New Year: How was yours?

It must have been around 3:30am Moscow time when I called a mobile number in Petrozavodsk. I wouldn’t recommend giving someone a buzz in the early hours just to say hello, but it was the New Year and if anyone was going to be awake, it would probably be the Russians.

With the extended alien call-tone beeping in my ear I was on the verge of hanging up. I pictured an abandoned mobile in an unfamiliar, darkened hall, blinking its silent alert as the owner shifted, asleep. Outside, lost in the city, parties still raged their colours against the darkness. The line cracked and a half-familiar voice broke the electronic pulse, in a tone reserved for strangers. My mind flagged a spontaneous popup in neon: ‘He doesn’t know this number’.

“Allo?” he asked, plainly.

Yes, Russians say “Allo”, in informal calls in the middle of the New Year night, presumably to people who have not just woken them. The word sat for a moment, almost tangible in its far-away darkness, with a tone friendly enough, though just enough.

“It’s Bernard, S novym godom! “

I introduced myself and familiarity lit the edges of his speech as he reciprocated. It transpired that I had not dragged him from sleep but dinner instead. Russian dinner at 3:30 am? Why not? Preceded by drinks and more food, no doubt: in a rolling pre-meal, meal. There would have been familiar films, TV shows and, of course, toasts; lots of toasts in shot glasses with the “good stuff” vodka, wisely spaced with snacks to avert mental and physical catastrophe.

Such things follow a respectful order and tradition. It is a big deal there with preparations often taking up most of the day in a effort to get things “right”. The celebrations pivot around a

live broadcast of Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower clock counting down to a full minute of chimes as the New Year breaks (and the champagne is opened). Before that, the expected message from the president, -n strange parallel to our queen’s speech, and aftwards: the Russian national anthem.

Their champagne, incidentally has an interesting twist, as Yulia reveals on The Foodie Miles page :

“It is a brand called Soviet Champagne that is produced in Russia. The history of this drink goes back to 1937 when government set a goal for Soviet winemakers to invent sparkling wine that would be affordable for working class people”.  Perhaps that financial caveat doesn’t apply to oligarchs, of course.

Their New Year is our Christmas day, to put it’s magnitude into perspective. By contrast, I’d sought to alleviate my sleep deficit, snacked, achieved a token level of work output and breezed back in after photographing midnight fireworks, just like Christmas.

Salads are a big thing during Russian celebrations; fashioned in copious bowls, at the slightest provocation, and doubling as hangover breakfast. They are potentially a vegetarian minefield however as “with ham/fish/other” seems a permissible suffix to any recipe’s title. Olivier salad is a prime example of a veg/meat combo, as is Shuba a salted herring/beet hybrid also called: “herring under fur coat”, but don’t let that put you off.

Expect cream, way too much mayonnaise, vinaigrette (aka: beetroot salad), open-faced sandwiches (“butterbrod”, yes: buttered-bread), pickles, varieties of pies (reminiscent of Cornish pasties), a main meat dish and perhaps something only a Russian can love: Kholodets/Studen.

Anyone for a gelatinous block of meaty boiled cow bone/pig’s head and rooster parts? Sign me up…or perhaps not. I can’t get past the description; though if you/they like it, then all the best to you. It can’t be any worse than our “something” in aspic, can it?

There are also various small appetizers, pelmeni (dumplings), caviar, fruit and traditionally: something ‘token’, relatively speaking, in the dessert department. Frankly, after the aforementioned spread, you’ll likely have reached critical mass before “pudding” anyway. It’s possible.

My call ended with a flurry of Russian New Years wishes. At least that’s what I think they were, fluent Russian is still too fast for me to fully comprehend at top speed. Similar to our canine companions, I have to be content with understanding tone at times. There’s a New Year’s resolution there somewhere.