bifshteks
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: bifshteks
Etymology: From Russian бифште́кс (bifštéks), in turn from English beefsteaks.
Senses: examples: text: Duck is also a feature of the menu and the bifshteks is reasonably tender, though not so good as that served by the Natsional’.
ref: 1974, Lynn Fisher, Wesley Fisher, “Frunze Region”, in The Moscow Gourmet: Dining Out in the Capital of the USSR, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Ardis, →ISBN, “Listings by Region” section, page 67:
text: On the menu were chicken soup with noodles, “bifshteks” — a form of hamburger patty — and sliced cucumber salad. The soup was actually quite good, but the bifshteks were on the greasy side.
ref: 1976 September 12, Ron Oechsler, Debra Oechsler, “Eight Days on the Train? You’re Crazy!”, in Sunday World-Herald Magazine of the Midlands (The Omaha World-Herald), Omaha, Neb., page 19, column 3:
text: One of the first places you come to heading up the street from Okhotny ryad, Kafe Sadko, is actually a cut above the others, with waiters, individually prepared food, and drinks: a bifshteks, chicken or fish main course is around US$5.
ref: 1996 July, John Noble, Andrew Humphreys, Richard Nebeský, Nick Selby, George Wesely, John King, “Moscow – Places to Eat”, in Russia, Ukraine & Belarus (a Lonely Planet travel survival kit), Hawthorn, Vic.: Lonely Planet Publications, →ISBN, page 291, column 1:
text: There was little variety in the daily fare of “kasha” (hot whole grain cereal), bread, “bifshteks” (a hard lump of beef) and potatoes.
ref: 2004 November 28, Karla Cruise, “Russia today: Study in curious contrasts”, in South Bend Tribune, Michigan edition, 132nd year, number 265, South Bend, Ind.: South Bend Tribune Corp., page F4, column 3:
text: Bifshteks is a slice of broiled beef and can be almost any cut of steak, not tenderloin as sometimes translated on the menu (regrettably for the eager diner).
ref: 2005, Glenn R[andall] Mack, Asele Surina, “Eating Out”, in Food Culture in Russia and Central Asia (Food Culture around the World), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 139:
text: Kids’ menus are uncommon, but you shouldn’t have much problem getting the littl’ uns to guzzle bliny or bifshteks – Russian-style hamburger served without bread, and often topped with a fried egg.
ref: 2006 March, Simon Richmond, Mark Elliott, Patrick Horton, Steve Kokker, John Noble, Robert Reid, Regis St Louis, Mara Vorhees, “Food & Drink”, in Russia & Belarus, 4th edition, Hawthorn, Vic.: Lonely Planet Publications, →ISBN, page 115:
text: Taking almost literally the opposite viewpoint from the 1972 Russian Cuisine, the authors wrote that while they were “not against internationaliztion^([sic]) of dining,” they wondered “why should entrecote [rib steak] and bifshteks [beefsteak] be the favorite dishes of a Russian when their names themselves point to their overseas origins?”⁵⁸⁴
ref: 2013, Anton Masterovoy, “The Soviet Melting Pot”, in Eating Soviet: Food and culture in the USSR, 1917–1991, New York, N.Y.: City University of New York, →ISBN, page 177:
text: We waited for a long time (30 mins for a bifshteks), hamburger salad was small and not much meat, just some herbs. Bifshteks itself looked like appetizer!!
ref: 2017 July 14, JuliaReitor, “BifShteks Gastrobar”, in Tripadvisor, archived from the original on 19 May 2025:
glosses: Alternative form of bifshtek.