Every country in the world has its own cuisine. Russia has its own cuisine too.
One can state that Russian food is what Russian people usually eat. However, considering how large a country Russia is and how many cultures there are in Russia, it is difficult to say that Russians in Moscow and in a small village eat the same food.
Life in cities is quick-paced, city dwellers are always rushing somewhere. That’s why the fast food is becoming more and more popular in cities. Yet, traditional Russian food is much tastier and healthier that the fast food.
To understand Russian national cuisine, one should remember that Russia is a northern country in the most part and that its winters are rather long and sometimes very cold. That means that the food should be such as to give enough energy.
Among most popular components of Russian dishes are: potato, eggs, butter, bread, and meat.
Very popular are milk products like sour cream, and curds; as well as fresh fruit and vegetables.
Russian cuisine enjoys quite a number of authentic national dishes for every part of a meal, be it appetizers, soups, main courses, desserts, or beverages.
Appetizers are usually served before main courses. Russians often start their meals with various salads. Medley (vinegret) is probably loved by everybody in Russia.
To cook medley, Russians mix boiled potato, carrot, and beet as well as salted cucumbers chopped in more or less equal cube-like pieces and add oil.
For many festive occasions, Russians cook so called “seledka pod shuboi”, or herring under coat.
To make it, one has to boil potato, carrot, and beet; then grate all these ingredients and place them on a plate in layers covering a layer of chopped herring and finally dress it with mayonnaise.
Let’s now turn to the Russian soups, which are an essential part of afternoon meals.
The classical Russian soup is borsch, or red-beet soup made of beet, meat, potato, and mostly served with sour cream, although some might prefer mayonnaise.
Very characteristic of Russian cuisine is okroshka, or cold soup made of cold kvass with different vegetables, chopped boiled eggs and spices.
Among other kinds of soup I would like to mention ukha, or fish-soup, mushroom soup, chicken soup.
After soups come main courses as a rule. Usually they include meat and/or vegetables with garnishes.
For the meat part, Russian people can have cutlets or chops, fried fish or sausages.
For garnishes, they might have potato or kashas, of which there are many kinds to choose from: buckwheat, rice and other.
Very often pelmeny, or ravioli are mentioned among Russia-originated dishes. These small squares of pasta containing minced meat and spices are very popular in Russia.
Although you can find dozens of pelmeny brands in the shops, Russians prefer legendary home-made pelmeny. Sometimes, instead of meat they use potato or curds and call this dish -vareniki.
After all these tasty things, it’s time for Russian desserts. Pancakes are always welcome as a dessert and are usually served with jam, honey or sour cream. Pastries with berries, apples, and other fruit are also part of Russian food tradition.
Among traditional Russian drinks, mors, kissel and kvass are most typical.
Kissel is made of sweetened fruit puree and mors, which is a kind of berry drink, is made of cranberries, black-currants, or other berries.
Kvass is an original Russian beverage made of stale bread and is probably most popular among traditional drinks.