I love Russians! Really. We have a large enclave of Russians who bolted at the earliest Glasnost thaw, and have set up nicely here in Philly. They have their own newspapers, stores, cyrillic signage all over the place, and restaurants.
Now, because of my cold war upbringing, Ive been kind of scared of Russian food: (“You wan TWO Feesh heads with schwill ?!? NYET!!”)
and except for caviar + blinis + borscht, know NOTHING about Russian cuisine:
what’s good? what’s not? what’s typical? what’s all this about tea?
Ex-pat Russians in particular, what do you miss most about Russian food?
It’s been a few years since there was a Russian restaurant in Boulder, but the food was great. Wish I had spent more time there.
I don’t remember any specific items except for the borscht. They had several kinds – all extremely good. This came as a complete surprise since I generally don’t like beets.
There’s a difference between “russian cuisine” and food that real russians eat. E.g. caviar is expensive, blini and olad’i are cooked not too often, and borsh (I have no idea how to write this word in English) is just one of many soups.
One big difference between american food and russian food is that russians, actualy, cook When I’ve been in US, I had been very surprised that there’s not too much raw food in supermarkets. You can’t buy just meat - it will be packed and half prepared, you can’t buy just cheese - it will be sliced, and so on.
Here we buy raw food and cook it. Most common stuff is some soup (shchi, borshch, pea soup, chicken soup, etc) as a first (and sometimes only) course for dinner (13-16 o’clock) and “vtoroye” - some meat (chicken, beef, pork, all sort of cutlets and sausages) with some garnish - spagetti/vermicelli/etc, buckwheat, rice, potatoes, etc - as a second course for dinner or as a supper (19-23 o’clock). Raviolli can also work as “vtoroe”, but is considered a “fast-food” and cooked only when thare’s no time. All that always comes with bread.
Breakfast may vary. Some salad, or bread-and-butter (and-cheese, and-sausage, etc), or boiled eggs, or omelet, or just some vegetables.
Bread. You americans have terrible bread They put sugar there! And it is so soft that you can’t cut it, so it comes sliced. And you don’t have black bread - at all
Go to russian shop (there certainly are some in any big cities, in NYC they all are at Brighton Beach) and ask for black bread. Or even for borodinsky bread. You’ll find it weird, but that’s something that all russians really lack abroad.
Sausages. In english there’s even no word for two different things - “kolbasa” and “sosis’ki”, you call both of them “sausages”. Ask for some “syrokopchenaya kolbasa” at russian shop (it may be pretty expensive, though) - and try to put that on piece of black bread. Yum [ and do not think about “cholesterine”, “fat”, “calories” and all that nonsense for a while, ok? ]
Milk. Milk is something that is same all over the world, but things which are made from it are completely different. While russian smetana is more or less like sourcream, and tvorog - like curds, russian kefir and ryazhenka are unique. Ask for kefir in russian shop, shake well before drinking and add sugar if you want to But note that it contains some alcohol (less than 1%), it won’t ever make you even a bit drunk, but you still may have problems with cops if you drink too much of it (but you won’t).
Another russian drink - kvass. Modern kvass is more or less like soda (and gives good competition to coca-cola stuff on local market), but it is not. It is closer to beer - but made of black bread instead of wheat, and usually has some sugar. Good kvass contains only natural products, and (as for me) is much more tasty than soda. Same thing about alcohol in it: there is some, but very few.
There’s no cereal here - or at least was no cereal (in american meaning of the word) before 91. Even now, 17 years after, kids get porridge for breakfast, not “corn flakes”. Porridges are made from any wheat you can find - oat, barley, rice, oat, buckwheat, etc. Also there’s a thing called “gerkules” - which is just rolled oats, I suppose, but is so common that is considered as one more sort of wheat
( to be continued, but feel free to ask questions )
OK, now something that is very russian, and can be found in any restaurant with “russian cusine”: the Olivie salad (also known as “russian salad” abroad).
Modern Olivie is boiled potatoes, pickles, peas, boiled eggs, boiled carrots, some potherbs and sausages or boiled meat, all cut in small pieces, mixed and dressed with mayo. That is something that can be found on every table at new year eve, and at many other holidays too. Looks like that: img</a](http://www.kuharka.ru/_gallery/img2/1177364243_88.jpg">img</a)>.
Another popular salad is vinegret salad. Almost the same: boiled potatoes, boiled red beets (the same thing that gives red color to borshch), pickles and/or russian sauerkraut (kvashenaya kapusta, another weird thing you should try), boiled carrots, onions, all cut, mixed and dressed with oil. Looks like that: img</a](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Vinegret.jpg">img</a)>.
Tea. What you read about “russian tea ceremony” in books is not true, that is long time forgotten. Yes, we like tea, and we usually drink smth better than Lipton in single packets, but that’s all. Also there’s a tradition to drink tea while talking - when someone invites you “to drink some tea”, you’ll be sitting with him in the kitchen (russian flats have no separate dining rooms) drinking tea with some cookies or candies ant talking/chatting.
( to be continued, as soon as I think out something more to tell )
When cooked like that, it can be kept in the fridge for long time (a week or so), and used in lots of ways. You can add some milk and sugar, and it will be like some cereal. You can add some salt or ketchup, and it is a perfect garnish. Hikers on rests (I mean those hikers who go hiking for a week or so) often mix that with tinned stew - that’s something really good after the hard day.
One more weird thing you can find in russian shops: the condensed milk, sgushenka. That is, literally, the condensed milk with sugar, a thick white substance, usually comes in tin cans with blue-and-white label. Those of you who drink tea/coffee with cream and sugar, can try putting sgushenka instead.
Another thing is var’onaya sgushenka, “boiled condensed milk” - it is even more thick, has brown color and smell of caramel. You can put that on bread like chocolate butter, or use it in cooking.
I miss buckwheat. As far as I know, it is not for lack of consumer demand, but that farmers stopped growing it because it spreads like a weed and is very hard to control. Also, farmers make more money from other crops, so they just don’t grow buckwheat so much anymore.
I miss buckwheat pancakes, and especially buckwheat burned honey.
They put sugar there! And it is so soft that you can’t cut it, so it comes sliced. And you don’t have black bread - at all 
