vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #162 / Social life / Reading article...

Cravings for high-cholesterol, artery-clogging Western food are hard to satisfy in Vladivostok. But a different twist on an old standby often does the trick.

Most people know about the Vlad Inn’s tasty but pricey dinners. Its breakfasts, on the other hand, are just as good and don’t reduce you to a driveling mess when you next pull out your wallet.

Creamy omelets, bacon and eggs, and free coffee refills are enough to draw even the most adamant snooze-button fanatics out to the Vlad on a Saturday or Sunday morning. From the city center, the 11:25 electrichka will get you there shortly before noon, and the restaurant is usually empty.

You’re almost guaranteed your choice of satellite TV channels as you devour perfectly cooked hash browns or a triple stack of pancakes. I find that if I go on an empty stomach, I can devour enough to make me mostly comatose – perfect for a good hour-long session with CNN world news.

My usual order – bacon and eggs with toast, orange juice, unlimited coffee, and a double stack of pancakes smothered in maple syrup – totals around eleven dollars.

I’ve watched others gobble down omelets and fruit plates, and also leave with sufficiently padded wallets. The cost is only a bit more than the same meal at a diner anywhere in the United States.

The feast, I find, is best complemented by a walk around the area.

The saniatorium nearby has a number of paths that make for a pleasant stroll, and you can even pay an enterprising local for a few nuts to feed the bold squirrels and birds.

If you catch it before winter melts away, the skating rink is nearby (though wearing the skates feels like you’ve put your feet through the rack), and the ice in Amursky Bay is still firm enough to allow walking out a couple of miles to yuck it up with ice fishermen or enjoy a little solitude where the sun is shining and the wind howling ferociously. It pays to be careful, however; the ice is starting to melt.

Then, it’s any afternoon train (there are many) back to the middle of town, and you’ll still be so stuffed you can put off dinner until the next morning.