Tula gingerbread, Adyghe cheese and Siberian dumplings are on everyone’s lips. Russia is great and the cuisine of the peoples living in it is diverse. This means gastronomic tourism has the right to exist. We have collected ten of the most authentic dishes of the peoples of Russia.
Buuzy, Buryatia
Traditional Buryat buuz were traditionally prepared for holidays or the arrival of a noble guest. They are shaped like a yurt, with a cup-shaped hole at the top. Buryat buuz are steamed. The filling is usually minced meat, herbs and onions. The taste of buuz is somewhat similar to Chinese baozi and manti, and they are eaten with their hands – first they bite closer to the bottom to drink the broth. By the way, buuza must be washed down with hot tea with milk. In Ulan-Ude, delicious blouses are served in the Shene Buuza cafe, where they cost only 35 rubles apiece.
Chak-chak, Tatarstan
A dish of national Tatar and Bashkir cuisine, which sounds simple and is easy to prepare. Chak-chak consists of balls or sticks of soft dough, held together with honey. It’s hard to tear yourself away from a properly prepared sweet. You can try it in any city in the region, but it is best to go to Kazan for a tasting, there is even a chak-chak museum there. During the excursion you will be invited to try several types of this delicacy, see national costumes, drink fragrant tea from a samovar and try other national desserts: baursak and kak-tosh. Well, if you don’t want to go to the museum, you can try a real chak-chak in the cafe of the same name (on the map).
Perepechi, Udmuritia
The most famous dish of Udmurt cuisine is perepechi. They look like an open cheesecake with a diameter of 4 to 12 cm with meat, egg, mushroom or vegetable filling. Usually it is topped with an egg or a mixture of egg and milk. The dish became widely known after the performance of the Buranovsky Babushki at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, who repeatedly advertised the ancient dish.
Perepechas are prepared over an open fire from unleavened dough with rye flour. Served hot. The Perepech.Kin cafe has been operating in Izhevsk for several years now (on the map),
where they cook national dishes, speak Udmurt and promote the culture of the region. The cafe is loved by townspeople and tourists, and is never empty.
Burdock stem salad, Sakhalin region
For residents of Sakhalin, burdock is the same common food as potatoes for Belarusians. Along with cucumbers and cabbage, it is fermented for the winter, then the balcony is filled with jars of burdock and fern. The fact is that one of the main features of Sakhalin vegetation is gigantism. Local burdocks grow up to two meters, and the stems are used for food.
Green burdock sprouts are soaked in cold water overnight, then boiled, peeled from the stems, cut into small pieces and thrown into boiling vegetable oil. Then all this is salted, peppered, sprinkled with soy sauce, sprinkled with sesame seeds and simmered until cooked. The first time you try burdock or fern is with rice.
Talkysh Kaleve, Kazan
The national Tatar dessert talkysh kaleve is a dense pyramid with the fragrant aroma of honey and melted butter. Despite its simple appearance and composition, only experienced chefs can prepare the dish at home. The delicacy tastes like cotton candy, but while cotton candy is made from granulated sugar, talkysh kaleve is made from natural honey. For an unprepared tourist, this dish will look like light halva, which turns into toffee when chewed. For the original taste, you should go to Kazan, where this dish is sold in many stores and served in cafes.
Echpochmak, Tatarstan
A ruddy, triangular-shaped pie filled with minced beef or lamb, potatoes, butter, onions and spices is the most popular Tatar flour product. Local authorities even intended to erect a two-meter monument to him in Kazan. However, for some reason they changed their minds. Echpochmak is served with soup in the amount of three pieces, but, as a rule, it is impossible to limit yourself to three pies. Unlike other similar flour products with meat, the filling in echpochmak is placed raw and reaches the oven in thirty minutes.
Gubadia, Republic of Bashkortostan
Multi-layer pie Gubadiya is usually served at various celebrations, it is a must on the wedding table, as well as on Kurban Bayram and Eid al-Adha. The dish is prepared from yeast or unleavened dough, and the filling can be varied. The traditional version is sweet and served with tea, but there are variations of the recipe. For example, when the filling simultaneously includes cottage cheese, crumbly boiled rice, minced meat with onions, raisins, eggs, prunes and dried apricots.
Kopalkhem, Chukotka
A traditional dish of the peoples of the North, the preparation procedure of which will shock any European. Kopalchen is made from walrus, seal, deer, duck and even whale meat. To prepare reindeer copalchen, a large, fat and healthy deer is used. It is not fed for several days to cleanse the intestines, then it is strangled without damaging the skin. After this, the corpse is immersed in a swamp and covered with peat, covered with branches and stones, and left for several months. At the end of the period, the deer is removed and eaten. Copalchen is also served with ice cream, cut into thin slices. But, of course, you should think carefully before trying this dish – an unprepared person can get poisoned.
Chocolate with honey, Yaroslavl
Despite the fact that chocolate is not a dish of Russian cuisine, in the Yaroslavl region they developed a special variety of it – “chocolate with honey”. A rare and complex dessert, which is prepared at Vadim Kema’s manufactory, located near Yaroslavl, in Gagarinskaya Novoselka. For chocolate made with honey, the best varieties of Colombian cocoa butter are used. Natural flower honey gives chocolate new shades; dried fruits, nuts, spices and natural essential oils are added to it.
Stroganina, Yakutia
Another traditional dish of the northern peoples – very simple to make. Stroganina is served raw frozen; it is freshly frozen northern fish or meat cut into small shavings. Moreover, it is better in small portions to avoid premature defrosting. But not every fish can become planed. The best species: whitefish, omul, nelma, sturgeon, muksun. For taste, stroganina is dipped in “makanina” – salt mixed with ground black pepper.
