What Traditional Russian Food Should You Try?
What Traditional Russian Food Should You Try?
Don't take this quiz hungry!
Don't take this quiz hungry!
Are you into mayo?
Do you eat meat?
Are you big on keeping food healthy?
How do you feel about potatoes?
We hope you're into dill & sour cream, because Russians definitely are
Snack, main course or dessert?
Pirozhki
Pirozhki
They said I could be anything... So I became a pirozhok!
This awesome snack is basically a tiny personal pie, but with soft dough instead of a crust. As you may have guessed, anything can be in it, from pork to apple jam. Some more popular traditional versions are meat, cabbage, egg with spring onions, mushrooms, potatoes or a combination of any of the above. Traditional sweet options are apple or cherry. Take your pick!
Blini
Blini
Blini are basically thin pancakes and will look familiar to anyone who's ever seen French crepes. However, the Russians have a different take on what goes with Blini - in a Russian home you'd probably be offered sour cream, jam, and / or butter, with an extra-fancy option being caviar. Try to make them at home: it's both easy and fun, even if you don't get them thin and neat on your first try.
Okroshka
Okroshka
Okroshka is a cold summer soup that consists of a vegetable mix, meat optional, garnishes like dill and horseradish, and Kvas (Russian root beer). Although pouring a fizzy drink into salad sounds like something a 4-year-old would do, it is one of the most popular summer dishes in Russia and pops up in numerous restaurants' menus come June.
Russian Salad
Russian Salad
Russian salad, or Olivier salad as the Russians themselves call it, is definitely the dish for you if you're into potato salad - this is practically a fancy version, made with almost any kind of boiled meat you can dice, peas, carrots, pickles, egg, and, of course, mayonnaise. The more upscale variations can include caviar or crab. It's inevitably served on every Russian table on New Year's Eve, but can casually pop up in any other meal.
Aspic
Aspic
Aspic or 'Kholodets' is probably one of the more unusual traditional Russian dishes: it's meat broth chilled into jelly form, with bits of meat and, depending on the recipe, vegetables. It's traditionally made from parts of the carcass that have enough gelatinous bone marrow to allow the broth to curdle into jelly on its own. Aspic isn't exclusively known in Russia, by the way: it was a very popular dish in the US in the 50s. Meat-lovers, dig in!
Herring 'Under a Fur Coat'
Herring 'Under a Fur Coat'
Herring under a fur coat,or 'seledka pod shuboi' as the Russians call it, is a lesser-known Russian New Year's Eve classic. However, it was also a popular Shabbat choice among Soviet Jews, being a fish salad rather than a meat dish. The herring is soaked in milk for 30 minutes before nearly everything but the kitchen sink gets piled on top of it in neat circles: potatoes, apples pickled beets, boiled eggs, chopped onions, parsley and, of course mayonnaise. This one's a very filling treat!