spices), an interesting sour soup,

the Meat Kholodetz (Julienned beef with a touch of garlic jellied in bouillon, served with red horseradish)

and the Blini with Salmon Caviar.

The fish plate was awesome, the although the herring had edible bones that annoyed me from time to time. The soup was delicious as well, especially with sour cream, as was the blini, which the waiter taught me how to pick it up and wrap it elegantly after spreading the caviar and the sour cream on it using a fork. The meat jelly was the most interesting dish, tasting pretty good too, and all my friends were intrigued by it.

Overall, a delicious meal, especially for the first time trying Russian food.