Russian Cuisine, foods and drinks

Original and varied, Russian cuisine is famous for exotic soups, cabbage schi and solyanka, which is made of assorted meats. Russians are great lovers of pelmeni, small Siberian meat pies boiled in broth. Every housewife of any experience has her own recipes for pies, pickles, and sauerkraut. Even more varied is the choice of recipes for mushrooms, one of the most abundant and nourishing gifts of our woods. They are fried, pickled, salted, boiled and what not. "No dinner without bread," goes the Russian saying. Wheat loaves have dozens of varieties. As to rye bread, Russians eat more of it than any nation in the world, a peculiarity of the Russian diet. As the Russian custom has it, a festive table isn't worth this name without a bottle of vodka. Russians are traditionally hearty drinkers:as good whiskey shall come from Scotland, and port from Portugal, so Russian wheat vodka is the world's best. We have an amazing variety to offer, from the clear, colorless Moskovskaya and Stolichnaya to all kinds of bitters with herbs and spices. Of our folk soft drinks, kvass is the best-known. Made of brown bread or malted rye flour, it goes down best on a sultry summer day. If you add it to chopped-up meat and vegetables, you get okroshka, an exquisite cold soup.

Omelets - usually eaten in the morning
Pelmeny - The small balls of minced meat covered with the pastry
Vareniky - it looks like pelmeny however inside the pastry there is no meat but berries, potato or curds
Steak (otbivnaya) - beef and pork ones are most popular
Beef stroganov - pieces of beef prepared with cream sauce
Potato with mushrooms - favourite countryside meal
Borcsh - the famous Russian soup made of beet and meat, usually served with sour cream.
Vegetable soup (shie) - the soup made of cabbage, potato and meat. There is also the specification called “shie postnie” –the same soup without the meat.
Fishsoup (ukha) - the fishsoup with carrot, spices and potato.
Chiken soup (kuryniy soup)
Mushroom soup (grybnoy soup)
Noodle soup - popular countryside dish made of homemade noodle, potato and meat sometimes.
Cold soup (okroshka) - gold “kvas” with vegetables, potato, eggs and spices
Kvas - the bread based sweet beverage. The most popular original beverage in Russia.
Medovuha - the honey based sweet alcohol beverage
Kompot - boiled water with fruits and sugar, served cold
Prostokvasha - the milk based acid beverage, served cold
Samogon - home made vodka, with the strong smell
Vodka - most popular Russian brand
Beer - Russian beer in general a bit acid