You don't have to be a Gucci-handbag-carrying oligarch's wife to enjoy eating and drinking in Moscow - if you know where to look.
My favourite destination for a cheap, decent meal is the capital's gloriously eclectic Izmailovo market next to Partisanskaya metro. The market sells everything from matrioshki - those annoying Russian dolls - through to pirated DVDs and real bearskins. (Yup, they come with head and claws.)
Just inside are several guys grilling kebabs in the open air - including delicious lamb ones (250 roubles), which are even tastier than the lovely chops served in Moscow's feted Georgian restaurants.
Nearby is one of Moscow's few affordable Soviet-era hotels - the unpretentious and down at heel Hotel Izmaylovo Gamma-Delta (hotelizmailovo.ru). Built for the 1980 Olympics, this cavernous hotel has 8,000 rooms and is allegedly Europe's biggest. Rooms cost $149 for a twin - not exactly a bargain but cheap for Moscow.
Near the metro, babushkas in tracksuit trousers also offer rooms in private flats. Another Soviet hotel worth considering is the gargantuan Hotel Cosmos (hotelcosmos.ru) - a sweepingly retro-futuristic edifice a couple of metro stops from the centre.
The hotel is pleasingly next to the All Russian Exhibition Centre (nearest metro VDNKh) - a sprawling park devoted to junk left over from the Soviet Union. My kids love the woolly mammoth exhibition. You can have your photo taken with a life-sized woolly mammoth, and peer at the remains of extinct cave lions and shaggy Siberian rhinoceroses. Rooms at the Cosmos cost $230 a double.
For a relaxing drink, this summer's most alluring Moscow venue is Kak Na Kanarakh - or Like on the Canary Islands. This floating bar includes two swimming pools and a sundeck jutting into the real ale-coloured Moscow river. The non-alcoholic cocktails are fun - 150 roubles for a mojito. If you can't get past the face control, there are several beer tents next door in Gorky Park.
A more bohemian venue popular with students and aspiring musicians is Ogurets (Cucumber) - a bar near Polyanka metro station in Moscow's south. There is live music, avant-garde theatre (when my wife peered in she spotted four naked thespian bottoms) and cheap cocktails. It feels more like Berlin than Moscow.
For breakfast-lovers, meanwhile, the cafe chain
Schokoladnitsa is a good bet. For 129 roubles you can eat blini-style pancakes with cream and cherry jam or old-fashioned Russian porridge, kasha - together with freshly squeezed juices and coffee.
Sadly, though such bargains are rare, Moscow now has the reputation as the world's most expensive city. It deserves it.
