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This year the first snowflake had already fallen on the Mátra, the cooler air arrived over the Carpathian basin, so the bright samovar immediately emerged from our commemorative images, we could hear the fire roaring in the furnace, the glasses bouncing and the roar of wolves from the forest.
This article isn’t just for those who have just hit the vodka bottle, but it’s time to give some thought to Russian cuisine.
Russian is not like those who live in other parts of Europe. The Russian does not choose drinks to eat, but snacks for vodka. And since a hearty dinner lunch starts with quite a few vodkas, it’s best to have a variety of appetizers and zucchini on the table. They are mostly fish dishes:
- smoked or marinated salmon,
- rolled or salted herring,
- shrimp and, in more important cases, the rare spiny fish,
- and the unique caviar.
But vegetables should not be missed either:
- cucumbers in vinegar or brine,
- Garlic,
- cabbage and beans,
- boiled potatoes and beets,
- the Apple,
- beets,
- as well as various salads and mushrooms.
The only schedule is that after drinking the 1dl of vodka offered by the host at the door (before swallowing the piece of bread dipped in salt), we have to be included in the toast camp at the table anyway.
The first is a table blessing for the ancestors, the second is for the parents, and the third is for the ladies of the company.
From here, the track is free, the point is that everyone has to say a blessing to something, so that each jackal can arrive on a stomach dusted with vodka. And the more, the better the dinner will be.
Don’t water, baby!
Vodka, “water”, has long been highly valued by Russians. Of course, it is mentioned for the first time as a medicine (1386). Initially, it was still placed on the wounds, but they soon realized that when it was poured into the stomach, it was most useful against all their cramps. The tsars used it as a diplomatic tool in negotiations with foreign ambassadors, but their own people were also decimated by its overconsumption.
Tsar Peter the Great once said that
more people fall for vodka than for enemy bullets,
But that didn’t even stop him from starting the day with 2.5 dl of pepper vodka every morning. The aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, who copied the Tsarist virtue, then meant a market for the aqua-colored drink that In the 16th century, vodka factories and distilleries were opened with Tsarist permission. The drink could be made from cereals or potatoes, with a stipulation:
It must be at least 40 percent so that it doesn’t freeze in the coldest corner of the empire, spurring the pore population to a major or minor revolution.
If you’ve been drinking, let’s eat!
Although it was a festive dish for the first time, pirogh (pirozhki) became one of the most common dishes in everyday life for a few centuries. In the past, it was made only with rye flour, now it is made with wheat, which could later include vegetables (cabbage, then potatoes), mushrooms, fish, or meat where possible at home.
A yeast-free sibling to this fried pasta dish is pelmenyi, which is largely stuffed with meat. It is true that this came to the tables less often, as local people spent almost half the year fasting. At that point, the meat also came out of the popular hot soups, leaving a lot of veggies, cabbage and beets, with a little sour cream. We owe it to the classics that are simmered next to the home oven, such as cabbage chili, soljanka or beet borsch.
In addition to the days of fasting, the few months also defined Russian cuisine, without neither the nor the amount of vegetables, jams and sour compotes in vinegar or pickled.
However, the international reputation of the more sophisticated Russian gastronomy, the worldwide spread of champagne and caviar, along with dishes now accepted as classics, could be attributed to French chefs (as in many European countries). The line started with Napoleon’s former head chef, Marie-Antonin Careme, when he accepted the invitation of Alexander I and became the head chef of the tsarist court, then thanks to his followers and the local chefs who cultivated, in the XIX century. At the end of the 19th century, Russian dishes were inevitably born like the Kiev chicken breast stuffed with garlic butter and parsley (no cheese in the original) or the sirloin Stroganoff.
The first champagne houses also followed a French pattern, but our unique pair, caviar, can be attributed to Russian fishermen.
The most expensive fish caught in the Volga Delta and the Caspian Sea are silver gray (beluga), sturgeon (oscietre) and sturgeon (sevruga) eggs, and the very rare imperial or golden caviar. And if we are not as lucky as the students of the 70s in the Volga region who received a spoonful of caviar on their rye bread for a snack in the school canteen, we can go for the pink salmon caviar (Keta) ” more wallet friendly. “
However, what you cannot miss at the end of dinner is having hot black tea. Pour the tea concentrate over the samovar in a glass, tap the hot water from the samovar and sprinkle with sugar or a tablespoon of jam in your mouth. Then there is only one vodka left, and neither Mátra’s snow nor the great Russian bear can stop us.
The 5 best places to taste Russian food
For Russian flavors, you don’t have to sit on a plane for hours or a train for days, there are also some domestic springs where we can recharge for winter (or summer).
- Golden Caviar Restaurant – although the restaurant on the side of the Buda Castle is turning its cuisine more and more towards French haute cuisine, we can still find some sophisticated Russian classics on its menu. In the exclusive guest room or in the cozy conservatory, we can feel like the tsars used to, especially when they put their famous selection of caviar on the table accompanied by Russian champagne.
- Moscow Square Bistro – who wants bloody Russian cuisine in Budapest, it’s better if you drive to the Hold Street market floor. The most famous classics are served here with bistro lightness: caviar blinit, borsch or solian soup, meat or shrimp dumplings and classic Kiev chicken breast. A rich selection of Russian vodka, champagne and beers guarantees a complete experience.
- Russian bistro Balalajka – Welcome to Russia! Without having to travel thousands of miles, we can be the guests of a bloody Russian family in a bistro in Szolnok. At the door, Kátya and András await the visitor with a troika of bread, salt and vodka, and in addition to the daily homemade dishes according to the local market, we can taste about thirty original Russian vodkas or drink Siberian black tea from a samovar hot.
- Courtyard Ukrainian Restaurant – The brothers of the Russian and Ukrainian cuisine are for each other, so we are not wrong if we want to get closer to them in the cozy restaurant on Ráday Street. Inside, evoking a rustic atmosphere, traditional and homemade dishes by Ukrainian chefs are served by Russian and Ukrainian-speaking waiters.
- Cmak – and if you want to cope with the preparation of Russian food yourself, head to the little delicatessen near the Danube promenade. Upon entering, you will already feel as if you are in Moscow: an army of fresh, dry and frozen ingredients, compotes, pasta, beers, wines, soft drinks. Cyrillic letters on each page and forceful Russian speaking. In addition to their frozen food, we can also buy them online throughout the country.
Cover image: Getty Images Hungary Photographer: Sergei Malgavko
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