Recreating Russian flavours with love
With the opening of Nebesa, Colombo has a new Russian restaurant. The big white building on Duplication Road is memorable for more than just the food – it also has what are possibly the largest, most lavish armchairs in the city. They form a little cocoon, rising high above your head and affording you some privacy as you sample the likes of shuba, okrashka, pelmeni and manti – all Russian specialities that owner Mikhail Snegirev swears by.
Plush interior: Heavenly ambience to tuck into a Russian gourmet meal
Though the kitchen team under Chef Nelson John is made up almost entirely of Sri Lankans, they’ve been trained by Russian chefs who the restaurateur flew in from his homeland. He named his restaurant Nebesa after a kind of heaven, a place above the clouds where the angels are said to dwell. Having previously run a restaurant in Moscow, Mikhail made the move here with his family when he fell in love with Sri Lanka. A friend helped convince him that there would be a market for Russian cuisine here. Raised on a diet of traditional Russian and Mediterranean flavours, Mikhail says his native cuisine is both delicious and healthy. To recreate those flavours here, they have some of their equipment and ingredients sourced from abroad but most are bought fresh in local markets.
Chef Nelson offers a little culinary tour. It begins with the hearty salad named shuba. Mikhal’s manager Vasyl Nykolyshyn explains the dish is a staple on New Year’s Eve, where his own family like others around the country dig into generous servings of this layered salad. It’s been made more restaurant friendly for Nebesa and is served in a clear glass that allows you to appreciate the multiple layers: salted fish, potatoes, carrots, beets and onions are topped with mayonnaise and a layer of grated boiled eggs. Though we sample several other dishes, this one is easily my favourite. You’re given a long spoon that allows you to dig right in for a serving that scoops up a little bit of everything – the colours are vivid and gorgeous, the flavour rich, creamy and yet light enough that you don’t want to stop eating it.
Competing for attention with the shuba is the olivier salad which can be had with prawns, chicken, beef or beef tongue. The last appears more than once on the menu and when pressed to try one of the delicate cubes we find it somewhat similar to ham in its texture. Eggs and mayonnaise (something of a theme in the menu) are combined with boiled vegetables to make this salad. The sweet smelling, tangy flavour of dill runs through both dishes.
Another notable item on the menu is the beetroot soup known as borsch. Our bowls of soup are thick with vegetables and chunks of juicy beef submerged in a clear, intense red-purple broth. It is served with a generous dollop of sour cream, says Chef Nelson explaining that various elements are cooked separately then worked together to produce a subtle yet hearty dish. Okrashka, a cold soup, is curd based and incorporates boiled egg and beef tongue but should you wish it you could try it with chicken or only vegetables. Especially in its vegetarian form, it closely resembles a thinner version of the Indian side dish raita. Alongside our bowls are rolls of poppy seed flecked bread baked fresh on the premises.
For mains, on offer are pelmeni and manti – both a kind of Russian dumpling, with homemade dough stuffed with chicken/beef and mutton respectively. Diced onions are mixed into the meat and where pelmeni is boiled, manti is steamed. A special, fiery dip made according to Mikhail’s own recipe is served alongside both dishes. A third option is the traditional golubtsy – cabbage leaves stuffed with minced mutton and rice cooked in sauce. These are homely flavours, filled with comfort and warmth, and for Mikhail and Vasyl they are the taste of home. While I enjoyed sampling them – they seemed close cousins of momos from India and dolmas from Greece – they seemed decidedly more like appetizers than a main meal and might bore the palate if one were to eat five in a row. Perhaps the trick then is to order several dishes and share them?
Nebesa’s menu is small. Chef Nelson says this is deliberate – a carefully curated list that allows them to do a small number of things but to do them well. It does seem to deviate a little from the theme though to have fish and chips on the menu alongside beef stroganoff – but allows a compromise if you want to be adventurous but your friend doesn’t. You’re likely to find something to love on a dessert menu that includes Russian apple pie, tiramisu, cheesecake, swan shaped pastries stuffed with cream and an option on sweet crepes among other things but we’re already too full to do them any justice.
On a critical note, some might find it an unforgivable omission that there is no Russian vodka to be had (Nebesa doesn’t have a liquor licence) or that the restaurant has determinedly thrown in its lot with tea drinkers by offering a staggering 24 kinds of Dilmah tea but absolutely no coffee. An unapologetic Mikhail says Russians are great tea drinkers but that he might reconsider on the coffee, so if you do drop by, don’t forget to give him your vote.
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