The Penn's Grove record., 1884-02-02
The Students Restaurant In Russia.

The Students Restaurant In Russia.
The vilest Of all establishments, say
a writer, notorious for their ill-treat
ment Of the human stomach, is tina
known in all the large cities as tn
"Kukhmisterskaya," Whether tn,
student classes called this institution
into existence or not / am unable t
say, but it is Enthusiastically the studen
classes who to-day sustain its vitality
To young women and young men quar-
tered in II Of the university towns OIL
the strength of a miserable allowances
from home or of a still more miserable
one from the State, which has under.
taken their education, who have JUS
resources enough to enable them t
exist until the close of their course
the ''Kukhmisterskaya" is an economic
necessity. 1t is to be found in nearly
every street, but rarely courts publicity
pref6rring for its habitat the corner Of
%courtyards or the corridor of the great
lod2ing-houses. 1t offers a dinner OF
three or four courses for six-pence-the
price is never much lower than that
and for sixpence the poor student OF
coursiSte is ''regaled' with probably the
worst nourishment, so far as it can be
called nourishment, served up any
where.
The i'll effects of bad food are, more
over, aggravated by irregular habits OF
eating. The influence of what is known
in England as a fortifying breakfast,
for example, is almost unheard Of even
in Russia. The natives first meal is
simply one or two glasses of excessively
weak tea, taken with a small unbut-
tered roll or a slice OF black bread.
Tea is a repetition of breakfast, and
supper being a luxury rarely INDUCED
in, the only other opportunity for a
substantial meal during the day is fur
nished by dinner time, and then the
half-famished constitution is apt to be
vigorous in its demands and somewhat
difficult to satisfy into the bargain,
whence, probably, the explanation of
the ive-course system of alimentatlon.
But Russian mutton pals quickly, and
Russian beef is poor, and the Russian
cook knows how to prepare neither
well. The grill is practically unknown
here, and meat, generally roasted down to
dry fibre, comes to the table in anything
but q palatable condition. Gravies are
equally phenomenal; butter is seldom
used; and potatoes are relegated to the
lowest class of culinary requisites.
The real necessities the main necessl-
ties, in fact-of a Russian dinner table
are the soup with its overflow of grease
and vegetables, the small cucumbers
(augurtsi), and the black bread. And if
the one hand the Russians do not
know how to cook-and | speak not of
the large cities, where the cuisiniers are
mostly foreign, but Of the country at
large-on the other hand, they may be
found not cooking at all. Vast quaint.
ties of fish are eaten every year in the
raw (salted) state. l have seen Rus
SLAMS take small fish by the tail and
swallow them almost whole. The side
board Of zakuska is never thought
complete without three or four different
kinds of fish uncooked. Along the
Volga, and particularly in the fishery
settlement near the Caspian, nothing
but the entrails of a fish are rejected,
the heads, tails, and fins being boiled
and eaten with the greatest relish. In
some Of the southern governments, the
more rotten fruit is, the better it Is
liked. What the poorer classes in the
towns suffer most from in this matter
of food is the want of a quick means of
transporting produce of all kinds to the
centres of consumption. There are few
of the southern governments which
cannot ''raise" beef for sale on the spot
at from Id. to ID. per lb. By the time
the meat reaches st. Petersburg, how
ll4C COoO VI tlduSlO udo luClcdSGu
the price to Is. Fish purchased when
caught in the Volga and Caspian Sea
is literally ''dirt cheap" For a few
coppers enough al be had to sustain a
large family for a week. The most ex-
pensive kinds, such, for example, as the
s%terlet, may be bought on the spot at
about I'd. per h.; transferred to st.
Petersburg they cost, living, ten times
that amount. Grapes sold in the south
at three half pence per pound, bring a
shilling a pound in the capital; a penny
atermelon carried north increases in
cost in about the same proportion.
These are inequalities which will be
modified somewhat by the extension of
the railway system and the improve
ment of the means of transit but they
can W be expected to disappear
while Russia remains what it is-a
country in which the centres OF con-
sumption are separated by vast dis