Russian Cuisine?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Having spent quite a bit of time in Ukraine and Russia, I have no problem with most of the ethnic food. My one exception is, the Ukrainian national vegetable is the cucumber, and I HATE CUCUMBERS!!!

Don

I think for FSU women, (who were not babies in the FSU) recounting how long they stood in line to buy a cucumber (or half a cucumber)for breakfast is similar to the American phenomenon of fathers always having to walk 4 miles to school...uphill both ways...in a snowstorm...after doing all the chores on the farm!

It is also the basic reason for urban decay..."These young people are like this because they never had to stand in line to buy a cucumber!"

I have noticed that by now Alla had to wait at the bus stop for TWO hours every morning, a slight increase from the 1.5 hours she told me about when I first met her...so as she gets older, the wait gets longer.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Gary and Alla

[Nick_Moscow 2]

Also, you can expect your Russian wife to make enough food for 40 people and put it in the refrigerator in the pots and pans. ...Great fun, usually a "shashlik" outdoors with so much food it would feed an army!

Right on. My wife just told me that no matter how much she cooks, she's always worried there won't be enough to go around....her goal is to send everyone off from the party well-fed and well entertained.

The focus on food for Russian parties/holidays is IMHO spectacularly different than the focus at American parties/holidays. At Christmastime in the US all kinds of goods and merchandise go on sale; in Russia (at least in the provinces) the focus before New Year's is buying your food early enough before December 31st that the food doesn't spoil but not so late that you're affected by the price gouging that goes on at the markets ("What Men Talk About II" is a predictably boring sequel but it displays the laser-like focus of women cooking for New Year's quite well)

As for the American parties, at her very first one my wife was greatly upset that a bag of chips on a table (with lots and lots of alcohol) could qualify as a party here in the US! (granted this was a 20-somethings party)

I'm glad some like the "smelly fish," I'm sure they're very healthy dishes, but on this one I'm with Gary

[Nick_Moscow 2]

As a native Texican I find Russian/Ukrainian food to be very mild, even bland. However most of it is very tasty! I like most of the salads, but not the fish salads or the salads made with beets/cabbage.

Try the Vereniki with cherries sometime! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Yes! My wife has a love for spicy foods, and so in Russia she got used to asking for extremely spicy food so that it had at least a little kick. Then, when I took her to an Indian food cafe for the first time, she did like she always did in Russia and asked for the spiciest dish - the look on the cashier's face was priceless as he made sure that she wanted THE spiciest dish! We weren't making much money then and I could tell it pained my wife to throw away the dish but there was no way around it. I don't know how the Indians tolerate all that spiciness!

Try the Vereniki with cherries sometime! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

The Vereniki with tvorog are to die for; actually, anything with tvorog is simply heavenly I'm still upset with the formal translation of tvorog: cottage cheese Trust me, for those who haven't had tvorog yet, it is nothing like cottage cheese! If anything, tvorog is closer to the cream cheese we put in cheesecakes, and it's just as delicious

[BatmanUSA 105]

anyone ever eat, beef tongue??

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Yes! My wife has a love for spicy foods, and so in Russia she got used to asking for extremely spicy food so that it had at least a little kick. Then, when I took her to an Indian food cafe for the first time, she did like she always did in Russia and asked for the spiciest dish - the look on the cashier's face was priceless as he made sure that she wanted THE spiciest dish! We weren't making much money then and I could tell it pained my wife to throw away the dish but there was no way around it. I don't know how the Indians tolerate all that spiciness!

The Vereniki with tvorog are to die for; actually, anything with tvorog is simply heavenly I'm still upset with the formal translation of tvorog: cottage cheese Trust me, for those who haven't had tvorog yet, it is nothing like cottage cheese! If anything, tvorog is closer to the cream cheese we put in cheesecakes, and it's just as delicious

Tvorog is THE cheese that they say you should never watch being made.

Alla makes all the food for our dog also, she hates canned food even for the DOG! and Thinks dry food is some sort of torture.

The dog eats "Kasha" (buckwheat) purchased at the Russian store (the owner knows the type Alla prefers..."the expensive good kind") mixed with either boiled beef or chicken(not ground beef, but the same beef she puts in Borscht)finely chopped up and mixed with the buckwheat. She makes a big bowl of it every week and that is the dog's food for the week. Alla makes soup for us from the broth.

After 5 years (the dog is now 8 years old) I can report that the dog is alive and well. The dog is a pekinese so it does not eat much. I am not sure we could afford to feed this to a Labrador retriever.

[Amy_and_Victor 159]

[Victor from Russia]

I think for FSU women, (who were not babies in the FSU) recounting how long they stood in line to buy a cucumber (or half a cucumber)for breakfast is similar to the American phenomenon of fathers always having to walk 4 miles to school...uphill both ways...in a snowstorm...after doing all the chores on the farm!

Yes, it reminds me stories from my Dad how he had to go to school every winter skiing through the forest for several miles in any weather conditions because it was no transportation around and closest school was in another village.

I have noticed that by now Alla had to wait at the bus stop for TWO hours every morning, a slight increase from the 1.5 hours she told me about when I first met her...so as she gets older, the wait gets longer.

Next time ask her why she couldn't just leave house an hour and a half later instead of spending this time on a bus stop? I don't know where she had to go that time, but I can tell that in USSR time public transportation was amazing and covered almost everything. It's still great in Russia (especially comparing to the awfully unconvinient public transportation system in the US which is like a joke comparing to Russian one), even if now it doesn't run so often and so much everywhere due to less popularity and a lot of cars. When I was a kid, my city had 9 tram routes riding across all city in radial directions, not mentioning trolleybuses (electric buses) and usual buses routes. The longest wait could be up to 40 minutes on the least popular routes, on most popular you wouldn't wait more than 10 minutes. Of course, it could be much longer if you would have to go outside of the city, to another city or village, but out-of-city transportation would go by the schedule you always could find out. Though, I understand that in other cities it could be better or worse, but I wouldn't easily believe to anybody who would tell me about 2 hours waiting everyday on the bus stop unless it would be akward way with changing routes and riding between a few small cities/villages on different transportation where schedules wouldn't match at all.

[Nick_Moscow 2]

[Victor from Russia]

When I was a kid, my city had 9 tram routes riding across all city in radial directions, not mentioning trolleybuses (electric buses) and usual buses routes. The longest wait could be up to 40 minutes on the least popular routes, on most popular you wouldn't wait more than 10 minutes.

Viktor, yes, this is spot-on! My friends/family in America are always shocked when I tell them how the metro in Mosocow runs every two minutes for the whole day and every THIRTY seconds during rush hour (and every car is packed to the gills!). (I can see the Family Guy episode now.........wait for it........"In Soviet Russia, Metro waits for you!")

Public Transportation is much different of course than in NYC or DC. But then again, our cities in America are built and planned totally differently than in Russia; for the metaphor to be totally accurate Russia would have to have thriving suburbs and exurbs, with large places of employment, populous schools, huge malls, etc.

[Dave&Roza 748]

anyone ever eat, beef tongue??

Yes, my Mother boiled it. It was not too bad. We also had the Ox Tail from the purchase of half of a cow which my Mother boiled and made a soup with. I have not had the Russian or Kazakh version.

Dave

[Derek & Rita 6]

My wife is actually from Uzbekistan (lived there during USSR times), so she told me that she's familiar with every one of those dishes except Shubat! Her comment on the samsa's (which I really like too) is that the common trick is to put more onion than meat in them to cut down on costs.

Which reminds me of how great the xachipuri tasted (pita-like bread baked in a stone oven (called a tandir) with cheese filling)! I bought them all the time as a quick meal in between English lessons in Moscow; I'm sure they weren't too healthy but boy did they taste good! You can find them all over in Moscow in the street-vendor carts near the Metro stations.

And my comment on the manty (monti) should be handled wisely: yes they taste good but if you mix up the "t" with a "d" (as I did often), you're pronouncing not the name of tasty ravioli but a slang term for a part of a woman's anatomy. Which of course made for great fun when a girl in our group named Amanda would introduce herself to the Russians by her nickname Mandy

I'm with you two, I married a Tajik / Russian and she cooks monti, pelmeni, sombuca, borscht, solyanka, and of course, plov. She is a great cook, and never made anything that I didn't like (except for one time, she used peach yogurt when she didn't have plain kefir - for a dough for some meat wrapped in dough thingy, god that was awful, even the bums wouldn't eat it). The only thing she can't yet cook is bread, but that's not a bad thing, I love making bread, it's one of the only things I'm good at making.

[Martyshk 137]

All I have to say - you all people are pansies

[paws057 9]

Funny before I went to Russia I didn't know tomatoes and cucumbers, cheese and cold meat were breakfast food. The only dish she has made so far I didn't like is shredded squash (which I got to shred by the way and it was like shredding a rock) OMG! It was terrible and I couldn't even stand the smell of it. Other than that I love the food there!

[Amy_and_Victor 159]

On things being considered "breakfast food" and non-breakfast food, it seems to me that's largely an American thing. Well, ok, my sister spent a semester in England, and she told me that they also had some things that most people would consider breakfast-only food. But still, for the most part, it seems like there's not as much of a distinction of certain types of food being only consumed during certain parts of the day in other parts of the world, including Russia. A lot of people here think it's weird to eat leftovers from dinner for breakfast.

~Amy

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

On things being considered "breakfast food" and non-breakfast food, it seems to me that's largely an American thing. Well, ok, my sister spent a semester in England, and she told me that they also had some things that most people would consider breakfast-only food. But still, for the most part, it seems like there's not as much of a distinction of certain types of food being only consumed during certain parts of the day in other parts of the world, including Russia. A lot of people here think it's weird to eat leftovers from dinner for breakfast.

~Amy

This is true. Alla will eat just about anything for any meal. There seems to be no distinction what is "for breakfast" or lunch or dinner. In general they consider breakfast the most important meal (Alla usually does not eat breakfast...just coffee)

Old saying

Keep your breakfast for yourself, share your lunch with a friend, give your dinner to your enemy

[UK_Fan 192]

I think you have to grow up eating russian food in order to appreciate it. Холодец is definitely not for everybody, but it sure is yummy! Пельмени is God's gift to people and блины are what angels in heaven use to cover themselves at night ahaha.

My husband, for example, doesn't eat anything russian unless its candy that mom sends... Оливье is "gross" to him (considering he eats regular potato salad like nobody's business) and пельмени is not his thing either... Oh well, the way I see it - more for me

My mom will be here this summer, so I'm seeing starvation in his future hahaha. I highly doubt he'll be eating anything.

[james&olya 1,121]

Tvorog is THE cheese that they say you should never watch being made.

Alla makes all the food for our dog also, she hates canned food even for the DOG! and Thinks dry food is some sort of torture.

The dog eats "Kasha" (buckwheat) purchased at the Russian store (the owner knows the type Alla prefers..."the expensive good kind") mixed with either boiled beef or chicken(not ground beef, but the same beef she puts in Borscht)finely chopped up and mixed with the buckwheat. She makes a big bowl of it every week and that is the dog's food for the week. Alla makes soup for us from the broth.

After 5 years (the dog is now 8 years old) I can report that the dog is alive and well. The dog is a pekinese so it does not eat much. I am not sure we could afford to feed this to a Labrador retriever.

Tell me about it! We got a yellow lab puppy last summer and Olya spoils it ridiculously. The dog eats at least as well as any human in the house. I don't even want to think about how much the dog is costing us in increased grocery bills!