Excursion to the Samovar Museum and the Ginseng Museum.
The first private museum dedicated to the legendary ginseng is located in the center of Vladivostok. Guests can look at a rare collection of large roots and devices used to extract this plant.
Ginseng is a relict plant that has been successfully preserved in Russia only in the Ussuri taiga. The largest root found in Primorye weighs 419 grams.
Traditionally, such roots are given proper names. This one was named "Alexander's Orchid" after the forester who found it.
Ginseng is credited with unique healing properties, it is revered as a natural source of strength and is considered a panacea for many diseases.
In the old days, three grams of gold were paid for one gram of the root. Therefore, people were actively hunting for the coveted plant. Unfortunately, it has led to the fact that ginseng is now listed in the International Red Book.
Russian Russian Samovar is the only museum in Primorye with a rare collection of Russian samovars.
The exhibition presents the very first samovars that arrived in Primorye with migrants by sea from Little Russia at the end of the 19th century. In the exhibition halls you will learn many interesting stories and even see the first "samovar slow cooker" that worked on firewood.
You will learn about the distinctive samovar culture of our country.
And of course, a tea party with local traditions.
Gastro-lunch at the Syndicat-Port Café restaurant, a master class in Far Eastern cuisine. All dishes are prepared by the chef in your presence and for you!
In the menu:
- live seafood from the aquarium: seaside scallop, Pacific oyster, trepang scallop;
- cold appetizers and salads: venison tartare, bacon and wild garlic pate on bread with cuttlefish ink, fern appetizer with vegetables, octopus ceviche with lemongrass sauce, squid and kelp salad;
- hot dishes and snacks: creamy soup with corbicula, fried scallop with potato garten, grilled squid fillet, halibut oyster sauce, deer fillet with rosemary and vegetables;
- drinks: tea "Taiga collection" with wild berry jam, tasting set of taiga tinctures.
Then a walking tour of the old Chinatown of Millionke.
Millionka is a maze of courtyards and wells in the very center of Vladivostok. At the beginning of the last century, there was a local Chinatown inhabited by a "million" Chinese, the most criminal quarter of the port city with brothels, thieves' raspberries and opium smokers.
The spirit of adventurism still lingers here, although the thieves' age of the Millionaire ended with an NKVD raid in the 1930s.
Now the quarter is inhabited by creative bohemians, who are opening fashion shops, coffee shops and art residences in tiny houses and gradually putting the almost slum landscape in order.
To feel the passing nature, it's worth taking a look at the Millionka restaurant, which revives the urban legend.
The owner literally restored the luxurious mansion from scratch, assembling the interior from fragments of carved doors, furniture, oriental fabrics found on the antique market, and dressed up the waiters in padawan costumes.
On the walls of the restaurant, a video series with the inhabitants of the old Millionka is shown — Chinese matrons, rickshaws, opium dealers…
Russian Russian cuisine features a modern mix of Russian and Asian recipes, local seafood, fish, and Russian dishes served in an avant-garde Asian setting.
A stone's throw away is the Chinoaru bar, where cocktails with Japanese whiskey and Chinese soju are mixed, glasses are painted with hieroglyphs and symbols of Asian painting. The bar is at the 10/10 level, a must-visit place in Vladivostok.
Delicious food on a Million — for an additional fee, you need to book a table in advance, the tour operator will help.