5.283 Kyurza

Cycle 5 – Item 283

15 (Wed) October 2014

Kyurza

1.5

at Bapashka

-Central Administrative, Moscow, Russia-

solo

Mission to Russia (Day 5)

In Moscow.  Here to provide technical/legal support to Member States from the Western Pacific at the 6th Conference of the Parties (COP6) of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).  Very exciting, both as the biggest tobacco control event of the year, and my first mission outside our region.

Located across the street from World Trade Center, next door to Shinok.

Bapashka is a Russian restaurant.  Menu offers a good selection of the mainstream classics.

Azerbaijan is another country in the USSR culinary bloc mentioned yesterday.  But being on the southern end, bordering both Turkey and Iran, its cuisine would presumably reflect the Muslim (Middle-East/Persia/Arabic/Levantine) culinary bloc’s influence, such as heavier use of spices, lots of lamb.

Zipfer: thought it was Russian, but turns out to be Austrian.

The food was pretty good overall.  It was a well-rounded meal.

Homemade Ragout with Vegetables Backed on Coals (3.5): maybe “ragout” means something different in Russia, but this was more of a salsa/ratatouille with grilled tomatoes and such; in any case, quite nice.

Kyurza is an Azerbaijani dumpling.  Consists of minced meat, most commonly lamb but could be anything, along with a few simple aromatics, spices, and seasonings, wrapped in a thin flour skin, boiled or steamed, served dry or in broth, probably topped with sour cream, maybe scallions/parsley/dill/cilantro for garnish.  Essentially the same thing as Russian pelmeni, the differences detectable only by locals (in the same way that Korean/Chinese/Japanese dumplings may seem identical to those who are not Korean/Chinese/Japanese).

Described on the menu in English as “juicy Azerbaijani meat dumplings,” I found the lamb filling in the kyurza to be a tad too gamy.  The least satisfying item of the spread.  But I’m featuring the dish on this post just to register another country to the ever-growing Origin list: 3 new countries on this trip thus far (also Ukrainian, Qatari)!

Stroganoff Meat with Porchini Mushrooms (2.5): too salty in itself, but okay when mixed with the mash.

(See also BOOZE)

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN RUSSIA)

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