BEST OF MOSCOW

This was the first place in town to sell Belgian designers Dirk Bikkembergs and Dries van Noten. To this day it remains a Moscow temple of intellectual fashion. The boutique on Dmitrovka is larger, and offers a better variety than the main one on Povarskaya, from clothes and the inevitable Comme de Garcons perfumes to furniture and accessories for the home. The prices here might be hellish, but you can almost always find something awesome, especially at sales. It`s a surprisingly integral and sacred place — it becomes only better with age.

Address: 7, Dmitrovsky pereulok

In the spirit of Selfridges, this department store is stuffed with all sorts of goods from clothes to cosmetics, with varying capacity to please. But the real pride of the place is the produce market on the top floor, a micro-version of the Butyrsky or Dorogomilovsky markets that offers farmers` produce, dairy and meat products, a fish counter, and groceries quite far from the commonplace. It is probably the only place in Moscow that sells Moroccan canned salted lemons. Even better, all the purchased food can be cooked right in front of you, at very reasonable prices.

Address: 15, Tsvetnoy Boulevard , stroenie 1

Roza Azora is the city`s main mini-market of junk. Its owners call it the gallery of city culture, but in practice it has proven absolutely indispensable to a city that lacks flea markets and decent antique shops. Now an important Moscow landmark, with a name and a history, Rosa offers all sorts of charming items, mostly of the Soviet era (hats, hand bags, old irons, glass holders). Gift-searching here is a pleasant experience, despite the store`s strong resemblence to the attic of a junk dealer. Rosa also sells paintings and other art objects, while Brocade deals in American vintage clothes.

This is the number one market in Moscow, the main supplier for restaurateurs, stubborn gourmets in search of their favorite delicacies, and anyone who doesn`t mind spending money on food. As at any other market in the city, it makes sense to make connections and figure out from whom to buy what. Otherwise the prices will stay sky-high, and grocery shopping will be reduced to a masochistic experience. Various rare delicacies can be found here, from elk meat to Al-Bukhara spice. It`s okay to come just for window shopping. The kiosks are also worth checking out, despite their unremarkable appearance. You can find quality kitchen utensils, spices or rice for quite reasonable prices.

Address: 10, Mozhaysky Val

The best selection of books at the lowest prices in town. It`s not easy to find what you`re looking for, so seek assistance from the highly knowledgeable staff, who can answer such trivia questions as the edition dates of Heidegger`s "Being and Time." Konstantin Ernst and Vladislav Surkov are known to come here, though it`s not clear for what exactly — maybe the complete works of radical left publishing houses, textbooks on political economy, or a bit of contemporary poetry.

Opening hours: since 11:00 till 20:00
Address: 12/27, Maly Gnezdniakovsky Pereulok

The best choice of movies — for those who still buy movies on DVD — for your own enjoyment or as a present. You can also find here a modest but well-selected music collection. The shop assistants are unobtrusive and professional.

300—400 rubles for 1 DVD
Address: 6/8, str. 2, Maroseyka st.

This is the best mainstream bookstore in town. Aside from books, which by the way are not the cheapest, the store is famous for its gift-wrapping department. Tatyana, a wrapper who has been working at the store since at least the mid 1990s, is capable of transforming any trifle into an ideal gift within 10 minutes. She cuts the wrapping paper very carefully, wraps the item, seals the package and ties it with a ribbon. On New Year`s Eve one can spend a whole hour waiting in line for Tatyana`s services.

Wrapping costs 200 rubles and up
Address: 8, Tverskaya str., stroenie 1

This new branch of the Tatar homemade food chain turned out surprisingly well, almost rivaling the French store Hediard. Besides traditional Tatar echpochmaki and other pastries baked on the spot, the store now offers an assortment of organic and fresh farmers` goods, such as mind-blowing yogurt.

Opening hours: 24/7
Address: 22, Tverskaya st.

This place offers a vast selection of wines and whiskey at reasonable prices. Open any purchased bottle at the bar and enjoy your wine without paying extra. Wine by the glass from the tasting menu is more expensive. Vinoteka regularly holds tasting sessions and other promotional actions. Smoking is allowed in the bar.

Address: 10, Chistoprudny bul., stroenie 1

This chain of flower stores, scattered all about the city, sells only roses, of all sorts and colors. The French franchise also exists in many cities all over Europe, and differs favorably from the usual Moscow kiosks. The roses are supplied daily, most are grown in Russia, and the prices are reasonable and don`t shoot up on the 8th of March, Russian Women`s Day. On holidays, the sidewalks in front of the stores are strewn with rose petals. Good design, tidiness, unobtrusive service, and white and manila paper wrapping instead of polyethylene make a visit to the store a pleasant experience.

One rose, from 69 to 119 rubles
Address: 14/2, Bolshaya Nikitskaya st.

This is the first and best option for Japanese goods in Moscow. Many had thought it closed, but it actually just moved down the street on Prospect Mira. It still offers myriad soy sauces, miso paste, sushi rice and other items indispensible to Japanese cuisine and life, including those which are impossible to find anywhere else in Moscow. It`s fun to watch the customers, a mix of curious old ladies, Japanophile students and aloof Japanese housewives descended from Ukiyo-e`s etchings.

Address: 5, Astrakhansky pereulok, stroenie 1

This store represents one of few positive consequences of former Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov`s governance. It offers a vast selection of high-quality honey, at times of absolutely rare and amazing sorts, brought from apiaries all over Russia. Customers are allowed to taste the store`s products. Besides honey, the store sells koumiss (fermented mare`s milk), mead (a lightly alcoholic drink based on honey), spelt and other unexpected goods. The store also has a small cafe.

Address: 5/10, Novokuznetskaya st. , stroenie 1

In 1901, merchant Grigory Eliseev opened this legendary grocery store in a space previously made famous as the location of princess Zinaida Volkhonskaya`s high-society salon. He had an arched carriage gateway transformed into the store`s main entrance, and decorated the interiors with mahogany counters, crystal chandeliers, columns and various kinds of gilding and molding. The store was like a gastronomic theme park, complete with its own winery and fresh oysters. Nowadays, just as a hundred years ago, a trip to Eliseevsky is like a trip to a museum.

Address: 14, Tverskaya st.

This is the only chain of stores that specializes in the spices, herbs and other unusual things from the Indian, Chinese, Thai and Japanese repertoires. It`s where people come in search of fresh lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, rose water, papadums, fish sauce, ayurvedic cosmetics and other stuff.

Addresses: 36/2, Sretenka st.; (5, Miklukho-Maklaya st.; Tushinskaya, vladenie 17; 9, Kulikovskaya st.)

Moscow still lacks decent stores that sell goods for the home. But the House of Artists on Kusnetsky Most conceals this one on its second floor. The store is a real treasure, offering amazing lamps of multi-colored glass exactly like those at Istanbul`s Grand Bazaar, embroidered rugs, curtains, bed throws, jewelry boxes, vases. Wooden furniture can be ordered from the store online — all will be delivered to you from India.

Mosaic table lamp — 2 220 rubles
Address: 11, Kuznetsky Most st.

This is the best music store not only in Moscow, but probably in all of Eastern Europe. The incredible assortment includes complete sets of long-defunct record labels, little-known Japanese and Thai musicians, and amazing sets of the greatest Italian and French pop hits. Transylvania successfully ignores all the torrents and file exchanges, pretending that CDs are of immutable value. If you are lucky, you may get some good advice from the legendary owner, Boris Simonov.

1 CD: 799—1399 rubles
Address: 6/1 Tverskaya st., stroenie 5

This designers` clothing store sells mostly the black, the grey and the baggy. It suits a city that looks dark and grey most of the year. It mainly offers collections by Scandinavian designers such as Henrik Vibskov, Hope, Vadum, Best Behavior, Dagmar, Maloni, Marni and Eksempel. The store is expensive, but not terribly so, and there are a lot of nice things to buy. Whenever you drop by, you`ll leave with a black sweater (yes, it`s black again, and it`s just a sweater, and you already have one, even 15 of them in your own winter collection), but this one is so unique and so indispensable you just had to have it...

Address: 17/1, Nikitsky Boulevard

Once it was the only bouquiniste shop where you could buy second-hand books in foreign languages. In time their inventory expanded to other goods nowadays you can find here dishes, furniture, paintings, crystal chandeliers, small statues, bijouterie and all sorts of other small items, many of them cheap. Even if you are not buying the shop is interesting as a sort of museum of Soviet culture. Old customers still call it "Universum" or "Kachalka" — in Soviet times Malaya Nikitskaya Street was called Kachanov's Street.

Address: 16/5, M. Nikitskaya st., stroenie 1