Russian cuisine

Attention!
Do you know any Russian dishes in English? Read and find out.

The Russian diet is rich and varied. A lot of dairy products are used, such as tvorog (dry granulated cream cheese), smetana (thick sour cream) and kefir (a yoghurt-like drink made from cow’s milk, yeast and lactic acid bacteria).

Typical Russian meals in many posh restaurants start with cold or hot appetisers such as bliny served with red and black caviar, salted salmon, jam or sour cream. These are followed by soup, the main dish, and then dessert. The appetizers are salmon, hot and cold sturgeon, stuffed pike or herring or “herring in a fur coat” (alternating layers of chopped herring, a mixture of chopped boiled potato, onion, beetroot and mayonnaise, decorated with a layer of grated cheese and boiled egg yolks).

The cold meat dishes are ham, lean boiled pork with spices – buzhenina, jellied tongue, and meat jelly. These dishes can be served with horseradish sauce and various salads. The most popular soups are borshch

 (traditional Russian fresh cabbage and beetroot soup), okroshka (a refreshing, cold kvas-based soup with chopped fresh vegetables, sausages and meat)  and solyanka (a hearty soup made from meat, fish or mushrooms, served with olives, lemon slices and sour cream).

For the main dish there is a great choice: fried carp, meat dishes such as beef stroganoff with mashed potatoes, golubtsy (roulettes of cabbage, filled with rice, ground lamb and pork, topped with cream sauce), pelmeny (Siberian ravioli, stuffed with ground pork and onions, served with sour cream and vinegar), Russian shashlyks and grilled piglet (a spicy whole piglet, stuffed with buckwheat porridge, grechka and vegetables).

Poultry and game dishes include chicken Kiev, roast duck and goose stuffed with apples, roast partridge and pheasant. All these dishes are juicy and tender.  

Dessert comes next. Customers can enjoy baked apples, fruit and berry kisel, compote, aromatic melons and watermelons from the estuary of the Volga. Baked pies have always been popular in Russia, and there is a wide section available.

As for drinks, there are some wonderful fruit and berry beverages called mors and kvas. Kvas was invented over a thousand years ago. It is similar to beer in alcohol content and is made from malt or fresh/dried rye bread. Many people still enjoy drinking it today.