10 Russian Products You Can’t Buy Abroad

Probably, it is not in vain that this cereal is so valued that in difficult times it is swept from the shelves in stores. Buckwheat porridge can rightfully be considered our national dish. And all because it grows mainly in the Slavic countries and also in Asia, Israel and Poland. At the same time, China is the leader in “extraction” of buckwheat, but they hardly eat it there – they consider it a low-quality product. In the United States, for example, this cereal is sold in pet stores, and in Europe, birds are fed with buckwheat.

Kefir, ryazhenka, yogurt

Russian emigrants, no matter where they move, all complain as one about the meager assortment of fermented milk products. For us, kefir, fermented baked milk, yogurt, snowball, beefeline and the rest of the million variations are in the order of things. Western and eastern countries do not have such a variety. Foreign sour cream is more like Greek yogurt. And what is called kefir does not even remotely resemble a Russian product. There are no analogues of fermented baked milk at all.

Granular cottage cheese

Another product, ideas about which in Russia differ from those in the West. We are accustomed to the fact that cottage cheese is a crumbly substance, while in European and American countries, cottage cheese is considered a type of young soft cheese. They say that the climate has made its own adjustments. It is colder in Russia, cottage cheese – a rather perishable product – could be stored even without a refrigerator. And for the West, this is unacceptable, it was necessary to figure out how to keep the surplus milk longer, that’s why they began to make cheese. In stores there you can find something resembling curd mass.

Herring

Believe it or not, they eat sweet herring in Denmark! It is marinated with honey or sugar. It is even impossible to imagine. But the salted herring we are accustomed to can be tasted in Holland, although it tastes different there too.

Red caviar

Only in Russia is red caviar considered a delicacy. The rest of the world calls “balls with fish juice” an unnecessary liver. Even the presence of vitamins PP, E, C, A, B1, B2 and minerals phosphorus, fluorine, sodium and magnesium in caviar does not convince foreigners. Even more perplexing is the Russian tradition of eating pancakes with red caviar – abroad they are not used to savory fillings. A hundred years ago, caviar in the United States was considered food for laborers: there was a lot of it, it cost a penny.

Another thing is black caviar or even more rare, white caviar. It is valued abroad as well as its weight in gold.

Pickles

They say you can buy pickled gherkins in the West. Germans, Hungarians, Czechs and Poles are happy to crunch cucumbers from a jar. But in the rest of Western Europe and America, pickles are practically not eaten. And even more so, they are not engaged in harvesting for the winter on such a scale as housewives in Russia do.

Rye bread

You don’t buy a real rye loaf in the USA. And all the rest of the bread there is very different from the Russian one. First, American bread is sweet. Secondly, the stores do not sell bread, but bakery products – buns for hamburgers, for hot dogs, donuts, all kinds of cuts. But all Russians who have tried it note their excessive airiness, softness and moisture. The unusual taste for us is probably due to the fact that Americans like to add niacin and thiamine mononitrate, artificial forms of vitamins B3 and B1, to dough.

Kvass

Remember, earlier in American films, where Russians appeared, they always drank vodka and kvass – true national drinks? And if about the first – rather a stereotype, then the West really had no idea about kvass for a long time – neither in America, nor in Europe. It was only recently that a new trend in the culture of soft drinks began to spread everywhere in the United States. At the same time, Americans compare kvass with their usual kombucha, a sweet and sour carbonated drink based on kombucha.

Dill

Dill can’t ruin a dish, can it? The Russians put it wherever they can. However, the foreign community does not agree with this course of affairs. Europeans literally hated this herb. And the thing is that with dill we now serve non-native Russian dishes – Italian pizza, Mexican burritos, Greek salad. Foreigners are completely at a loss for this habit of Russians. Overkill, they say, do not need it.

Dried fish

What kind of Russian doesn’t like to salute. And surely everyone knows that dried fish is the best snack for beer. But in the West they have a different opinion. There beer goes well with sausages, steaks, smoked meat, smoked cheese, chips, onion rings, meat barbecue, even with sea fish in batter. But foreigners do not like dry fish even in traditionally maritime countries.