CULTURE

The Other Russia

The Other Side // Bolshaya Konyushennaya Ulitsa, www.theotherside.ru, Tel: 312 9554 // Set menu without drinks: 1,500 rubles ($50) // Reservations only. Call Douglas Pullar on +7 921 960 2691 or email: othersidebar@mail.ru

By Matthew Brown

The St. Petersburg Times

“I see an era in which stale cafeteria food being served on golden glittering plates at high prices is gradually coming to an end.” So says U.S. chef and author Greg Easter, surveying the state of the dining scene in St. Petersburg. “Ornate decorations are always appreciated, but you can’t eat fleurs-de-lys.”

Easter is behind a new, once-a-week dining night at the popular downtown gastro bar The Other Side that aims to combine cuisines from around the world with Russian cooking traditions in a new style he calls Nouveau Russe. Every Tuesday, up to 16 diners who have booked in advance are treated to five innovative courses devised and prepared by Easter in what promises to be one of the most intriguing culinary adventures in St. Petersburg in 2010.

“There is a growing interest in exploring new flavors and the cuisines of other nations [in St. Petersburg],” says. Easter. “There are many fusion restaurants now, but one thing that has not been done well is the fusion of Russian food with the ingredients and styles of other countries.”

A recent Nouveau Russe menu illustrated Easter’s innovative approach, combining such ingredients as shrimp and salo (pork fat), cabbage and smetana (sour cream), forest mushrooms and foie gras, and blini made to a traditional potato-flour recipe but served with sweet toppings of berries and chocolate.

Based on the dishes that Easter created from this diverse list, he is living up to the lofty aims of his project.

A triumphant first course comprised large freshly cooked shrimps, wrapped in a fine slice of salo to give them the subtle taste of bacon, and placed on rounds of grilled black bread. Accompanied by a powerful chili confit and a dreamy white bean puree, the juices really began flowing in anticipation of the following courses.

A cabbage and smetana pizza that followed was more bland but no less satisfying, while a pasta dish after that proved the highlight of the evening. Blending wheaty pasta with meaty chanterelles, nutty roast chicken livers and a creamy foie gras sauce, the dish was redolent of a walk through a Russian forest in autumn after the rain.

The fourth course of pork and onion meatballs in a strong tomato sauce was also a great success with top notes of anchovy, fennel seeds and black pepper.

After more than an hour of gorging on such hearty and stimulating fare — each course comes with a suggested wine choice priced at 200 rubles ($6.70) a glass — a relaxed conviviality among the members of the dining group is guaranteed. As a setting for the culinary journey, The Other Side provides just the right atmosphere of informal friendliness and bonhomie. One drawback, however, is that the bar’s subdued lighting makes it difficult to appreciate the thoughtful and artistic presentation of the dishes.

The victory lap — berries and chocolate blini dessert — was served with a pitch-perfect iced lingonberry cocktail to round off a hugely enjoyable evening. Easter certainly knows how to make a good cocktail — the chef is a master mixologist and the author of “Cocktails of the South Pacific and Beyond” (2009).

Easter, who hails from San Francisco and whose 25-year career as a chef has seen him specialize in French, Italian, Chinese and other world cuisines, has also written on the sociology and history of food, and plans to produce a book based on the Nouveau Russe project.

Running for approximately 25 weeks, the regular Tuesday night event means that Easter will have accumulated more than 100 new recipes based on his Nouveau Russe idea.

As for the national cuisines that he is planning to marry with Russian traditions, Easter says he is now looking as far as the South Seas for a Polynesian-Russian feast unlike any other seen in St. Petersburg.

Eventually, Easter hopes to open his own restaurant in the city based on his unique approach. “It would be a tragedy if the future here was just gummy pizza, bargain sushi and fast-food franchises,” he says.

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