Eating out Moscow : I Love Cake

I Love Cake is a small cafe where like its name offers a great selection of cakes, breakfast menu and variety of hot drinks.
It can definitely get very crowded during the weekends. So, it is best to go in a small group or opt for a reserve if you are going with a big group.

The prices for the cakes can be slightly pricey but the cakes are one of its kind and they are served in a generous portion. For breakfast menu, I find them to be quite okay. I do like the pancakes though, very delicious.
I will posting pictures of the food and not much of reviews since most of them are not mine. They are all decorated so beautifully, it is a shame not to share pictures of the foods.

Nutella latte

Pistachio latte

Toast with Ruccola, poached egg, salmon and tomatoes.
This is what I called. Definitely cannot go wrong with poached egg and salmon even so I feel like it is something that I could make, so it is not very special.
I am just being very nit picky. It is still a  hearty meal.

Blueberry pancake.
Oh my, this is delicious. This is my friend's but I got to taste a little. They are very generous with the blueberries. You could tell there's blueberries in the pancake batter. The blueberry yogurt sauce is awesome too.

Parfaits

Scrambled egg with prawns and Hollandaise sauce

Lots of cakes.
I love the pecan cake. I think it is called the "Superman" cake. 

Eating out Moscow : Grabli

Grabli is Russian stolovaya (cafeteria) style chain restaurant. What makes it different from most of the stolovaya style restaurants around is the interior design.
Different branches have different interior and all wonderfully beautiful.

The branch we visited is the Tsetnoy Boulevard branch.

A stolovaya style restaurant is like a buffet style, food has been pre-prepared and displayed at the counters, you go to the counter and choose what you want and you pay for what you pick.
There's a huge selection of food in Grabli, ranging from salads to main courses to soups, desserts, you name it. 

So amazingly decorated. 

It feels like a summer house with the flowers and fruits lamp post. 

Such a happy spring feeling despite it actually being -19 outside. 

Food price here is affordable. 

For 500 rubles you can pretty much fill up your stomach to the brim. If you decide to take a salad, a meat dish with garnishes, a pancake or side dish, a dessert,a slice of pastry and a drink, it will cost about 1000 rubles. 

Now, in the month of January, they are having an offer on 50% off their whole menu which makes the food even more affordable. 

We ordered a whole lot of food, you don't need to order as much as us. We ordered this much because we wanted to try out their food. 

We were practically too full after this meal. 

We ordered Herring under the furcoat salad (a traditional Russian salad with beets, potatoes, herrings and lots of mayonnaise), grilled soy sauce pork, grilled beef fried over egg, stewed cabbage, borshch, buckwheat. 

We head back for a second round because we wanted to try out more food despite already being full. 

This round we ordered, Russian style deep fried potatoes (what makes it different from the typical fries/chips, it is that it is soggy and soaked with oil) , bliny (Russian pancakes) with ham and cheese, Julienne, Medovik and Kompot

Julienne is Russian-French fusion dish. It is mushrooms baked in cream and cheese. 

Medovik is a Russian cake. It translates as honey cake. It is one of my favourite Russian cakes. Definitely will miss this cake after I leave Russia. 

Kompot is a Russian drink. It is obtained by boiling fruits. The one served here is cherry kompot. 

Overall, I really like this cafe. The ambiance is wonderful. It just makes wanna stay in the restaurant. 

Food is great too. There are hits and misses. I enjoyed the stewed cabbage, borshch and bliny a lot.  

Around Moscow : Hello Red Square

It has been awhile since I wandered around Red Square.
I do not frequent Red Square as much as I used to since I have found places in Moscow to visit.

Weather in Moscow was chilly and gloomy on that day.
Look at my sausage fingers, thanks to my comfy and thick gloves.

Krispy Kreme is located just a stone away from the square.
This time they had Valentines special doughnuts and I just need to get them because they are so cute and pretty.

I got the caramel and cherry fillings.
Had to take a photo of both doughnuts before they get ruin on the way home.

The caramel taste much better than the cherry but that is because I am a fan of caramel everything.
The shape of the cherry heart does not look as good as the caramel which is such a shame because pink is a much prettier heart colour.

Inside of GUM

The fountain is back!

The Gastronom no.1 Ice Cream is my all time favourite. It has been awhile since I had it.
With the inflation, the price still remains the same but they definitely downgraded the cone and the amount of ice cream.
This is the blueberry flavour.

They have a variety of flavours to choose from. The blueberry, creme brulee and melon are my favourites.

Eating out Moscow : Waffle Story

Waffle Story is a small cafe located in Arbat Street. Like its name, it specializes in waffles. In its menu, one can find a variety of waffles, crepes, soups and quiches.

Savoury waffle with bacon, cheese and egg and Quiche Lorraine

The savoury waffle was pretty nice and probably the best from what we have ordered. It's simple but everything with goes well together. Guess you can't make much of a mistake with bacon, cheese and egg together. However, the quiche is a little tad dry, the sides are so hard. This is not how I expected a quiche to turned out to be. So, it's very disappointing.

Cream of pumpkin soup

This soup was okay. I can't comment much on it since I only a sip from my friend's bowl.

Waffle with caramelized pear, chocolate and ice-cream

This waffle is lacking somnething. The waffle is too bland and the chocolate wasn't generous enough to cover up the blandness.

The service was pretty slow, they food took awhile to get prepared and there was only one staff running around doing the ordering and serving. Thank goodness there wasn't too many people, imagine the havoc. Poor waiter.
Overall, I will not return to this cafe despite its beautiful and cute ambiance. The food did not turned out great as I wanted it to be, it falls flat despite looking so good in photos. It was quite a disappointing visit to this cafe. 

Eating out Moscow : Mir Pizza

Mir Pizza is a chain pizza house located in Moscow.
They have a very wide selection of pizza. Price range wise, they are really affordable and on weekdays from 12pm till 3pm, they have a 50% off the whole menu.

The branch we visited was near the Smolenskaya metro station which is right behind the New Arbat Street.

The shop is really spacious with lots of tables and ample of sunlight shinning through its glass windows.

For three, we ordered two pizza.
One unagi pizza and one four season pizza.

This is the recommended pizza by my friends.
the pizza base is really thin. The unagi and unagi sauce is nicely spreaded across the pizza.
It is flavourful. It is worth a try.

The four season pizza that comes with four different flavours.

Overall, it is a not bad restaurant if you have a big accompany with you who needs a place to hang out. The food is average but with 50% on weekdays from 12pm till 3pm, it's a great deal. There's lots of savings there.

Around Moscow : Spring is here

This year Moscow held a spring event to welcome spring at the same time celebrating Orthodox Easter and they decorated the busy and popular streets in Central Moscow with spring decorations till the 9th of May.
I really like the decorations, it adds a very aesthetic touch and feel to the streets with all sorts of flower themed decorations and easter decorations. It brings up the mood. Makes me want to visit the city more often for a good photo session.

Handpainted easter egg infront of Manezhnaya Square.
I really like the painting of Kremlin on the egg.

Flower arch.
Very beautiful, looks like it came out from a wedding photoshoot set because of the mainly white theme. They used a mix of fake and real flowers to create this flower arch.

A very Easter theme setting infront of the famous Bolshoi Theater.
I am just guessing the main theme behind this setting is Jerusalem.

A sand sculpture.

This is my favourite decoration of all. A flower frame.
I give props to whoever who came up with this idea because, isn't it lovely.

This won't be the end of the Spring Festival photos, I will have more coming up. 

Around Moscow : Husky sleigh

During the heavy snow season, we went for the husky sleigh.

It is not easy to find a husky sleigh in Moscow city. Most of it are located in the Moscow outskirts. With much luck we found one near the city, it is located in Kuzminsky park south east of Moscow. 

On the way to Kuzminsky park. We stopped by outside the park to take some winter photos and also snow fights. 

Everywhere was covered in thick fluffy snow. It looks like a winter wonderland. 

The little cottage to keep ourselves warm during the husky sleigh. The host had also offered us hot drinks to warm ourselves up before the ride. 

There were 9 of us, so we had to group ourselves into 5 groups. It was allowed a maximum of 2 person per sleigh as long the total does not exceed 150kgs. 

So, if it is too cold before or after the ride. Hop into the cottage and keep yourself warm with the coal heater and hot tea. 

The notorious cat in the cottage. This cat is one fearless cat. 

One of my friend just enjoy annoying this cat to death. 

Here comes the fun part. 

I had the chance to sit on the sleigh and also run the sleigh. It was really fun, especially the running part, although I was so afraid I might miss a step and the sleigh goes off without me. 

Getting to know the huskies. They are all really friendly and tame, also really gorgeous creatures.

After the sleigh, we were allowed into the huskies' den to get to know and play around with the huskies. There were atleast 15 huskies. 

Heterochromia husky

I was really cold on that day, about -14 degree Celcius. My feet and fingers were frozen despite really the thickest gloves and socks I ever owned. 

Around Moscow : Snowboard

Snowboarding. We had this in our plan for quite some time but we never managed because of either busy schedule or the weather.

This time, we managed to find time to snowboard. 

We had done some research of places to snowboard in Moscow city and we found out a place that we can snowboard for free - KANT Sports center. All you need is just to have your own equipments. 

It is located at Nagornaya metro station. 

So, for the snowboard gears, waterproof pants, we rented it from a small shop located in Akademicheskaya. It is cheaper to rent it there rather than from the sports center itself. 

It was my first time snowboarding. 

It took me about an hour to learn how to control my snowboard. I fell many times even at the end of the day I was still tumbling down the slopes but I have learnt the basics of controlling the snowboard. 

The hardest part is actually standing up and climbing up the slopes.

We snowboarded for about 5 hours.
It was definitely tiring. We were all flat by that time. All we wanted is just to rest and have dinner.

Even so, we had a enjoyable time. 

Around Moscow : Skating VDNKH

VDNKH is where the main skating ring is located. The ring usually opens from November till mid March.
It is the biggest outdoor skating ring in Moscow. There's a lot to see while skating around the rink, there are decorations and food kiosk and also restaurants around the rink.
There are also places to take a sit if you are too tired.

We managed to visit the ring before it closes for good.
There are not many pictures since I am a beginner skater, it is hard for me to take pictures and balance at the same time.

To skate, it cost 550 rubles on weekends with 1000 rubles deposit.

The day we went, it rained the day prior.
So, the ice was not at its best condition. The ice at the entrance to the rink was alright but as we skate deeper into the rink, the ice is a little bumpy and there are some wet spots and even a pit!

I got stucked in a pit and a stranger had to pull me out from it.

Always make sure the skating boots are tight enough to have control of the boots.

This is what I have learned since my first skating experience. 

My shoe size is 36 for skating boots. That is one size smaller than my usual shoe size. 

I love to watch figure skating like A LOT but I can't skate to save my life. 

Lacing up my boots. Took me about 15 minutes to get them right.

Eating out Moscow : (Valentine's Special) Jon Joli

Valentine's day fell on the weekend, we decided to eat out and try something new. I have heard from friends that there's a good Georgian restaurant in Tretyakovskaya - Jon Joli.
We have not tried Georgian food so we thought it is a good choice to have some Georgian food.

I booked a table in the restaurant for lunch since it is quite hard to get a table in the restaurant. The restaurant is really famous among the Moscovites. During celebrations, it is even harder to get a table.

The interior of the restaurant is feels cozy with the wooden interior. It reminds me of a cottage house, it has that Russian dacha kind of feel to it.
To make it feel like Valentine's, they even added a touch of heart shaped balloons for Valentine's.  I find it really sweet.

Pkhali , this is a traditional Georgian cold appetizer made from chopped cabbage, beetroot, beans with a combination of walnuts, vinegar, onions and herbs.

I love this dish, it is very flavourful, the blend of herbs is so aromatic.

Move away! Khachapuri is the new pizza.
This is probably one of the best thing I have put into my mouth. The dough and the mixture of Suluguni and Imeratian cheese is just to die for. Both cheeses melt to an elastic and chewy finish  . The cheese, dough and half boiled egg just go so good together.

Chashushuli
Veal stew in tomato broth. This taste really good too, the meat isreally tender and the broth very flavourful.

Chanakhi
A traditional Georgian lamb stew with tomatoes, aubergine, potatoes, greens and garlic.

Veal Khinkali.
A traditional Georgian big dumplings.
They kind of remind me of the distant Chinese cousin xiao long bao. Upon puncturing the flour layer, the dumpling oozes out the veal broth. Very delicious dumpling.
They are pretty huge dumpling at 95g per dumpling. You could get full with like 3 of these.

Pelamushi.
It is a traditional Georgian dessert made of condensed, thick grape juice.

It does not taste bad, in fact it is pretty nice but I am not a fan of the texture. It taste a little weird for me.

Overall, I love this restaurant and I would really recommend this restaurant.
Every food ordered taste so good and delicious but the star has to be the Kachapuri.
Service is great too. The waitresses are very attentive to your needs and the serving time is very fast.

I will be going back to this restaurant for more Kachapuri.