Having arrived in Moscow early evening on Thursday, September 2, I camped out at my son’s family’s apartment until Sunday September 5, when I signed a lease agreement to rent a very large (at least by Moscow standards) apartment for three months. It has a large eat-in kitchen that can easily sit 4 or 5, a comfortably sized but kind of long and narrow living room, with a desk, and a large bedroom, complete with a small glassed-in porch (whose most useful quality is probably as a place to hang laundry to dry, as the apartment has a washing machine but no dryer. It is pretty well appointed, with a dishwasher, microwave, electric range and oven, and the aforesaid clothes washing machine. It also comes with (thin, hard) towels and more reasonable sheets, although the quilt seems to be made for a single bed, while I am sleeping in what feels like a queen. The building was built in the 1960’s and seems very solid (see picture of tall red brick building).
After signing the paperwork, the agent (on my insistence, as he seemed hell bent to vacate the premises in a hurry), went and paid for the internet and TV service, which had been turned off, since no one had been paying for it. We then had to wait for it to come on line, but, as my readers can tell, it now works. I can’t say the same for the TV, however.
So I have been gradually buying the things I need, from basic food and spices, to washcloths. There is one high-end supermarket nearby, which is useful for finding some better brands and also has an assortment of home items, from pots to containers. Boy do I wish for some of the conveniences of home. As best as I can tell, plastic containers are only available as expensive items, about $3 and up each. Although they are actually very nice and probably last a long time, I won’t be here that long! And the plastic film and what passes for aluminum wrap are also thin and fairly useless. The plastic film neither tears nor cuts where you want it to, and everything sticks to the aluminum wrap if you cook on it (even if you grease it first). On top of that, all the paper towel is so thin, that if you dry a washed piece of meat, you then have to wash off the paper towel that anneals to it like glue!
Anyway, once the real estate/apartment agent left me with the landlady on Sunday, she showed me around a little. She showed me 
the fancy grocery store and then showed me the “Produktiy,” which is the old fashioned grocery. What is amazing here, is how many things are actually opened 24/7, including this little store.
View from my kitchen window at dusk
Anyway, today (Rosh Hashanah), when I noticed it approaching dusk (see view out of my window at dusk), I figured I needed to buy something to cook for dinner. So I decided I had had enough of the high end store (whose fruit, I had discovered, was expensive but really lousy) and would go to the Produktiy.
It’s about the same size or smaller than our typical quick stop place, but it has a general inventory rather than just fast food and snacks. (See the picture of the store with the happy face.) What is odd, though, is how it is organized. First, very little as available for you to grab on your own. Second, each counter (e.g. cheese, meat, produce) seems to belong to someone else, with their own cash register, as if each was a stall in a market (which I think basically they area). Plus the inventory does have a somewhat random quality about it. The meat counter seemed fairly well stocked, but I don’t understand how each chicken thigh can have a spine attached to it! What happened to the ones without the extra bone? The produce counter’s stock of things green was limited to one head of leaf lettuce (which looked pretty nice, actually) and some green cabbage (which is more white than green). Anyway, I finally left after paying three times: once at the meat counter for two chicken thighs, with spines; once at the produce counter for a cauliflower, and two plums; and once for the small bottle of Fanta (at a different cash register) I decided to treat myself to on the way out.
I have to admit it, though: Dinner was a success when I got around to eating it. I baked the chicken swathed in some leftover plain yogurt mixed with Indian spices I had gotten in a little store near Anya and Sam the other day. I steamed the cauliflower. And I made dal with yellow lentils, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and those Indian spices again. Oh yes, I had some buckwheat kasha left over from the other day, and that was my starch. A dinner fit for a queen (or a holiday)! The plums are yet to come.
MD on the road 