Culture shock

STEVE Sebelius, editor of this paper, recently penned a cover story on how Las Vegas isn't a real city. When it comes to dining, however, I beg to differ. Even if you look past the world-renowned chefs on the Strip, our local neighborhoods offer an incredibly cosmopolitan variety of food from around the world. Far beyond basics like Italian, Thai and Indian food, we also have kitchens offering recipes from Germany, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Tibet and Nepal, just to name a few.

I was reminded of this diversity again while speaking to my friend Anya, who was born and raised in Russia. When I mentioned I wasn't familiar with Russian food, she told me about a Russian restaurant called Artem (formerly Elseevsky) on West Flamingo Road at Decatur Boulevard. My wife and I quickly invited her and her boyfriend Adam to join us on our first foray into the world of Russian cuisine.

While Artem is located in a rather bleak strip mall, the interior looks worlds away from the Vegas suburbs. It's decorated like a large cabin in the woods, with light wood walls, floors, tables and chairs accented by bright red curtains. The Russian flag hangs on a wall above a small stage where a Russian singer performs live on weekends. On weeknights, TV screens show footage of Russian pop stars in concert. And the waitresses wear baggy, ornately decorated uniforms I can only assume are some sort of traditional Russian attire.

My party of four was greeted warmly when we walked through the door, although our waitress was clearly a little perplexed by four punk/goth-looking people wandering into her restaurant. She asked if we'd eaten there before, and when I responded I hadn't, she inquired as to what had brought us there. When Anya replied in her native tongue, the waitress smiled broadly. Looking around the room, I would guess nearly everyone else in the place also spoke fluent Russian.

As we considered the menus, our server returned with complimentary shots of the chef's homemade flavored vodkas. I didn't get to taste the cranberry, but the spicy horseradish-infused version was the most original and delicious infused vodka I've ever tried. Artem also offers a nice selection of Russian wine, champagne, cognac and beer.

While many dishes on the menu were unfamiliar, most offered at least a minimal English explanation. The Siberian pelmeni appetizer, for example, is described as meat ravioli with sour cream and greens ($10.25), while the explanation of shashlik is "grilled pork (Russian style) with fresh vegetables" ($18.50). Certain dishes, particularly chef's specials like duck filet with grilled oranges and sherry sauce ($18.25) or Kamchatka shrimp grilled in cognac with garlic sauce ($18.50), speak for themselves.

My biggest problem came from dishes I thought I recognized, like pirogi ($2 each). While I was expecting Artem's to be reminiscent of the dumplings my Polish mother used to make, the Russian variety is actually bread dough stuffed with meat, cabbage or mushrooms. They're very good but remarkably different. On the other hand, an order of Artem's excellent potato vareniki ($9.25) were extremely close to the pirogi of my youth.

With Anya as our guide, we made our way through countless other appetizers and a pair of entrees. The red caviar ($9.50) was a large serving of salty salmon roe meant to be spread on pumpernickel bread. A Stolichny salad ($10.25), which Anya said was a staple of her youth, proved to be little more than a huge mountain of spiced chopped turkey, vegetables and mayonnaise accompanied by pickles, egg and cold cuts. It was good, but a bit heavy on the mayo. I was also underwhelmed with the Donskie pelmeni ($8.75): a large bowl of fish ravioli in butter that may have been the most bland dish I've ever eaten.

My distaste for beets had left me reluctant to try the borsch ($10.50), but it ended up being the most delicious thing I sampled all night. Topped with a large cap of baked dough, the soup merged the subtly sweet taste of the beet chunks with the tartness of lemon juice and the richness of sour cream.

For our entrees, we had beef stroganoff with barley ($18.75) and veal & mushrooms in cream sauce ($22.25). Both were rich, tasty, but very subtly spiced -- reminding me of warnings I'd received that Russian food can sometimes be a bit bland by American tastes.

Anya seemed to enjoy just about everything, often telling us how a certain dish was reminiscent of what her mother used to make in Moscow. That, combined with the large Russian expatriate contingency on the night of my visit, leaves me fairly certain Artem's food is authentic -- another example of how Las Vegas is clearly a real city when it comes to dining. Vegas foodies await Steve's apology.