Asparagus, corn, and wild garlic: summer on the menu at Beluga Restaurant
A major menu update at Beluga Restaurant
Roman Chistov, chef at Beluga Restaurant, continues to explore the seasonality of Russian delicacies in his menu. By summer, the main menu at Beluga, a restaurant specializing in contemporary Russian cuisine, has added about ten new dishes. Young vegetables are served with goat cheese cream, garnished with dried egg yolk and pressed caviar; marinated sturgeon is served with cream cheese and whitefish caviar; seasonal asparagus is quickly fried in noisette butter and complemented with Kamchatka crab legs and young green peas; and he pairs it with mussels in white wine, pine nuts, and corn chips. Roman marinates Volga catfish fillet in milk with honey and chili, then fries it and serves it with fennel, broccolini, and wild garlic sauce. Just before Okroshka Day, okroshka, made with homemade beet kvass, Astrakhan sturgeon sausage, and smoked sour cream, made a triumphant return to the menu. Desserts from Beluga's pastry chef, Nikita Gavrilenko, have also been updated. Two vibrant summer desserts have appeared on the main menu. The first is the architectural "Sunflower," a quintessential southern Russian dessert featuring halva cream and ice cream, apricot compote, buckwheat popcorn, and sunflower urbech. The second dessert is inspired by the new corn season: Nikita combines corn ice cream with delicate caramel, burnt hay ash, corn crunch, and corn cobs fried in noisette butter. Menu excerpts: • Young vegetables, goat cheese cream, pressed caviar, 1,950 rubles. • White asparagus, Kamchatka crab, green peas, 1,890 rubles • Green asparagus, mussels, corn chips, 1,590 rubles • Volga catfish, fennel, broccolini, wild garlic sauce, 1,590 rubles • Roast lamb, porcini mushrooms, pickled lingonberries, 1,850 rubles • "Sunflower": Halva, apricot, aromatic butter, 990 rubles • Corn ice cream, wheat ganache, pecans, 850 rubles
