A couple of months ago we had the great idea to buy a small grill and cook shashleek, or Russian-style shish-ka-bobs, in front of our apartment as a way to meet our neighbors. After being warned by our friends that we could be arrested for doing something so �extraordinary� in the center of the city, we opted to do shashleek the right way, and took a ferry across the Amur River to have a picnic. And brother, can these people throw a picnic. There�s none of this bring-your-own-brown-bag kind of stuff, it�s more like a buffet or pot-luck dinner in the woods.