Sulemka

Illanskaya, according to the guidebook, is one of the best stations to buy home cooked food from the platform traders. It turns out they are no longer allowed on the platforms, but lined up behind a low fence there were indeed half a dozen or so women - all elderly, all short - with boxes on carts. A few factory sausages on display, but almost all the rest looked home cooked/dried/toasted.

Dried and smoked fish featured heavily, and all the stalls had pine nuts. As expected in a region of lakes and pine trees. The rest varied from stall to stall, depending on the cook - assorted pirozki, different types of potato cake, boiled potatoes with herbs, caramel waffle rolls, home made sausages, bread, and in one case raw carrots and potatoes.

They speak no English, and listen to little Russian. Any question is initally met with a display of the number of notes needed to purchase an item, rather than an answer to what was actually asked. This makes it a little tricky to establish which of the anonymous dough and pastry parcels are the vegetarian* options.

I ended up with a giant rosti/latke and a** caramel waffle roll. Mixed success - as in many countries, being assured that an item contains no meat doesn't necessarily exclude the possibility of ham - and the pre-consumption dissection confirmed it's presence in the latke. The caramel roll, however, was ham free. And very good jaw exercise.

* Potato. Sometimes alone, sometimes with cabbage and onion, occasionally with cheese. But always based on potato.

** The observant among you might count 2 caramel waffle rolls. One of them is not mine.Read more