Russian cuisine that a foreigner will never eat

Quote: “Lard is a distant relative of bacon, consists of layers of fat, usually salted and seasoned with black pepper. Lard is stored in the refrigerator and eaten raw. Basically, you are eating pure fat. Unbeatable with rye bread! ” According to a foreigner, it is worth trying lard, if only because it sounds and looks just awful out of habit. But what a rich aroma, what a different taste! “This is the perfect dish to get out of your culinary comfort zone,” recommends lard on one travel site.

Dumplings are also described very funny because they are often served with sour cream, and in English there is no special word for this product. “Cream cheese, only thick, fatty and heavy” – that’s how they describe it. Therefore, sometimes the word “sour cream” is simply written in Latin. “They are like tortellini, only better,” tourists write about the dumplings. Or here’s another: “This is a specific Russian version of Chinese dumplings. Made from thin unleavened dough, like for pasta. Filling of minced meat, onions, mushrooms, and sometimes turnips. ” Dumplings with turnips – cool, huh? Not all Russians have tried this.

Every Russian knows how many useful substances are contained in buckwheat porridge, and we are already accustomed to the nondescript brownish-grayish color of this product and even learned how to create new tastes by adding mushrooms and onions or milk and butter to the porridge. However, for foreigners, this product still remains a “strange mess”, and they are even afraid to taste it. No problem! We’ll get more.

A treasure trove of minerals and nutrients. People with low hemoglobin levels understand that this is not even food, but their own “cure for all ills.” And if the liver is cooked in moderation, seasoned with spices and all the same mysterious sour cream, then it turns out to be very tasty. However, foreigners are intimidated by the dark appearance and strange taste of this product. And if it is buckwheat with liver, then for many to try such a duet on a plate is tantamount to jumping from a bungee.

“What a disgusting jellied fish of yours!” – says the sincere and disappointed Hippolytus in “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!” And many foreigners will support him and wonder what could be different. Is it really possible to eat cold slippery fish flavored for New Year and enjoy it? Quite, if you add horseradish to this. Although a lot still depends on the talent of the hostess. After all, it may turn out to be really not very edible.

A dish that invariably plunges tourists into a stupor. It’s not clear why, by the way. After all, in fact, beef stroganoff is just pieces of fried beef in sour cream sauce. Apparently, the whole thing is in sour cream – since there is no such product abroad, then it will not work to cook beef in it. “A healthy and homemade meal. It looks like what you cook for your family on Sunday night, ”recommend on the forums.

Foreigners call our pancakes crêpes – these are thin pancakes that are prepared in Central Europe. Some even call pancakes pancakes. And pancakes are actually closer to pancakes. They describe it like this: “Pancakes are an important part of Russian cuisine. At the Russian festival called Maslenitsa, the beginning of spring is celebrated with pancakes. Pancakes are fatter and thicker than crêpes and are served with meat, cheese, or something sweet. It is best to eat pancakes with caviar or sour cream. Russians also add to sour cream a disgusting herb called dill, which Russians shove literally everywhere. “

“Chopped beef, wrapped in cabbage and steamed,” describe stuffed cabbage. – Not everyone likes boiled cabbage, but sour cream on top makes everything better. And you either love cabbage rolls or you hate them. In the question of stuffed cabbage, the average is not given. ” In addition, foreigners note that cabbage rolls look awful without sour cream or tomato sauce: stuffed cabbage leaves, what is so beautiful here. And how could anyone have come up with such a thing – stuffing cabbage leaves?

Jellied meat, this twin brother of jellied fish, is described well, very unappetizingly: “Imagine jelly, just not with fruit, but with pieces of meat. It looks like a very thick frozen meat broth. It sounds awful, but it’s a very healthy and delicious dish. Especially with vinegar and mustard. ” However, jellied meat is a controversial dish for Russians, some people like it, some don’t. But it is simply impossible to imagine a New Year’s table without it. And by the way, yes – jellied meat is useful. It contains so much collagen that joints, skin and hair cry with happiness.

Okroshka is considered a cold soup. If in our kitchen soup is an obligatory part of the menu, then for a foreigner it is a rarity. Perhaps puree soup. “Its taste is difficult to describe. You take a cucumber, radish, boiled potatoes, meat and eggs, mix, pour in kvass. To make this ‘beer soup’ even better, add sour cream and dill – Russians put dill everywhere! ” Moreover, foreigners are sure that the guarantee of okroshka taste is not so much in kvass as in potatoes. “Russian potatoes – they can be replaced with other vegetables, but tastier with them,” conclude gourmet travelers.

The story with semolina is the same as with cabbage rolls – they either love it or hate it. But in Russian cafes this is a common breakfast dish. Many devour it with appetite and even with tears, but with their eyes, remembering barefoot childhood. Foreigners look at such people, eating a substance of a strange consistency, more like building material than food, with sincere bewilderment. However, for them, porridge is generally not the most familiar dish.

Kissel seems to foreigners an unfinished product, reminiscent of undercooked jelly or marmalade. At the same time, they consider the aroma and color of the drink to be quite attractive, so tourists taste it with interest and find it very tasty. However, they still continue to call each other “liquid jelly”. For foreigners, our traditional drinks are generally nonsense, the same compote or fruit drink. The latter, by the way, was very fond of the Rasmus group when they were on tour in our country. Yes, and one more thing: jelly is not a drink, as is commonly believed, but food. Moreover, it must be served with pies, which will be discussed below.

The name is more scary here than the type of dish. But since it is cold in Russia and sometimes bears walk on the streets instead of cats and dogs, the herring may also have a fur coat. Anything is possible in cold climates. However, if we explain that a fur coat is a metaphor, and the herring is under several layers of different ingredients, everything falls into place. The bears turn into cats and dogs again, and the herring under the fur coat turns into a completely edible salad with fish, potatoes and beets.

It would seem that what could be more familiar than pies. But no. In the West, they bake big pies, make kishi, but our portioned pies for foreigners are nonsense. “The main thing in pies is dough. The filling is secondary, ”they are sure. By the way, Tatyana Tolstaya, a writer and culinary specialist, also believes that you can understand everything about a restaurant by using a pie dough. But she is also picky about fillings. “These fried or baked pockets can be stuffed with anything: potatoes, cabbage, meat, eggs, onions, unicorns, and diamonds. This is an ideal snack, and a very cheap one, ”tourists say about the pies.