The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1884-02-02
The students' Restaurant in Russia.
The yIlest of all establishments, say

bho NbuNohtS asoeeHohhAt ~ AhA7'aNs
The vllest of all establishments, says
writer, notorious for their ill-treat-
ment of the human stomach, is that
known in all the large cities as the
''Kukhmlsterskaya," Whether the
student classes called this institution
into existence or not 1 am unable to
say, but it is Enthusiastically the student
classes who to-day sustain its vitality.
To young women and young men quar-
tered in one of the university towns on
the strength of miserable allowance
frem home or of still more miserable
one from the State, which has under
taken their education, who have just
resources enough to enable them to
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,
preferring for its habitat the corner of
courtyards or the corridor of the great
lodging-houses. 1t offers a dinner of
ehlSO VI lOul COuloco lOl plA-pouSo-I IuC
price is never much lower than that
and for sixpence the poor student or
co,trsiste 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 small unbut-
tered roll or slice of black bread.
Tea is repetition Of breakfast, and
supper being luxury rarely indulged
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 hve-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 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 Russian dinner-table
are the soup with its overflow Of grease
and vegetables, the small cucumbers
(augurtsi), and the black bread. And if
on 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. 1 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 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 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
ever, the cost of transit has increased
the price to Is. Fish purchased wheT
J caught in the Volga and Caspian See
is literally ''dirt cheap" For a few
coppers enough can be had to sustain 6
large family for q week. The most ex
pensive kinds, such, for example, as the
sterlet, may be bought on the spot al
about I'd. per h.; transferred to ST
Petersburg they cost, living, ten time
that amount. Grapes sold in the soutf
, at three half-pence per pound, bring ;
shilling pound in the capital; penny
: atermelon carried north increases il
= cost in. about the same proportion
? These are inequalities which will b,
modified somewhat by the extension o
, the railway system and the improve
ment of the means of transit but the!
3 can never be expected to disappear
while Russia remains what it isl
! country in which the centres oil con
| sumption are separated by vast dis
, tances from the areas of cheap stocl
and agric ultural produce.