Russian Food

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I have heard various things about Russian food, mostly bad. But I hear and observe there is more to Russian cuisine than borsch and chicken Kiev. The main goal of trying Russian food involves eating most of my meals AWAY from the train, and its dining car. Train food has been stuck back in the 1950s, unless there has been a radical change in the last year or so.

When a Russian eats at home, their first meal of the day may include fruit and cheese, eggs, bread, jam, kefir (sour yogurt drink), tvorog (cottage cheese), or kasha (porridge). Lunch and dinner may consist of at least three courses.

Zakuski is the name of Russian hors d'oeuvres that may include some or all of the following delicacies: sausage, cold meat, salmon, pickled herring, pate', tomato salad, sturgeon and caviar. Of course, beer and vodka are present in copious quantities. Thankfully so!

Soups are a meal unto themselves, much as they at home in the U.S. The usual side dish to accompany the soup is a stack of brown bread. We all know the most famous of Russian soups, borsch or beetroot soup. It often contains other vegetables, like potatoes, cabbage and onions, and other items like chopped ham, and the signature swirl of sour cream (Smetana).

Another popular soup is Soyinka, a hearty dish made from meat, pickles, olives, lemon and honey. It is the trifecta of flavors, sweet, salty and sour. Another is cabbage soup (shchi), the traditional soup of the proletariat, and a favorite of Czar Nicholas II, who enjoyed plain cooking, despite having a French chef at his disposal. Akroshka is a chilled soup of meat, vegetables, and kvass, a beer like brew made from fermented bread. Fermented bread reminds me too much of that awful injera from Ethiopia. Rassolnik is a soup made from pickled vegetables.

Needless to say, vegetarian cooking is practically non-existent in Russia. Perhaps there are some Hare Krishna style Asian restaurants in the larger cities. On most Russian menus is Julienne, also known as griby v smetane, or wild mushrooms baked in cream sauce. Sounds really healthy!

One of my favorite Russian snacks is the piroshky, dough pastries, usually deep fried, containing onions, carrots, cabbage, and sometimes with meat filling. Vatrushkies are cream cheese pastries, and vereniki are cheese filled dumplings. Also quite prevalent are blini and oladi, both types of Russian pancakes, often served with sour cream and jam. My favorite, the ubiquitous piroshky I often read in several of the travel journals and diaries of Trans Siberian travelers about the great fish. In Irkutsk, the famous fish is the Lake Baikal omul, purportedly delicious, and delicately flavored. Smoked omul is said to be very good, as are other smoked fish that I might encounter. Other fish, common to Russia, are herring, halibut, salmon, and of course, sturgeon. Believe it or not, the most famous Russian main course is chicken Kiev. It is a basic fried chicken breast filled with lots of garlic and butter. That is followed by beef stroganov, named after a wealthy merchant family who financed the first Siberian explorations in the 1580s. It is a basic beef stew with sour cream and mushrooms, often served over noodles or rice. I can only hope I have these choices! I am also told I might encounter some regional specialties, including mutton, pork, and lamb kebabs, and the often scorned preserved pig fat called salo. In Siberia itself, pelmini is popular. They are small meat filled dumplings, often served fried or in a broth, boiled, and topped with sour cream. I am told the supermarkets will have excellent salami and other smoked meat products. For dessert, I am glad to see ice cream or morozhenoye. Less palatable is the fruit compote, which consists of a fruit salad floating in a large dish of syrup. I have had Russian blinis, think pancakes, almost crepe like, with sour cream and fruit jam. Similarly varenki are dumplings of sweet cottage cheese or cherries. Rice pudding and fresh fruit is also available from street vendors at the stations. Russian bread is the basic cornerstone of Russian cuisine, and served with every meal. They say over 100 types are baked in Moscow. But we shall see the variety available out in the hinterlands of Siberia. The range of breads goes from basic white, to rye, and on to black sourdough, similar to German pumpernickel. And many sweeter styles exist in the form of croissants and poopy seed rolls. One secret I learned from reading is that brown bread stays fresh much longer than white bread!

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