Before condemning the taste preferences of foreigners and snorting at the sight of soup made of bats with the fried heads of these bats sticking out of a bowl, or frantically catching the air with your mouth open when you are offered dog meat at the Asian bazaar, take a critical look at your own table: there will probably be strange and incomprehensible foreign tourists the dishes they try with caution. We bring to your attention 9 dishes of Russian cuisine that will shock foreigners.
Not every guest from abroad will treat the Russian menu with suspicion. For example, it is generally accepted that lard is a product that is eaten exclusively in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, but in the same Spain, in the markets, pieces of salted lard, which is called panseta, are sold there. It tastes a little different from our lard, but the Spaniards eat it with pleasure, so it will not be possible to impress the representatives of the Iberian Peninsula with lard.
Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and other residents of Eastern Europe, where they actively prepare various soups, will not express any surprise at the sight of a plate of borscht.
In restaurants of Russian cuisine, the most surprising are the dishes on the table:
- the Japanese - even those who travel a lot and have tried European delights more than once, will treat some Russian delicacies with distrust and apprehension;
- Americans who, outwardly showing no emotion, simply will not order anything unfamiliar;
- residents of Western Europe, not spoiled by shops of Russian products and restaurants of Russian cuisine, who will definitely try new dishes for themselves in order to form their own opinion.
The strangest Russian dishes that raise a lot of questions from foreigners are as follows.
Aspic
Look at jellied meat through the eyes of any foreigner. This dish is a jelly with meat. The first question that sounds from the lips of a resident of another country: "Why is this done?"
And when the guide or the chef begins to tell you that the broth, which should later turn into jelly, is boiled, for example, on pork hooves, foreign tourists cannot get out of the shock state for a long time.
Many visitors, after sitting over jellied meat, come to the conclusion that Russians simply prefer the cold. So there are rumors about mysterious Russians, whose soul no one will ever understand.
Okroshka
Soups that do not need to be cooked over a fire are a rare surprise in the world. However, okroshka plunges absolutely all foreign guests into a stupor. And if they are served okroshka with a base of kvass, and not kefir, then you can be sure that upon arrival home all these tourists will become the stars of their companies, describing how they were fed with an incomprehensible dish in which sausage, cucumbers and a strange drink are mixed.
Foreigners don't like kvass at all. And when a bunch of other ingredients are mixed with it and offered to eat for lunch, it causes disbelief and surprise. Most tourists from other countries generally believe that the Russians are joking at them by slipping okroshka on them.
Sour cabbage soup
Even our closest neighbors, the Czechs and Poles, who have soups like cabbage soup in their diet, will be skeptical about this dish.
For any foreigner, sour cabbage soup is too oversaturated with tastes. There is too much of everything here: greens, vegetables, spices, acids. Some visitors from other countries, having tasted shchi for the first time, compare them to a salad filled with broth. However, other first courses in Russia are honored with such a comparison.
Kissel
This strange drink - viscous, unlike all the others - is not in demand among foreign citizens. Most tourists will try to dilute the jelly poured into a glass with water. If jelly is presented to tourist groups in plates, calling it an original Russian dish, then be sure that they will not even try it.
The vinaigrette
There are legends about Russian salads in the West. Moreover, those tourists who were lucky enough to try local salads do not remember at all that they invented these dishes in Europe.
Not all salads are rejected by foreigners. They enjoy eating Olivier. And in some countries, Olivier is even sold in ordinary supermarkets, rolled up in a tin container.
Foreigners don't like the vinaigrette. Most visitors think that this salad looks unappetizing. Slicing of vegetables is also criticized.
Herring under a fur coat
This is the kind of dish that Americans will not even take in their mouths. They believe that any fish must necessarily undergo heat treatment. And the fish that has not been fried or steamed is raw.
The Chinese will also snort at the sight of herring under a fur coat. They will be alerted by a large amount of mayonnaise.
Europeans won't like finely chopped ingredients in this salad.
Absolutely all visitors are surprised how in one dish it is possible to combine completely unsuitable products for each other.
However, those foreigners who give herring under a fur coat a second chance will then be happy to eat this salad throughout their vacation in Russia.
Buckwheat
Russians who have moved to European countries for permanent residence know that buckwheat is sold there only in stores for Russians. Foreign housewives do not cook buckwheat and generally do not perceive it as a worthy dish.
Buckwheat is treated with great warmth on the territory of the former Soviet republics, in Poland, Korea and Japan. In all other countries, buckwheat porridge will be considered a perversion.
Pies with cabbage
Pies with different fillings are prepared in many countries. Basically, fruits, meat, some vegetables are wrapped in the dough. However, nowhere, except for the post-Soviet countries, sour cabbage is added to pies. Foreigners do not support the love of Russian chefs for cabbage at all. And pies with sauerkraut fried in oil …
Kurnik
Kurnik, especially with several fillings, which looks like a large round-topped pie is not a dish that can delight foreigners. Only residents of China willingly eat it. Everyone else will twist their noses and politely refuse the treat.
The explanation for this attitude towards kurnik is simple: a foreigner believes that everything that lay in the refrigerator was used to make this pie.
It is still possible to feed a tourist from distant countries once: tell him that this is a kind of calzone - a closed Italian pizza. But after tasting, you still have to apologize for such a deception.
