RAILROAD DINING, ART, AND CULTURE IN REVIEW BY JAMES D. PORTERFIELD One Need Only Ask
A CALL HERE IN THE JULY ISSUE for accounts of dining car experiences on Russian trains brought this response from J. Marshall Bue- hler in Wisconsin, who traveled from Moscow to Irktusk on Rossoya One in 1987: “I was an independent traveler, although
I shared a bedroom with a little old lady who had at least ten years of age over me. The rail- road sold beds, not caring what sex they were selling to. “My travel agent in New York advised me
to go only half way across the country and to save the other half for the next year. That’s what I did. She also advised me, as did the travel books of the time, to take supplemen- tal food along on the trip as the dining car frequently ran out of food. So I stocked up on Quaker puffed rice cakes, crackers, cookies, and other non-perishable food stuff. It turned out to be poor advice as there was ample food available; and furthermore, I hate those rice cakes.
“About an hour into the trip, my roommate
brought out a brown paper bag, one of two she had, and took out an apple, somewhat wilted. She offered me half but I declined, so she took out a knife, quartered it and peeled it and then offered it to me again. Once more I declined, and now, in a raised voice, and speaking in Russian, she handed me the ap- ple. Feeling threatened, (after all, she still had the knife), I accepted half of the apple. She smiled, expressing appreciation that I had done so. “When it was time for dinner on the first evening, she again dug into her bag and pulled out a package wrapped in newspaper. She unwrapped the newspaper and revealed a wax paper inner wrap. Upon unwrapping that, she took out a cooked chicken drumstick and offered it to me. Once again I declined, and told her by gestures that I was going to the dining car. “In the dining, car tables were covered with
oilcloth. A stewardess seated me, and when she found out I could not speak or read Rus- sian, she went to the gallery and brought out a menu wherein each entrée item had a trans- lation written in pencil under it. There were
three or four dinner items but I found out that only one was available and that was chicken, so I ordered it. “It was a complete meal starting with a
salad of cabbage and sliced cucumbers with vinegar on it. The chicken never reached ma- turity; it should have been allowed to grow a little older. Peas were the vegetable and I found out that Russians eat cooked peas cold. Mashed potatoes with chicken gravy, a slice of rye bread with butter spread on it, and piece of cake with a sugar glaze on top it. Of course, there was tea or apple juice. Not gour- met, but ample. “Breakfast was cold cereal or oat meal and toasted dark bread. “For lunch I opted for the summer sausage sandwich. Served once again on the dark bread, it was filling. But what was ground up inside that slice of sausage, I’ll never know. And my mouth had a greasy coating that took two cups of hot tea to get rid of. But it was better than the puffed rice patties. “The dinner that night was Vienna sausag-
es, mashed potatoes, cold peas, same salad, and tea. Vienna sausages? That’s a fancy name for hot dogs. “There were other sandwiches, hard-boiled
eggs, fresh fruit (apples), and sweet pastry items. I did not need my supplemental food. I did not lose any weight either, that I recall. Every time I walked in to the dining car, the hostess would smile and get the special trans- lated menu for me. “All in all, it was a wonderful trip and the
dining car was satisfactory. A year later, I joined a tour trip and traveled from the east coast of Russia to Irkstusk. On that trip, we had a private dining car and the food was very good. The hostess there was a woman who, every time she opened her mouth, a small Fort Knox became visible as she displayed her gold fillings in her teeth. I was surprised to see on the table, along with the bottled wa- ter, Pepsi Cola, apple juice, and Point Special Beer! That is brewed about 25 miles from my home in Wisconsin. I found out it was brought along by our tour guide, somewhat as a gag. “Two years later, my wife, Pat, and I trav-
eled from Leningrad to Murmansk, as far north as you can go by train on this earth. On the first night out, one of the cars derailed about midnight. Our sleeper (soft class bed room) had to be left behind, along with the dining car. The rest of the train went on after about a four hour delay. The car attendant moved us up to a car in front which was a hard class, three tier berth car. The attendant in that car, Sasha was his name, took us to a compartment with an upper and lower berth in the car. He advised that it was his accom- modation but he had changed the linen and it would be our room for the balance of the trip. We were traveling under the arrangements of Russia’s tour agency, Intourist. That might have been why the special attention. “The next morning Pat prepared brunch
for us. She always carried food snacks, paper plates, cups, plastic ware, etc. So she made brunch of sliced apples, cookies and rye Krisp (not much better than the Quaker puffed rice patties). As a courtesy gesture to Sasha, she invited him in to join us, which he willingly did.
“That evening, Pat brought out crackers,
cheese, a small tin of deviled ham, oranges, cookies, and a giant size Hershey chocolate bar. Again, Sasha joined in at our repast. “We developed a wonderful rapport with
Sasha and just before our arrival in Murman- sk, he came in and took the small curtain off the window. The curtain had a image of a bear on it. On it he wrote, “In memory of a fine trip.” It was given to Pat as a souvenir. “So much for my meals on Russian trains.
Would I do it all over again? Yes, if I weren’t so d%*#^d old.” And While We’re on the Subject: Sharon Hudgins, whose experiences on the Trans-Si- berian Railway are the basis of the July col- umn, also wrote, this time to share news of a new iPad app titled Orient Express History. It was inspired by, and in fact opens with, an early restored Orient Express dining car, on display in the Dutch Railway Museum. The app is the brainchild of Dutchman Ar-
jan den Boer, who began exploring the sub- ject over ten years ago and started collecting
1896 Orient Express dining car cross section — COLLECTION OF ARJAN DEN BOER 57
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