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Home → Travel Tips → Russian cuisine
Russian cuisine
Once you are in Moscow on vacation or on a business trip, do not miss the chance to taste delicious Russian dishes. Ask your Moscow tour guide for advice.
Russian cuisine is distinctive and unique, and like any other national one, it was formed under the influence of different environmental, social, geographical, economic, and historical factors. The main feature of Russian cuisine is considered to be an abundance and variety of products used for cooking. There are numerous dishes made of dough such as pies, cakes, rolls, blini, etc. as well as unleavened dough, including dumplings and homemade noodles. Being a country of Orthodox Christian religion which implies numerous fasts, Russian cuisine offers a great number of vegetarian dishes including mushrooms, pickles, etc. The Russian culinary palette is also rich in meat, poultry, and fish dishes which are served on various occasions. There is also a great variety of soft drinks to every taste which must be tasted while you are on a Moscow tour.
If you are willing to taste traditional Russian dishes during your Moscow tour, here are some ideas of what you should try. Those who crave to cook traditional Russian dishes can find some of the recipes. Indulge yourself!
Bliny
is a Russian type of pancakes or crepes. They are usually thin and big, they may be served with sour cream, jam, honey, or caviar or smokes salmon. We often eat blinis folded or rolled with all sorts of filling such as mushrooms, cottage cheese, ground meat, cabbage and many othersread more
Sirniki
Sirniki are small blinis made of cottage cheese. This is a typical food for breakfast or branch.read more
Kasha
Kasha is the most common meal in Russia. It is easy to cook, healthy to eat and everybody can afford it.read more
Pelmeni
Pelmeni are meat or fish dumplings originally coming from the region of Siberia. They are usually kept frozen and cooked in boiled water right before eatingread more
Varenniki
Varenniki are dumpling similar to pelmeni but they're usually stuffed with cheese, mashed potatoes, cabbage, meat, hard-boiled eggs or different fruits (cherry or plump).read more
Pirog
Pirog is a big pie stuffed with fruits, mushrooms, meat or fish.read more
Borscht
Borscht is a soup originally coming from the Ukrainian cuisine but now equally popular in Russia. It has a distinctive reddish-purple color because it’s cooked with beetroot and tomatoes. In Russia borsch is always served hotread more
Okroshka
Okróshka is a cold soup popular in Russia in summer time. The main ingredients include diced raw vegetables, boiled meat, eggs and potatoes. The soup is served with kvas ( a popular Russian fermented drink made from black rye) and sour cream.read more
Shchi
Shchi is one of the staples of Russian cuisine known since the 9th century.read more
Solyanka
Solyanka is a thick, piquant soup popular in Russian and Ukrainian cuisine. It can be cooked with meat, fish, or mushrooms, other ingredients include olives, pickled cucumbers with brine, cabbage, potatoe, sour cream and dill. read more
Sorrel soup
Sorrel soup is extremely popular in Russia in summer time. It’s healthy and easy to cook. The main ingredients include sorrel leaves, potatoes, carrots, parsley and eggs. read more
Herring under the fur coat
Herring under the fur coat - is a traditional Russian salad. It's loved in Russia but might appear a rather weird dish to a foreigners. The salad has several layers: salted herring is covered with chopped onions, potatoes, carrots, beet roots and dressed with mayonnaise. read more
Salad Olivier
Salad Olivier is usually known as Russian salad in the West. It is popular in winter season. Among its ingredients are boiled potato, peas, meat, pickled cucumbers, onions, eggs and carrots.read more
Vinegrette
Vinegrette is a traditional Russian salad made of boiled beets, potatoes, carrots, pickles, onions and sauerkraut. It is easy to cook and remains very popular especially in winter time.read more
Holodets
Holodets is a traditional Russian meal which is served during various celebrations. The word holodets derives from the Russian word “holod” meaning “cold”. It is so because the final step of its meal preparation is cooling it in the fridge. Holodets looks like a meat jelly with pieces of meat, at times vegetables such as carrot and spices. To prepare holodets is very easy, but very time-consuming as well.read more
Pickles
Pickled cucumbers have been known in Russian for centuries. Since it is quite commonly grown culture, lot of recipes how to pickle cucumbers appeared. There is century old tradition in Russian to eat pickles as a “chaser” after drinking vodka, another tradition - to have them with potatoes.read more
Beef stroganoff
Beef stroganoff - a Russian dish very popular around the world. Small pieces of beef filet (usually strips) are sautéed in sour cream together with onions and mushrooms.read more
Chiken Kiev
Chicken kiev is a popular dish of chicken breast rolled around butter. It’s often stuffed with grated cheese, mushrooms, herbs, egg yolk, then breaded and baked in oil.read more
Sbiten
Sbiten is a traditional Russian hot beverage, very much loved by Russians in winter time.read more
Kvass
Kvas is a traditional beverage, quite refreshing in summer time, so-called Russian Coca-Cola. It is known as slightly fermented rye bread drink. It contains less than 1 % of alcohol, so even children are allowed to drink it.read more
Mors
Mors is a popular Russian drink made of sweetened berry juice mixed with water. Most traditional mors is prepared on the basis of cranberries, but you can also taste mors made of blackcurrant, raspberry, sea-buckthorn, cowberry and other berries of the season.read more
Varenye
A traditional Russian home-made jam. It’s very popular in Russia to make jam at home out of strawberry, apricots, cherry, raspberry and other fruits and berries of the seasonread more
Pryaniki
Pryanik is a sweet bread or cookie flavored with spices; it’s often described as "Russian gingerbread". Praniki are usually filled with jam, caramel or honey.read more
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