Continuing with my series on what I ate during my trip around the Baltics (see Part I for what I ate on the Emerald Princess), we move onto what I found in two of the stops on our cruise: St. Petersburg, Russia and Rostock, Germany.

The Emerald Princess actually docked in the harbor near St. Petersburg, so we actually had two full days to explore the city (most of the other stops were only a day or half a day in port). We decided to take advantage of this by signing up for a tour that spanned two full days. Included in the package was a two traditional Russian lunches, but the funny thing was, the menus for both the lunches were virtually the same! (excepting the soup and main entree). I guess the food that was served was what Russians consider to be the most representative of their traditional cuisine. I’ll mainly post about what we ate on the first day:

Walking in, we were greeted by a boisterous trio that played traditional Russian folk music for us while we dined; tables were lined up row by row to accomodate all the cruise passengers (I suspect this restaurant caters exclusively to the local tour agencies) and we all sat down for a multi-course lunch.

Our beverages: water, champagne and a shot of vodka.

We started with a salad of tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce and dill; as an American who is tired of seeing salads in restaurants overly dressed with gloppy dressing or oily vinaigrettes, this rather dry salad was a welcome change. The herbal and refreshing flavor of the dill was what the salad relied on to give it its “punch,” and made for a very light start for our meal.

Two kinds of breads were served, a lighter, fluffy white bread as well as a sourer, dense rye-type bread. As a fan of dark, whole-grain breads, I really enjoyed eating this topped with a thin smear of butter.

Blini? (If someone can confirm this for me, that’d be great), a sort of savory pancake topped with some kind of sour-creamish dairy product and caviar. This probably was my favorite course as the pancake was light and fluffy, crispy on the edges and had a hint of creaminess in the middle. The saltiness of the caviar (I couldn’t help but think about ikura (Japanese salmon roe) the entire time I was eating this; it tasted exactly the same!) and the sourness of the cream really brought this dish together.

A vegetable soup was next:

Nothing much to say about this soup. I don’t think there was any cream, as the taste was not heavy or oily; it was probably the base of pureed veg that nadded body to the soup.

Our main course was some sort of chicken stew with vegetables with boiled rice; sadly this paled in comparison to the starters; the entree on the second day was a bit better (a piece of white fish with a cream-based dill sauce, vegetables and buttered mashed potatoes).

Dessert was a sort of berry-topped cake, served with a splash of cold milk. I happened to really like this; the berries were sour and the cake was dense and bit soggy from sitting in the milk (I’m one of those people that enjoys dipping bread or cake in milk; my mom can’t understand this quirk of mine), but other diners didn’t seem like it so much.

Overall, a good intro to Russian cuisine. Come to think of it, it’s probably the first time I’ve ever really had Russian food before; it’s difficult to find any restaurants in California that serve Russian fare, therefore, I can’t really speak for how authentic this was. It was a good learning experience nonetheless.

We were able to get some free time when we stopped in Germany; from our port at Warnemünde we hopped on a train to the nearby city of Rostock. By the main pedestrian thoroughfare, we found a farmer’s market:

Looking around, we were surrounded by carts and carts of vendors selling sausages and hot dogs; it seems as though everytime you turned a corner, there’d be another cart selling all kinds of wurst. By lunchtime, my sister and I were determined to try one as the smell of the sausages cooking was quite heavenly (this is saying a lot as I normally don’t eat meat on a day-to-day basis). We picked up a “Rostocken Bockwurst” just cause it had the city’s name in it, not really knowing what it was, but it turned out to be a good choice. Served with a fat dollop of ketchup and homemade mustard and a slice of toast (brot!), this was good, simple street food at its finest.

We couldn’t help getting a side order of fries, which the vendor dusted with a bunch of paprika and salt. He had a hell of a time understanding us as we didn’t speak German and he didn’t speak English so we both spent a lot of time making exaggerated facial expressions and waving our arms. And we spent about $2 for lunch between the two of us . . . probably the cheapest lunch we’d ever find while in Europe.

Later on in the day, we strolled along the pier in Warnemünde and picked up a few snacks to enjoy when we got back on the ship:

Super danish! A delicious cream cheese and berry pastry. Heart attack in a wax bag but really good.

I couldn’t help but buy this cute petit four. This was also really delicious: marzipan-based cake with chocolate ganache and pastry cream layers, topped with a poured fondant.

My sister bought this huge juice box.

If you’re interested, please read the other posts in this series:
Part I: Cruise Food (Aboard the Emerald Princess).
Part III: Eating Copenhagen

Related posts:

1. What I ate on vacation – Part I: Cruise Food
2. What I ate on vacation: Part III: Eating Copenhagen
3. San Diego Eats: Yakitori Yakyudori and Sipz Vegetarian Cafe

For our trip to the Baltics, my family chose to sail with Princess Cruises again after having an excellent experience the last time we cruised around the Eastern Caribbean. This time, we were on the Emerald Princess, which is a relatively new and large ship; despite having a cabin whose view was partially obstructed, and while I can’t really speak for the onboard entertainment and activities (my family prefers to go offshore on days that we stop at a port or just relax at our own pace on days at sea), I was really satisfied with the whole experience. Our cabins were spacious (by cruise ship standards), clean and well-kept due to the incessant cleaning by the cabin attendants.

As for the food, we found Princess Cruises’s to be quite good (we give a slight edge to Princess’s over Norwegian, though Norwegian’s breakfast buffet layout and options were better). Here’s a sampling of what I ate while on the ship:

Post-buffet aftermath is never pretty. But hey, at least I put my utensils in the correct position to indicate that I’m done . . .

What most people don’t realize is that the room service is already included in your cruise expenses, so take advantage of it!

On the days where we’re at sea, my sister and I enjoy having afternoon tea; Princess does their version in one of their formal dining room complete with live music courtesy of a string quartet, waiter service, unlimited refills of hot tea, tea sandwiches, small pastries, petit fours, scones with real clotted cream and jam.

My sister’s plate: baguette with sliced ham, tomato and cucumber relish on a toasted roll, a slightly dry slice of pound cake.

My plate: Smoked salmon (love love love and would probably ingest in copious amounts if it weren’t for the sodium) and cream cheese tea sandwich, cucumber on a baguette, marbled shortbread.

Dinners were quite nice as we were allowed to pick our dining partners and when we ate (we’re not such a fan of pre-determined seating arrangements and dining times). I usually opt to pick light, fish based, non-dairy courses as the last thing I want to feel while I’m vacation is bloated and weighed down.

Some appetizers that we enjoyed included a caviar and seafood salad.

Another seafood salad lightly dressed in a cool citrus sauce.

A perfectly cooked red snapper filet.

Halibut, haricot vert with spiced tomato sauce, steamed potatoes.

I did deviate on the Chef’s Special Dinner when I ordered a roasted pheasant entree (accompanied by prociutto wrapped haricot vert, caramelized onions in a sweet sauce and steamed vegetables). Sadly, while the pheasant was juicy and well-seasoned, the sauce the caramelized onions was overly sweet and starchy (too much cornstarch) and was so gummy I couldn’t touch it after the initial bite. As for the veggies, it’s kind of hard to mess that up.

But . . .

I always have to save room for dessert. It’s become a bad habit of mine to always indulge in something sweet after dinner; the day just doesn’t seem complete without it. For the most part, the desserts on Princess were good; look at the pretty gourmandises plate that I got one night:

Top to bottom: candied fruit and almond slices, linzer cookies, which were my favorite of the bunch as the cookie was a perfectly executed buttery shortbread, chocolate cream eclairs and coconut macaroons).

Another night: A dessert wine and a plate of fruit.

One favorite dessert: a berry gratin with an almond-based crust and biscotti.

My sister and I also were greedy little pigs and went up to the twenty four hour buffets after our four course meals and snuck MORE desserts to take back to the room to enjoy later.

This poor tasteless muffin was doomed from the start.

Though I did get hooked on their awesome chocolate chip cookies. I should have gotten the pastry chef to give me his recipe as these were cookies that I long for: crispy on the outside, chewy in the center, studded with big chunks of chocolate. I’d always enjoy one as a late-night snack with milk tea . . . drooling now that I’m thinking about it again.

Overall, we had an excellent time on the cruise! We’ve heard stories before of people eating nothing but steak and pasta (two foods I’m not a huge fan of), but this wasn’t the case with Princess.

If you’re interested, please read the other posts in this series:
Part II: Offshore Eats (St. Petersburg, Russia and Rostock, Germany).
Part III: Eating Copenhagen

Related posts:

1. What I ate on vacation: Part II: Offshore Eats
2. What I ate on vacation: Part III: Eating Copenhagen
3. Street Food: [台中市] 一中街小吃: 打餅舖, 哇哉海苔飯捲 (Yizhong Street Food: Hit Cookie Home and Wow! Seafood Rice Rolls, Taichung, Taiwan)