Eat like Bourdain: Russia

Bourdain had: Astrakhan caviar, salted cucumber with honey, Baltic sprat with beetroot, muksun, and vodka

Lunch date: Zamir Gotta

69 Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street, Moscow

Bourdain ate: “a modern riff on borscht,” pelmeni

Dinner dates: Zamir Gotta and Boris Nemtsov

6 Ulitsa Presnenskiy Val Street, building 1,  Moscow

Bourdain drank: beer

Drinks dates: Travis Link, manager of punk rock band Louna, and Rouben Kazariyan

Moscow to St. Petersburg

Bourdain had: blini with caviar and cold pickled herring, vodka

Dinner date: Zamir Gotta

74 Ligovsky Avenue, St. Petersburg

Bourdain drank: beer

Drinks dates: Xena Robrek, an openly gay artist and filmmaker, and Darya Tarasova, a local fixer and translator

6 Voznesensky Avenue, St. Petersburg

Bourdain ate: rye bread with Russian fish, pearl barley, and lightly smoked raw beef topped with quail egg

Dinner dates: Sergey Shnurov and Matilda Shnurova, co-owners of Cococo, and Zamir Gotta

St. Petersburg

Bourdain had: bread with canned meat, vodka

Dinner dates: Uri, a commune resident, human rights activist, and professor of journalism, and Zamir Gotta

Bourdain ate: fresh potato chips and Scottish salmon with cherry-tree sawdust

Lunch date: Alexander Lebedev, businessman and owner of opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta