Russian Hot Jam ‘Tea’

This will sound weird but it’s actually very good. I had it at Mari Vanna, an extraordinary Russian restaurant in London where the interior looks like a Russian grannie’s living room, full of dolls and vintage china and enormous glass jars of home-made pickles. Yes, it’s fussy and over the top, but I love it. It’s worth going there just to people-watch; Russian ballerinas, crazy violinists, old rich men with thin young women taking ‘selfies’ at the table. The women all wear furs and teeteri