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**EtellaObtaite** · 02-12-2009, 10:21 AM

The only Russian restaurant I've ever been to served late 19th century Czarist Russian style food (essentially recipes cooked for the upper classes). It was quite good but I imagine it had little to do with the food average Russians ate then or now. Please describe the food average Russians might eat including traditional foods.

Okay, let's try that.

First of all, we do not follow the breakfast-lunch-dinner routine.

The first meal of the day, the one you have before going to work is zavtrak. Traditionally, you are supposed to eat kasha (groats), but almost no one does that now, so it's usually coffee or tea, and either fried or boiled eggs, boiled sausages or simply some sandwiches (except they are open in Russia so it's not exactly a sandwich).

Around 1pm you have the second meal, obed. A lot of people work in places that don't provide full scale meals so they substitute it with fast food or ramen, but I do. A complete obed consists of:
0) a salad, which normally has no salad leaves at all, it's boiled vegetables and some meat or fish chopped into pea-sized cubes and usually mixed with mayo.
1) a soup, which is usually chopped boiled vegetables in a meat or fish broth. It can be a traditional soup like borshch, shchi, ukha or okroshka, or something invented in the Soviet era or a recipe imported from another country. Pureed soups aren't generally popular.
2) the main course, which is usually some meat or fish or poutlry with some side dish of potatoes, macaroni, rice or buckwheat groats. Pelmeni is another option and a traditional food. Plov is something that's not exactly Russian, but is also a common dish.
3) optionally, some dessert or tea with pastries.

When you get home, it's time for uzhin, if you have a housewife or someone else to cook it for you. It can be 1-2-3, 1-2 or 2-3, using the obed enumeration. If no one is waiting for you, it's something you should cook yourself, probably the same old pelmeni.

The problem with the Russian cuisine is that it has existed as separate cuisines for a very long time. The peasant food was simple and unsophisticated: shchi (with fresh or pickled cabbage), porridge, bread and kvas. The food of nobility was excessively complex, incorporating many imported foodstuffs. The middle ground was occupied byt the cuisine of small-scale provincial nobility and merchantmen: a mix of peasant food that has been enhanced with money (shchi were no longer vegetarian 99 times out of 100) and dumbed down haute cuisine of the top nobles.
Modern Russian cuisine is essentially Soviet cuisine with a thin Westernized veneer that includes fast food, sushi, ramen and rare steaks. Soviet cuisine is a dumbed down version of the merchantmen's cuisine, enhanced with dishes from all over COMECON and the USSR like borshch, stuffed bell peppers, plov, kharcho and shashlik.

02-12-2009, 10:21 AM	#32
EtellaObtaite Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 552 Senior Member	The only Russian restaurant I've ever been to served late 19th century Czarist Russian style food (essentially recipes cooked for the upper classes). It was quite good but I imagine it had little to do with the food average Russians ate then or now. Please describe the food average Russians might eat including traditional foods. Okay, let's try that. First of all, we do not follow the breakfast-lunch-dinner routine. The first meal of the day, the one you have before going to work is zavtrak. Traditionally, you are supposed to eat kasha (groats), but almost no one does that now, so it's usually coffee or tea, and either fried or boiled eggs, boiled sausages or simply some sandwiches (except they are open in Russia so it's not exactly a sandwich). Around 1pm you have the second meal, obed. A lot of people work in places that don't provide full scale meals so they substitute it with fast food or ramen, but I do. A complete obed consists of: 0) a salad, which normally has no salad leaves at all, it's boiled vegetables and some meat or fish chopped into pea-sized cubes and usually mixed with mayo. 1) a soup, which is usually chopped boiled vegetables in a meat or fish broth. It can be a traditional soup like borshch, shchi, ukha or okroshka, or something invented in the Soviet era or a recipe imported from another country. Pureed soups aren't generally popular. 2) the main course, which is usually some meat or fish or poutlry with some side dish of potatoes, macaroni, rice or buckwheat groats. Pelmeni is another option and a traditional food. Plov is something that's not exactly Russian, but is also a common dish. 3) optionally, some dessert or tea with pastries. When you get home, it's time for uzhin, if you have a housewife or someone else to cook it for you. It can be 1-2-3, 1-2 or 2-3, using the obed enumeration. If no one is waiting for you, it's something you should cook yourself, probably the same old pelmeni. The problem with the Russian cuisine is that it has existed as separate cuisines for a very long time. The peasant food was simple and unsophisticated: shchi (with fresh or pickled cabbage), porridge, bread and kvas. The food of nobility was excessively complex, incorporating many imported foodstuffs. The middle ground was occupied byt the cuisine of small-scale provincial nobility and merchantmen: a mix of peasant food that has been enhanced with money (shchi were no longer vegetarian 99 times out of 100) and dumbed down haute cuisine of the top nobles. Modern Russian cuisine is essentially Soviet cuisine with a thin Westernized veneer that includes fast food, sushi, ramen and rare steaks. Soviet cuisine is a dumbed down version of the merchantmen's cuisine, enhanced with dishes from all over COMECON and the USSR like borshch, stuffed bell peppers, plov, kharcho and shashlik.
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