How Foreigners Perceive Russian Food
Modern Russian cuisine has absorbed the traditions of both the peoples of Ancient Rus and the countries that were part of the USSR. Some elements it borrowed from Scandinavian, German and French cuisine. This helped to create a unique culinary tradition, and thanks to domestic restaurateurs, it is only getting richer.
Travel Atlas, a gastronomic guide, ranked Russian cuisine 58th out of 100 in its ranking of the best cuisines in the world in 2022. The authors took into account the results of reader voting, where participants chose the best ingredients, dishes and drinks. Among the favorite Russian dishes were pies, pelmeni, porridge, blini, olivier salad, vinegret and medovik.
But some dishes seem incomprehensible and even inedible to foreigners. We tell you which ones and explain why.
Eggplant and Zucchini Caviar
«Overseas caviar, eggplant caviar!» — exclaimed the hero of the movie «Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession» directed by Leonid Gaidai. The joke was subtle: there was plenty of eggplant caviar (unlike red and black caviar) in Soviet stores, but it was not in demand. After the release of the movie, the snack became very fashionable. Sometimes «overseas» caviar in Russia is mistakenly called zucchini caviar. But it is just a purely Soviet product, but eggplant, according to some versions, comes from Iran.
Foreigners are surprised by the name and appearance of «vegetarian caviar». It looks, however, not very appetizing. In other countries, such a dish is usually called «spread». Anything that spread on bread, from cheese to chocolate paste, falls under the category. The Russian name also has a justification: the word «caviar», according to many linguists, is related to the verbs «to cut» or «to trim». Everything is logical, because fish for caviar preparation should be gutted, and vegetables should be chopped.
Foreigners mostly like the taste of caviar made of vegetables. Here, for example, American Justin filmed a review in which he wonders why this dish is called caviar, but still rates the appetizer highly.
Kholodets
Kholodets appeared almost by accident: northern peoples noticed that broth from meat and bones solidifies in the cold. Hence the second name of the dish — jelly. There are analogs in other nations. For example, the French have galantine, Georgians have muzhuzhi, Germans have zelts (it is more like sausage). Nevertheless, kholodets causes surprise and even fear in many foreigners.
What is it in general? Why does it move like jelly, but at the same time there is meat inside? How to eat it? This is how the heroes of the video on the cryptocita channel react to the dish, demonstrating the frequent reaction of foreigners to the kholodets.
«When I saw this dish for the first time, I almost died,» says Italian Caterina Corbella. She was a guest of the Russians and could not refuse the offered treat. However, then Caterina realized that the taste depends very much on how you prepare the cholodets. The girl admits that she eats it only when she is a guest out of politeness.
Hematogen
The sweet treatment for anemia was not invented in the Soviet Union. Hematogen was invented by Swiss physician Adolf Gommel in 1890. Initially it was a mixture: the scientist mixed bovine blood and egg yolk. The name «hematogen» is made up of the Greek words αἷμα «blood» and γένος «birth». Dr. Gommel’s product was advertised as a treatment for «prematurely overworked, feeble-minded, nervous adults and weak, stunted children.»
The hematogen recipe changed over time, for example, glycerin and wine were added to the mixture. Gradually, the product was produced in bars, and in the 1940s created a special «children’s» form, adding sugar and condensed milk. After World War II, children grew up sickly because of malnutrition. Chocolate was in short supply, but hematogen was sold in any pharmacy. So a bar with «black albumin» (dried bovine blood) became a popular treat for Soviet children.
Today, the albumin in hematogen is synthetic, and manufacturers try to remove the glandular taste from the product as much as possible with the help of sweeteners and flavorings. Eating a dietary supplement uncontrollably is not worth it: iron overabundance is no less harmful than iron deficiency.
The story of «bloody Soviet bars» excites foreigners. Vice journalist Mark Hay devoted a whole article to hematogen, and there are dozens of videos on the Internet, the authors of which tell about these bars. However, once they try them, they are mostly surprised: it doesn’t taste as bad as it sounds.
Okroshka
Historically, okroshka was a peasant dish: they ate a «soup» of radish with onions and kvass, or its analogue — tyuryu, where bread or crackers were also crumbled. Wealthy people in the Russian Empire could afford to add meat or fish to such a soup. In the book «Russian Cookery» by Tula landowner Vasily Levshin, okroshka refers to a cold first-serve dish, but before that it was often offered as an appetizer, separating kvass and chopped products. From the delights Levshin gives a recipe for okroshka with sturgeon or beluga.
There are hundreds of recipes for okroshka, they are united only by the fact that the ingredients are very finely chopped, that is, crumble. And they offer to fill the soup with almost anything: beer, sour cream, kefir, whey, yogurt. Some experimenters even cook okroshka with berries on champagne.
While Russians are arguing which okroshka recipe is more correct, on kvass or kefir, foreigners are surprised at both versions of this dish. Okroshka on kefir does not shock them so much, although fermented milk products are unpopular abroad. But they would definitely prefer to share kvass and stuffing, for example, the Spaniards found this combination too strange.
Buckwheat
Russia has been in the first place in the world for buckwheat cultivation for many years. China is in second place, but in Asian countries it is usually used to make noodles. But the options for cooking buckwheat with milk or stewed meat are familiar mainly to residents of post-Soviet countries.
Nutritionists say that buckwheat can be equated with superfund: it has a low glycemic index, but it is very satisfying. This is especially true of green buckwheat, which has not been subjected to heat treatment.
In the USA and Europe, buckwheat is grown for livestock feed, so people don’t eat it much. To get this cereal, you will have to go to a Russian store. The rapper from Tyumen, who moved to the USA, had to order buckwheat on Amazon for $ 11 for his video! But he still gave a try to his friend, an American chef. Tom liked it, but he wasn’t thrilled.
Herring Under a Fur Coat
The symbol of the New Year in Russia, along with the «sausage» version of Olivier salad, appeared on tables in the 1970s.
Although there is a legend about the merchant Bogomilov, who allegedly invented herring under a fur coat in the revolutionary years. According to this version, the top layer of the salad was supposed to symbolize the red flag, and the abbreviation «S. H. U. B. A.» was deciphered as «To Chauvinism and Decadence — Boycott and Anathema.» But, as culinary historian Pavel Syutkin told RIA Novosti, this salad is actually the work of a nameless Soviet hostess, just like the mimosa salad, and the name has no hidden meaning.
Explaining to foreigners that Russians eat herring under a fur coat (literally) is an amusing activity. However, The Americans in the BuzzFeed video, did not appreciate the dish, reasoning that Russians flying into space should not eat such food. Perhaps they were unlucky with the recipe, because most people praise the salad.
Rassolnik
The prototype of rassolnik is considered to be kalya, a soup made of chicken or fish with paius caviar in cucumber brine, to which lemons were sometimes added.
Sometimes the recipe was supplemented with pearl or rice of choice, and meat was replaced with offal, kidneys or liver. An integral part of the soup, except for the brine, is actually pickles.
It is not an easy task to explain to a foreigner why potatoes and cereals should be mixed together. And pickles are not as honored among them as they are among us. The Spaniards differed in their opinions about the soup. If there were not so many complaints about the brine, they compared the boiled pearl soup with children’s cornflakes and air rice. There was a version that someone had already eaten it.
Ryazhenka
This product is made from clarified milk. In the past, it was kept in the oven for a long time. With the transition to factory production, the technology has changed, but the essence remains the same. At home, you can make ryazhenka in the oven — it will turn out with a crust, just like grandma’s.
Abroad, this product is almost unknown like kefir, so it is impressive. However, foreigners are surprised by almost all fermented milk products. If some semblance of sour cream and cottage cheese can be found all over the world, then with the rest there will definitely be difficulties. Greek yogurt, although similar to kefir, but obviously will not replace it.
«And ate and drank at once,» commented Italian Daniel, who tried the ryazhenka. Italian women did not appreciate the ryazhenka: the color, smell and consistency seemed suspicious to them.
Kisel
Kisel is a universal dish: it can be a first and second dish, a drink and even a dessert. It all depends on its composition and consistency. Since school days, Russians are most accustomed to drinking kisel, which is made from starch and fruits and berries. But variants of kisel from the «Domostroy» of the XVI century were unsweetened and were prepared most often from groats or flour: oatmeal, rye, linseed or others.
Kisel was a dish for every day. When hot, oatmeal kisel was eaten with flaxseed or hemp oil, and when thickened, it was cut with a knife and eaten with milk, jam or fried onions. When potatoes and cheap potato starch spread in Russia in the 19th century, it became much easier to prepare kisel. Plus recipes with fruits and berries began to appear.
It is much harder to get a foreigner drunk on kisel than a Russian schoolchild. «I don’t know how to treat it. It’s neither jelly nor Russian mors, it’s something in between. At first I even wanted to dilute it with boiling water to make it look like juice. But I was told that this thick mass should be drunk as it is,» Pei Xia, a student from Vietnam, told regional publication V1.
Dried and Cured Fish
Smoking and drying fish is not only common in Russia. In Portugal, for example, dried cod bacalhau is particularly popular. For centuries, fish was shipped there from Norway and Iceland on ships, so drying and salting became the main ways to keep it edible.
Nevertheless, in Slavic countries, they came up with a special use for dried fish, especially wobla: it became an appetizer for beer. In the main beer drinking countries, the Czech Republic and Germany, it is not customary to snack on dried fish because the flavor is overpowered. The Americans in the BuzzFeed video were shocked by taranka: it smells strong, it’s hard to chew, and those bones…
Photo: Eugene Vorontsov, NatalyaBond, vlasna, New Africa, Vladimir Denisenko, smile23, natkinzu, Dani_Solare, Tatiana Vorona, Skrypnykov Dmytro, — Shuttestock.com; Elena Leya/Unsplash
