Back Again

Okay, time to get back to my trip to Russia. It is kind of hard for me to get motivated to blog about a trip after I get home. Oh, before I start, though, we had another family barbecue last Sunday and I smoked another big hunk of yak. Not sure what part, but it was a roast of some type. I just seasoned it with salt and pepper, a good standby for a type of meat you aren't familiar with. Then I slow smoked it until I got an internal temperature of 140 F, let it rest and sliced it up. It was a nice deep red color inside but with almost no fat. And the color was consistent throughout except for the thin smoke ring on the outside. It wasn't dry and it certainly wasn't over-cooked, but it wasn't very juicy, either. An interesting flavor. Kind of like a cross between grass-fed beef and venison. Or at least that is as close as I can come to describing it. No pictures, though. Sorry, didn't bring my camera.

Okay, as I mentioned, the day after the vodka tasting the last thing I wanted to do was to take a stroll around a little village. I probably shouldn't have chosen that night to drink the gift bottle of bubbly we got earlier in the trip, but of course that was what I did. After all the vodka it somehow seemed like a good idea.

Well, you get the idea, any stroll at all was more than I was interested in. But that was what was on our agenda today, a little stroll around an "authentic" old village on an island. But, luckily, right where the boat docked was a little bar. How convenient. And it had what I was interested in.

A Lifesaver


This little bar drew quite a crowd, mostly Russian. I think some of them were people who actually lived and/or worked on the island and there might have been a Russian tour group here as well.

A Nice Morning Crowd


It looked like a lot of the people who were drinking here had bought smoked fish somewhere and were snacking on it while they drank. The couple next to me offered me some of theirs, which I greatfully accepted.

Two Thumbs Up


These Guys Weren't Tourists


And after those guys left the birds descended to finish up the leftovers.

Flashback To The Birds


Well, I had a pleasant enough time of it and eventually the Mysterious Chinese Woman did return to tell me all about her sightseeing.

Together Again


I will share her pictures with you tomorrow, they are kind of cool. And by then I might be able to dig out our notes and remember the name of where we were.