How to survive a foreign tourist in Siberia, when he will be fed local food. Part I. Soups
Suppose you have plucked up the courage. We gathered our willpower and went on a tourist route to the distant Russian Siberia. What to eat in this wild country, how not to get poisoned and survive after getting acquainted with the Siberian cuisine? :)
In fact, of course, it is clear that all these big words about survival are just a joke that precedes this article, in which I will try to briefly give an idea of what a foreign tourist can see in front of him on the table for lunch.
Some dishes that tourists encounter in Siberia may seem strange, unusual, or even repulsive to them. At the same time, it should be noted that the tastes of tourists from China, Japan and the tastes of tourists from the West often differ significantly, but nevertheless, almost always any tourist finds suitable and comfortable food, and often discovers something new and bright in cooking.
This article will not be any abstruse, encyclopedic and attempt to embrace everything. This is just a post about everyday things and maybe some tips on what to try for a tourist from not quite everyday cuisine. This concludes the preface.
So, what should a foreign tourist eat in Siberia? In large cities with a population of more than a million people like Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Omsk, Tomsk, Barnaul, and in smaller cities as well, the tourist in principle has a huge choice of where to eat or what to buy in supermarkets and cook for themselves. I will not touch on the topic of high restaurant cuisine, since I myself rarely visit such establishments. I will limit myself to notes about the cuisine in more “popular” establishments. Although this is certainly not a recommendation for you, dear tourist. On the contrary, I would recommend you to visit restaurants in major cities, especially with the current exchange rate of our national currency, this should not be too expensive for you. But in the article, I will still move on to more everyday things.
As I said, in any more or less large city, there is a large selection of food options. There are both establishments with local cuisine, and various Western familiar fast food chains, such as McDonald’s, KFS, various pizzerias. Also widely represented are establishments with post-Soviet Middle Eastern cuisine (Georgian, Uzbek, Armenian, etc.), which I will not mention in this article, because they require a separate article. They can be found almost everywhere, along with simple establishments. In the first articles of the series about food in Siberia, we will remember the representatives of the most ordinary Russian and Soviet cuisine as the basis of our food, and closer to the final I will already recommend paying attention to several authentic Siberian dishes of different peoples.
I think, first of all, a foreign tourist may encounter here with the classic Soviet cuisine. The simplified traditional model of Soviet food includes salad,” first course “- soup, “second course” — hot (main course in the view of a European) and dessert with a drink.
Let’s start with the soups. As far as I noticed when visiting Western countries as a tourist, this is not the most popular position in Europe. In addition, the word “soup” most often meant a slightly different dish. Also, in general, it should be noted that in Russia, soups are usually noticeably thicker and richer in ingredients, often based on a rich meat broth. This is just an echo of the tradition, a tribute to the climate of the country. Soups will have to devote quite a large part of the story. I think these dishes are unusual and little-known to tourists — it is not for nothing that it is believed that no other cuisine in the world has such a variety of soups as in Russian.
Borsch (Beetroot soup)
First of all, you will probably find borscht from soups. Here someone can start to be indignant, insisting that borscht is a national Ukrainian dish. However, this, in my opinion, is a sign of nationalist narrow-mindedness. This dish is historically equally inherent in the entire region of the south-western part of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, which is not surprising, it is actually one nation. Siberian cuisine was formed by a variety of migration traditions. The presence of something supposedly narrowly national in the traditions of Siberian cuisine, and even more so Soviet (the USSR was born, ideologically rejecting the conventions of nationalism) should hardly confuse anyone. I propose to finish this historical opus, the topic of our review is food, not history :)
So, borscht is a kind of soup of the Cabbage Soup subclass based on beetroot, which gives it a characteristic ruby color. Siberian borscht is always based on a rich meat broth. In the traditions of other regions, borscht can also have a purely vegetable base. In the modern version of borscht, in addition to beets, the main vegetable ingredients are cabbage and potatoes.
For Siberian borscht, the classic serving involves black bread, grated with garlic or garlic lard. This is not a mandatory thing, but it seems to me very authentic and emphasizes the taste and character of this bright soup. A spoonful of sour cream is almost mandatory in borscht before serving, it neutralizes the acidity and emphasizes the taste.
Shchi (Cabbage soup)
Next, I will actually mention the Shchi. This is a traditional Old Russian chowder, which is distinguished by the method of cooking-stewing soup over low heat. There are a great many recipes for Shchi. this is literally a whole subspecies of Russian soups. The main ingredient of Shchi is cabbage, often sauerkraut. Cabbage soup Shchi is distinguished by its proprietary acidity, which is usually achieved by using sauerkraut or cabbage brine. But it can be replaced or combined with, for example, sorrel, apples or salted mushrooms.
However, sorrel, mushrooms — these products you will find more likely in more exotic versions of soup in the restaurant, besides this is a seasonal dish. Very rare now — seasonal green soup with nettle, they can be considered quite an eco-friendly dish, although in my childhood, I remember, in the early summer they were often on the table.
Post-Soviet public catering often offers classics based on sauerkraut, with the addition of potatoes, beans, roots (carrots, onions) without pre-frying (also a feature of Shchi). Siberian traditions bring to Shchi, as well as to any traditional soups, the richness of broth on meat.
Ukha (Fish soup)
Ukha is one of the oldest dishes of Russian cuisine. Clear concentrated broth with fish. If you imagine the Marseilles bouillabaisse at one pole, Ukha will be at the opposite pole. The fish from which the right ear is prepared should be the freshest, even better alive. Not any fish is suitable, but only sticky and tender varieties. In coastal regions, some types of marine fish go to fish soup, but in Siberia, of course, this is only fresh river fish.
Very important dishes for Ukha. You only need non-oxidized, enameled or clay. Often, fishing tourists break this rule by boiling fish soup over a fire in aluminum or cast-iron pots. Well, the trends of the time and technological progress. This spoils the taste of the classic dish. However, fishermen have their own remedy for correcting glandular taste — a glass of vodka in a cauldron with fish soup at one of the cooking stages as an antioxidant. Other important rules when preparing fish soup-fresh cut fish is thrown not into water, but into a boiling salted vegetable broth based on onions and carrots. Ukha is cooked with the lid of the pan open, languishing for a long time on low heat, boiling is unacceptable here.
The rich taste of the transparent fish broth is complemented by a wide use of spices. Modern versions of Ukha, which probably now meet a tourist in Russia, most likely will have a certain amount of potatoes and rice in the composition for density. Ukha is traditionally served with a fish pie called “rasstegay” and a glass of vodka, which is consumed before tasting the soup.
Solyanka (Rich soup)
The top four popular soups in the Siberian region include solyanka. This is a thick, fat, rich soup, most often with meat, sometimes with fish or mushroom broth. Solyanka is characterized by the use of a large number of different meat ingredients. Most often in public catering you can find a combined meat solyanka, which will include, for example, boiled beef, pork brisket or bacon, chopped sausages, smoked chicken meat. In general, the smoked quality of one of the ingredients is a sure sign of a good solyanka. The base of the solyanka is sour-salty-spicy due to the addition of pickles, possibly pickled mushrooms, spices. In a modern hodgepodge, you will probably find a little olives or olives and a slice of lemon. Traditionally, a spoonful of sour cream in the soup will shade the acidity of the rich soup.
Solyanka, as a rule, is the most high-calorie version of the soup, an excellent means of restoring strength in cold weather. I heard that solyanka was very popular in East Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel often tastes this dish. It’s true?
Rassolnik (Pickle soup)
Speaking of Russian soups, it is necessary to mention the Rassolnik. This is a slightly acidic slightly salted soup based on pickles or brine with the addition of potatoes and pearl barley, as well as a good set of spicy spices that give this soup a bright rich taste. Rassolnik can be both vegetable and meat broth, with meat or meat offal (hearts, kidneys, giblets). In Siberia, the meat variant with increased density prevails.
Gribnitsa (Mushroom soup)
Also, the traditional Siberian soup can be considered a gribnitsa or mushroom soup, as it will be called in the menu of simple establishments. Nevertheless, the cuisine of Siberia is a variety of natural gifts in the first place, and taiga mushrooms are one of the most popular products in our country. This is completely different from European mushroom cream soups. We have a clear rich broth with a pronounced taste of wild mushrooms, the most appreciated aromatic white mushrooms, good options for gribnitsa will be with aspen mushrums or opyata (seasonal autumn mushrooms, popular in Siberia), restrained spices, designed to only slightly shade the shades of natural mushroom taste. The composition will also probably include potatoes, root vegetables.
Please note that in budget establishments, mushroom soup can be made from farm champignons, and this is not at all the same as a real gribnitsa made from wild forest mushrooms that have absorbed the real aroma and taste of the Siberian taiga. In addition, the ordered mushroom soup may be a variation of the Western cream soup with farm champignons or oyster mushrooms. This is certainly delicious, I myself love creamy soups, but if you want Siberian authenticity, then this is not our option. When ordering, you should specify the composition of the soup.
Goroshnitsa (Pea soup)
Speaking of popular Russian and Soviet soups, it is necessary to mention goroshnitsa or pea soup. As the name implies, the basis of the soup is peas. Most often dried. The soup may have a yellow or pale greenish color depending on the variety of peas. In terms of consistency, this is probably the thickest of the Russian soups. In addition to the main product, the soup will contain potatoes and root vegetables. In general, I do not recommend ordering this soup in cheap establishments — it is more dependent on the quality of the original product than others. A good pea dish will be necessarily with smoked meat, a rich meat component such as ribs, and this is usually not found in cheap establishments. Pea soup is served with fried garlic croutons and richly seasoned with black and allspice.
Chicken Broth (Chicken Soup)
Even in the menu of establishments you can often find chicken broth. In general, this dish can be safely attributed to the traditional Soviet cuisine, especially if you meet a variant of broth with pieces of dough, which in the European part of the country are called “galushka” (dumplings), in Siberia more often called “kletski”.
But now we have it almost everywhere, it is prepared in the Asian style, with an egg a la ramen, both with noodles and without. Usually, the chicken broth is served with crackers from white bread, which before use should be thrown in portions into a plate with broth, so that they are slightly soaked, but still crunchy at the time of eating. We have a topic about Russian cuisine, so I do not see any point in dwelling on chicken broth in detail.
I will only say that chicken broth or soup is a first-class remedy for improving health after a stormy evening, when you have not yet drunk so much that your head is splitting and urgently needs to take cucumber brine, but you still feel broken or even slightly feverish.
…At this point, I can see in my gut how the reader frowns disapprovingly at the confirmation of stereotypes about Russians and vodka. No, this is really a stereotype, the consumption of vodka in the country has fallen tenfold in comparison with the period of collapse in the nineties, and statistically now the same British and even Japanese drink a head more alcohol than Russians. However, the consumption of low-alcohol products is growing strongly in Russia.
However, this is an offtop and the topic is possible for another article.
Okroshka (Summer soup)
It is also extremely necessary to mention a dish that is considered very authentic. Okroshka. A cold appetizer, similar to soup (many actually consider okroshka soup), which most often foreigners look at us with quietly hidden horror :)
Okroshka is a mixture of finely chopped vegetables and a meat component, seasoned with one of the rather specific drinks. Okroshka-taste in the absolute, every family, every hostess has its own recipe. It can be anything, but most often the inside of okroshka in the usual Soviet version resembles a salad “winter”. Chopped boiled potatoes, carrots, fresh and salted cucumbers, radishes or daikon, eggs, sausage “doctor” or some boiled meat, disassembled into fibers. Finely chopped green onion, dill, parsley and spicy spices to taste. It is usually refueled with a traditional Russian drink made from bread-kvass, which I will definitely tell you more about in the following parts of the article. Moreover, it is correct to fill it with a special white okroshechny kvass, it is noticeably sourer and less sweet than the traditional Borodino kvass.
The southern regions of Siberia often fill okroshka with cold fermented milk products — kefir or ayran. Also popular is the Soviet dressing of chilled boiled water, seasoned with food vinegar. Caucasian okroshka is refueled with mineral water. Before use, a spoonful of sour cream is added to the okroshka with a non-dairy dressing, if desired.
A distinctive feature of okroshka is a seasonal, summer, very refreshing dish, which is usually consumed in hot weather. According to the meaning of its use, its closest friend can apparently be considered Spanish gazpacho, only the products are not ground, but finely chopped, well, the dressing is special, specific.
On the topic of soups discussed today, I will add. I did not mention soups and similar texturally Middle Eastern and Asian dishes, such as Georgian kharcho, Kazakh and Uzbek shurpu, lagman, Asian ramen and tom yam. They are quite popular with us and can often meet tourists in public catering, but still go beyond the scope of our discussion. In addition, if Middle Eastern cuisine is prepared most often by carriers of this culture and is quite reliable, then Asian soups are quite far from the original.
That’s probably all for today. In the next article in the planned series on this topic, we will talk about salads and possibly hot dishes. And now I wish the reader a pleasant appetite, perhaps you are hungry, reading this article :)
…to be continued :)
