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Seafood tempts the palate of Muscovites

Seafood tempts the palate of Muscovites

From Murmansk to Black Sea A fish festival has taken over the main public spaces of the Russian capital to tempt the palates of Muscovites with the best seafood.

“Half my kingdom for a good plate of seafood.””jokes Vasili, a 46-year-old manager who enjoys a portion of Kamchatka crab a few meters from the Kremlin and who, like many Russians, came to this already traditional event to taste the most exquisite seafood.

“A wide range of fish and seafood from all over the world is presented in the picturesque festival spaces. Russia and neighboring countries: more than 600 products”, reported the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, when presenting the eighth edition of the ‘Moscow on the wave’ festival. Fish Week’, which will run until next Sunday.

As part of the event, which started on May 24, the authorities have opened more than 140 markets and fairs dedicated to the sale of fish and seafood from the vast Russian maritime geography, from Murmansk to the Black Sea.

In addition, hundreds of restaurants and cafes have included various dishes with fish and seafood in their menus to satisfy the most demanding tastes and to promote their consumption among Russians.

“Sea cucumber and blue crab come from the Far East, mackerel and scallop from the Kuril Islands. Cod and mussels are from Murmansk, sturgeon and sea bream are from Astrakhan. “Omul and muskun from the Lena River, oysters and sprat from the Black Sea,” the mayor listed.

The capital authorities, who promote a whole series of summer festivals called ‘Moscow Seasons’, accompany this event with colorful fishing and paddle surfing competitions on the Moscow River.

In addition, five hundred culinary and painting workshops, jazz concerts and, above all, a wide variety of fish for all tastes have been organized.

In Maneznaya Square, next to the Kremlin wall, a 200-gram serving of spider crab costs just under a thousand rubles (about nine dollars), a relatively low price, although still high for ordinary Russians, whose basic basket It includes much more affordable products such as chicken and pork.

Moscow authorities have tried for decades to promote the consumption of seafood among the population; even in the Soviet Union, cafeterias and restaurants instituted Thursdays as ‘fish day’ for this purpose.

And the location of Moscow, hundreds of kilometers from the nearest sea, the limitations on access to fresh seafood and the prices, not always democratic, impose more continental culinary customs, which the festival seeks to reverse.

“We offer fair prices,” reads a tablet on one of the platforms at the open fair at the VDNJ, the main exhibition venue in Russia, while one of the sellers offers three herrings in brine “for the price of two.”

Meanwhile, a few steps from the stage, a girl cannot contain her astonishment and taps with her index finger a fish tank with several long-legged spider crabs, slow and indifferent to her curiosity.

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Source: Gestion