Russian Cuisine-Part 1

Continuing with our Russian education is a topic near and dear to my heart...FOOD! Here are some of Russian's favorite foods. Sour cream seems to be a staple there--YEAH!

Russians have their own version of crepes, a thin and delicate version of pancakes, called Blini. Blini are basically made from the same batter, and are also very thin, but are sometimes much, much bigger (as big as a medium pizza), so that they can hold hot food inside. As with crepes, you can eat just about anything inside blini -- because they can be used for breakfast, dinner or dessert. You can order them with fruits, with caviar, or with chicken and other meats inside. And Russians even eat them with sour cream!

Another favorite dish for Russians is called pelmeni, which translates literally to ear-shaped dish. Pelmeni are very similar to ravioli in the sense that they're a little pocket of cooked dough with meat inside. They're easy to cook and easy to eat, though you probably won't put tomato sauce or pasta sauce on top -- however, they are very delicious with melted butter and sour cream!

One of Russia's most popular soups is Borsh, or beet soup. Borsh is the type of soup that each Eastern European family has their own recipe for, so while you're in Russia, you can expect to have a different experience for each person who makes it. Cooking borsh can be an art-form for the Russian people, and may take hours and hours to prepare. Part of the flavor is not only what ingredients you use but the amount of time you cook it and even the way you chop the vegetables. So if you're eating home-made borsh, it's definitely a compliment to the family's unique recipe if you enjoy their soup! The common vegetables in borsh are beets, of course, but often there are also potatoes, cabbage, carrots, meat, and a variety of other ingredients. The finishing touch before you begin eating borsh is, of course, sour cream!

Salads are very popular in Russian cuisine, but are not generally made of lettuce or other greens. A salad, for a Russian, is very similar to our usual potato salad or chicken salad. It's based on many different chopped ingredients, held together by a lot of mayonnaise. Russians are not afraid of eating mayonnaise! Sometimes there will only be a few ingredients -- like a delicious mayo, ham, and cheese salad. Sometimes there will be every vegetable imaginable -- carrots, garlic, peas, pickles, cabbage, etc all in one bowl.(All information was taken from TravelAllRussia.com, so I can't vouch personally for reliability of the information. But, since I've never been there and it sounds good to me, I'll go out on a limb and say it's accurate.)

I don't know...it all sounds fairly edible except for the beet soup and the mayonnaise dishes. I've never liked beets. I can't imagine "drinking" them--no matter how much sour cream you add. I'm a picky eater. If it smells funny or looks gross, I can't eat it--even if I want to try. I hope I don't starve when I'm there. I'm sure most restaurants will have chicken, which if fine, except it usually comes with "special sauce" that often doesn't make it fine any more. Maybe I should try making some Russian dishes before we leave to get my pallet revved up...