St Petersburg

By Pete
25-29/06/2019
Sorry for the delay in transmission, but as the stage is reset for act 2, we have realised we never finished the final dramatic scene of act 1- St Petersburg!
St Petersburg, what can I say but... awesome. It’s a grand, self confident, port town.

The majestic mansions that line the canals reflect it’s status as a significant centre of commerce and trade.
The abundance of theatres, there is one almost every block, some grand like the Marinski and the Alexandrinsky others more contemporary, resonate its cultural heritage.
And then there’s the magnificent Hermitage and Petergof, the seats of royalty and power.
Despite this grandeur it is essentially still a port town, it is more relaxed, accessible and at more intimate scale than the overwhelming Moscow.

You do not have to scratch too deep, however, to discover bohemian layers.
During “white nights”*, while world renowned operas and ballets are being performed in the establishment theatres, busking bands draw crowds of locals to the main drag and the surrounding bars. Older canal side buildings have been converted to vibrant creative communities with studios galleries, bars and venues.

*White nights is two month festivities in St Petersburg coinciding with the summer solstice. It’s a great time of year as it never really gets dark so the local get out and enjoy the sunshine, long days and endless evenings. Every where you turn there are beer gardens or bars spilling onto the streets, busking bands and gatherings in parks. I got serious FOMO walking past watching them celebrating life ;-)

The food scene reflects its confident, relaxed vibe with a good selection of quality casual bars, cafes, restaurants pumping out delicious innovative locally influenced dishes. We could only sample a couple but our meals at Hamlet and Jacks, Tartar Bar, Birch and Smoke BBQ were fantastic - others such as harvest and Repa have similar reputations.

There are some places that are a must see sites of course the Hermitage being one. Wow! This is the one place in St Petersburg that just makes you feel small. It commanding presence in the palace square is quite humbling (pretty sure that is the intent). You can’t help but be in awe.
They say you can spend several days inside especially if you are an absolute art buff. The museum itself houses several exhibitions including fine art galleries from French, Russian, German and Dutch artists, historical antique collections from Rome and Egypt as well as a series of replica period interiors from the grandeur Russian periods.

Pete was mainly interested in the actual palace interiors and the replicas so we spent a good few hours wandering through the various halls admiring the grandiose interior design. You can see why the peasants revolted that’s for sure!!

Another must see is Petergof, the grand summer palace of Peter the Great. There are various sections in the palace, the Upper Garden, the Lower Garden and the Palace (museum).

Unfortunately the Palace museum was closed so we spent a few hours wandering the leafy oasis of the lower garden admiring it’s magnificent collection of fountains. I have not seen so many in the one place. Each one having a special theme. I visited SP a few years ago in winter and I was brought here, however at that stage it was all covered in snow. Whilst it was a beautiful sight, you could not go around the gardens. So it was such a pleasure to see these fountains in summer.

After a couple of people had recommended we should do a canal boat tour, we found one that had English commentary. This tour lasted 1.5 hours and I was amazed at how many canals SP had. It was a great way to see the city and get some insight into the various buildings.

The boat tour finished just outside the Faberge museum. This is the restored Shuvalovsky Palace and is magnificent. It houses the worlds largest collection of Feberge eggs and a collection of household wares of the Royal family and aristocracy.

The other aspect of St Petersburg that just blew us away was the incredible foodie scene. We were fortunate to have some good (well informed) foodie friends in Bangkok that gave us the tips of must visit places. We almost conquered them... we will just have to come back!

One of the first places we ticked off was Smoke BBQ. We were hanging for some good smoked bbq food and it didn’t disappoint. They served your usual bbq fare of ribs, brisket etc but they upped it with their starters and the presentation and taste was up there with any degustation restaurant. We had a delicious dish of smoked beetroot, beetroot purée and a sour cream foam.

Hamlet & Jacks is a modern, casual restaurant that has a degustation menu (tasting plate menu) called “10,000kms”.focussed on all local ingredients from along the trans-Siberian. Quite fitting we thought! The meal was accompanied by a Russian wine pairing, it was an exceptional menu. Some of the dishes being marbled beef tartare with mushroom broth, goat cheese and cow berries or a cornmeal porridge with smoked wolffish, crab bisque and porcini mushrooms.

Birch was another on our hit list. Unfortunately by now, we just could not fit in another tasting plate menu. Shame as it looked amazing. We were seated at the bar in the open kitchen and it was a hard decision but we opted to share Kamchatka crab and zucchini, red caviar and tomatoes and marbled beef tataki, pickled beetroot, truffle pesto and ponzu. Followed for mains of veal, morels and caramelised onions (this was to die for!) and veal cheeks, mashed potatoes and pickled vegetables. Absolutely sensational.

We found a quirky bar to have some after dinner drinks. Run by 2 young locals and only sitting about 10 people. There were several people sitting around the bar and they encouraged to come in and sit down. It was a fun night laughing and chatting and people buying us drinks!

Tartar Bar was booked for lunch for our last day (the only time left). I just love tartar so I was looking forward to this. Again, it was a casual setting, modern and funky design. The highlight dishes, obviously, were their contemporary riffs on tartar. Again another hard decision on the menu but we shared a venison tartar and an in-house special of beef with Parmesan for starters, then for main another hard decision but we shared venison fillet with couscous & carrot cream and grilled monkfish with fried spinach and tomato salsa.

St Petersburg is an incredible city. One on the top of our list. It was a great way to finish our Russian expedition. You could easily do the sites of its tourist attractions in a couple of days but to really experience St Petersburg you need to immerse your self in it, especially during white nights. We will definitely be back for some more immersions therapy.

Boarding the overnight ferry to Helsinki drew the curtains on ‘Act one’ of our adventure -Asia.
Act two awaits!!