I just got back from Moscow. What a week.
Last Friday we were all still waiting for our visas and passports . I received my visa at 6:45 in the morning on Friday my flight was at noon. We all flew into DC from our various cities and were scheduled to fly out of DC at 5 pm and land in Moscow at 10 am ( Russia time) . Moscow is 9 hours ahead of Central time. Jet lag going over is so much harder then returning. That particular night we were picked up by the Russian owners ( very nice people) with help from some of the Coyote BMFs and taken to a great restaurant. We met all the staff that eveining. The girls were so much prettier then the pictures I had received. All of them had incredible bodies and a few of them were truly model level beautiful. Lee had told management that when we open a bar we take the girls out on the Saturday night before the opening to create awareness about Coyote. When we ( corporate USA) do this we always call ahead to arrange a table and just verify with the various places that it is alright to showcase our girls. The licensees of Coyote Ugly Moscow wanted to do the same thing but they did not understand the part about calling up the owners of the various clubs that they had scheduled for that evening. Hence our first night in Moscow was spent getting kicked out of every place we went. If they wanted attention they certainly got it. The service in Moscow is definitely not NY level. At one of the clubs it took me a half an hour to get one drink. Of course by the time I received my drink we were getting kicked out of the club. Finally we went back to the hotel. Exhausted.
There is so much to tell that I think I should put it in categories. First food .
Russian food:The first night they had a buffet of very traditional Russian food. Being brought up by a foreign mom I was always taught that you eat everything and you are very gracious. Lee has traveled so much with the company that he knew to be gracious so he ,like me, tried a little bit of everything. I looked over at the American crew and they each had the equivalent of one cracker on their plates. I felt like my mother. I was embarrassed that they didn’t try more. For the most part everything was good. A lot of dishes are potato based, so you can’t go wrong with that. There were a few dishes that had a mix of fish that I didn’t recognize, and aspic ( which is a weird fat gelatin). I can’t lie, there was this one fish gelatin dish that almost made me gag. But both Lee and I ate them like gracious guests. The foods that were incredible were the Borst soup, beef stroganoff, and few meat patties. Very few vegetables. Russian food is very heavy. I can only surmise that the extreme cold weather and the constant walking is why the Russians from Moscow were so thin.
Vodka: I always had the impression that Russians drank Vodka all day straight out of the bottle. Now I realize that Russians drink Vodka like Italians drink wine. Its actually always accompanied by food. At the beggining of a meal, if you have a big enough group, a whole bottle of Vodka is ordered. Everyone is given a shot glass and you sip it through out the entire meal. Needless to say , I drank vodka every night and never had a hangover. Beluga Vodka is now my favorite.
Drinks: This has to be put into two parts. What they drink and how its served. Obviously vodka is drunk substantially. But they drink a lot of cocktails, cosmos, Mojitos, champagne drinks. But how its served is differently at a bar then at a club. IE. Vodka and Tonic. At a bar you will receive a shot of vodka a glass of ice and asmall bottle of tonic. Its up to you to either mix the drink or drink them all seperately. At a club you would get it mixed.
Chinese delivery just got to my house so I will continue this later.
