So, yeah. I work with some people from the former Soviet Union. What's funny to me is that when I walked in the The Fiddler, I saw a guy who looks just like one of the guys at work except for the fact that this guy behind the bar looked like a fat version of my co-worker. I actually texted a friend from work, "I'm at The Fiddler eating Russian food. The guy behind the bar looks like a fat [name omitted to protect the innocent]!"
My friend responded, "Too funny!" There was something about seeing my co-worker's look-alike that was comforting. It made a heck of a lot of sense.
Now, I have been to The Fiddler before. I enjoyed it then. I enjoyed it again last night. I started off with some borscht. Now, I'm not the most experienced guy when it comes to eating Russian food, but I really liked the borscht served here at The Fiddler. It was every bit the comforting soup that I needed at that point--just the thing to steel yourself against the cold. I suppose that makes sense. I mean, it sure looks like it gets cold in Mother Russia. I think I might have overdone the sour cream in my soup, because I had nothing left for my red caviar and blinis.
I opted for the 6-blini version rather than the 12-blini version of the red caviar and blinis. I'm a pretty big fan of roe, but unfortunately, I know that I've not had the really good stuff yet. I think I'm going to have to hit that on a trip I hope to take to St. Petersburg sometime. Anyway, I enjoyed it immensely. One can only imagine what will happen when I have the good stuff.
I ordered the lamb chops. I opted for three instead of five, because I ate a boatload of food for lunch. These lamb chops were decently tasty. I can't say they were particularly great, however. They were a bit dry and overdone. I've had better. If I recall them correctly, I think I prefer the lamb chops at Allegro, but it's been a while.
I bookended the meal with shots of Stolichnaya, a very old friend with whom I haven't hung for a very long time. It was good to see my old friend. He brought some buddies along, a piece of rye bread and some little pickles. Those were the perfect compliment to the Stoli. I followed the whole ritual of smelling the bread, a "na zdorovye," doing the shot, smelling the bread, etc. just for the fun of it. You know, it really works. It makes the vodka better, I think. The bread and the pickles really are complimentary to the vodka. I even said that I can't really imagine doing another vodka shot without them. It's just too good to do it with them. read more