Travelling for work has it joys and sorrows. On one hand, I get to visit new cities which I may never consider as holiday destinations, on the other, we are stuck in a room with 4 walls, no windows from 10 to 10. This week I am on one such trip.

Sitting in a research facility in Moscow without a proper restaurant within a 100m radius, we had no other choice but to order in. The research facility served us a menu... a menu filled with Japanese food. We ordered, ate and was surprising satisfied.

I find it strange to find good quality sushi in Moscow... and inexpensive as well! My Russian colleague told me that it is a very common item on menus of all types of restaurants. You walk into an Italian restaurant, you will find a sushi section in their menu. If you walk into a Russian restaurant, you will also find a similar page in their menu. So why?

The reasons are not very clear. Their local cuisine is not similar to Japanese food apart from the distant relationship between herring and sashimi. My online friend Google told me that Japanese food started getting popular in the late 90s. Since then the number of Japanese restaurants have quadrupled. It has now become fashionable to dine in a Japanese restaurant. Will this continue to be the case? Who knows but while I am here, I get my fix of soy tasting food.