Moscow & Tbilisi Bakery Store

Richmond (District) Coffeehouses 
~ Номер Bосемь

(and also Завтрак[1] на Гири [ещë раз], Двадцать-шестая Глава)

(No official web-siteski.)


Place: Moscow & Tbilisi Bakery Store
Location: 5540 Geary Boulevard (between 18th and 19th Avenues); phonicular contact: (415) 668-6959
Hours: open daily at 7:00am
Meal: one Potato Piroshki[2] and one Cabbage Piroshki; for breakfastary dessert, a Cherry Doughnut[3]; and a cuppa whatever the house Coffee was

While Moscow & Tbilisi Bakery Store is not technically a "Coffeehouse", they do serve Coffee and have a great selection of fresh-baked goods (as any other Coffeehouse might). They have a seating area with five small, round tables that can seat two-to-three people. So, I am including them in this Series (my 'blog, my 'rules). Plus, it is close enough to walk to (it's only thirteen blocks away from my apartment).

They have been in the neighborhood for twenty or twenty-five years now. They were one of the first russkie businesses to take up residence along Geary Boulevard after the fall of the old CCCP and with the major influx of russkie immigrants into San Francisco in the early 1990's. 

There were still a couple of other choices for stupid vegetarians from their piroshki choices: mushroom and cheese (both of which I have had many times before and knew to be good, too). They also have several other good ideas for breakfastary pastries: blinis, strudels, mini-challahs, and hamantashen. Not to mention that they also sell loaves of fresh-baked breads all day long.

These were two large piroshki and I probably could have just gone with one and been sufficiently full. I specifically chose the potato piroshki as a juxtaselection for breakfastary purposes. The cherry doughnut was an excellent choice; it was chock-fulla cherries and, as they say in Ital'yanskij, it was "da bomb"![4]

Surprisingly, Moscow & Tbilisi Bakery Store has bottles of Huy Fong Foods, Inc. Sriracha HOT Chili Sauce for use as condimentary supplements. I just ended up using some of my own Lucky Dog Medium Fire-Roasted Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on both of the piroshki. They really didn't need any spicing-up, but it never hurts.

Don't you wish you could be a Brave Baker[5]?


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Piroshki ~ 6.3; Cherry Doughnut ~ 6.5

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, номер один:

The russkoe* word for "breakfast" is "завтрак" (transliterated as "zavtrak" and pronounced just like that). The word root comes from the russkoe word for "tomorrow", which is "завтра" (pronounced just like it looks).

*(Hey, Brian, what giveski? Why are you alternatingly spelling the Russian word for "Russian" as "russkij", "russkoe", "russkaya", or "russkie"? Well, to answer that question...

Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, номер один, часть б:

Because I can, dammit!!!

Actually, Russian words have gender-identity and the adjectival ending will depend on the word. Masculine words will generally have adjectives ending in "-yj" or 
"-ij" or "-oj"; neuter words will have adjectives ending in "-oe"; feminine words will have adjectives ending in 
"-aya" or "-yaya"; and plural words will have adjectives ending in "-ye" or "-ie". Exempli gratia, the Russian word for "word" is "слово (slovo)", which is a neuter word and would have the neuter adjective "russkoe". Simples?!

However, I won't even bother trying to explain the whole "case-specific" endings thing here right now.)

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, номер два:

I think I have mentioned this once before here. The russkoe word for "пирожки (piroshki)" is actually the plural of the word "пирожок (pirozhok)" (which is a masculine word, by the way). The word "пирожок" is basically the diminutive of the word "пирог (pirog)" (also a masculine word) meaning "pie".

Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, номер два, часть б:

The russkoe word for "potato" is either "картофель (kartofel')" (a masculine word) or "картошка (kartoshka)" (a feminine word). I think both words were borrowed from the German word for potato, which is "Kartoffel" (and is also a masculine word, as German does the whole gender-identity, too).

Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, номер два, часть в:

The russkoe word for "cabbage" is "капуста (kapusta)", which is a feminine word.

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, номер три:

I forgot the russkoe word for "doughnut" and had to ask the cute russkaya blondinka behind the counter what it was again. It is "пончик (ponchik)".

4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, numero quattro:

To get that stupid joke/pun, you would have to know that one of the words for "doughnut" in Italian is "bombolino".

5. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, номер пять:

Okay, this is a pretty crude joke/pun. The russkoe word for "brave" is "смелый (transliterated as "smelyj" and pronounced as "smelly")". The russkoe word for "baker" is "пекарь (transliterated as "pekar'" and pronounced kinda like you would think). By the way, the word "baker" is also masculine in russkij.