The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1892-12-22
FOOD OF THE RUSSIANS
QUEER DISHES AND DRINKS IN
- THE LAND OF THE GEAR
Soups Served With Ice ana Sour
' y Cream-ltich Russians 1.-Two En
travagantly-Howt the Poor Exist

" v s. Carpenter says in thi
Washington Starr
A Russian dinner is rather curious
affair and swell dinner lasts for hours.
The first thing you take is an appetizer,
and this consists of vodka, Russian
brandy, together with such rolishes as
caviare, raw herring, smoked salmon,
raw smoked goose, radishes, butter and
cheese. This lay out is on counter at
one end of a restaurant and you usually
stand up to eat it before taking your seat
at the table for the regular dinner. The
first part Of the dinner is soup, and
dish of Russian soup is a dinner itself.
The most popular, perhaps, is known as
stchee, which IS made of cabbage and
beef, and in the midst of each plate of
which big chunk of beef floats. Sour
cream is often added to the soup and you
get a gravy dish of cream for kind offs
sauce at the first of every dinner. The
cold soups are much liked by the Rus
slams and ordered one to-day without
knowing what it was. 1t had creamy
color, but there was in the center of it a
piece of ice as big as my fist and there
were pieces of cucumber, herring and
meat floating around in it. l tasted it
and it made me think of boiled beer
served with ice, and the taste was
enough. Some of the soups were very
good and one order for soup is always
enough for two. The fish that find
here are excellent and there is a dish
called solianka, made of fish and cab
bage, which is not at all bad. Another
is sucking pig, boiled, and served cold,
and another favorite dish is roast mutt
ton, stuffed with buckwheat. The Rus
slams have excellent meats, and you will
get as good beef and mutton here as
anywhere in the world. The butter is
Invariably good, aud some Of that which
I have had is so sweet that I can eat it
like cheese. 1t is never salted aud it is
served in great loaves, the guest cutting
off as much as he wishes. do not like
the Russian beer known as kvas, but the
tea is good everywhere, and the Russian
takes glass every hour or 80, aud
merchants do all their business over
tea. The peasants who bring things
here from Moscow to sell never make a
bargain except at the Traktirs, and you
find the sanovar and the tea glass every
where.
The better class of Russians live very
extravagantly. They spare nothing on
their tables and they are fond of giving
big dinners. 1t is not uncommon for
whole sheep to be brought on the table
at such dinners, aud imported wines
flow like water. They are very fond Of
flowers, and there was dinner given at
st. Petersburg not long ago at which
rare orchids adorned the board and at
which the flowers cost more than $1O,-
600. At some dinners given by young
men the host expects &c pay for all the
damage that may be dono by the young
fellows when they arc drunk after the
feast, and there have beeu dinners hero
in Moscow which have cost a small for
tune. Still, at the better class restau-
rants you can gett a very good meal at
reasonable rates, ana ! got an excellent
dinner last night at the Ermitagc res
taurant at dollar and a half, or for two
and half, incldding bottle of wine.
1t was served by boy in a white apron
and white clothes, and while ate it an
immense organ played automatically.
This organ was as large as that of good
sized church aud the cylinders which
we're put into it in the changing of the
music were as big around as a stove,
pipe. 1t played all sorts of tunes, and
1t was, I think, run by steam. went
into the kitchen of this restaurant aud
found them cleaner than any kitchens
I have ever seen in America. The
meats and vegetables were kept on ice,
and the soups were cooked in great
caldrons, each big enough to boil a
sheep.
The lower classes of Russia live on
what would kill the American laborer.
Their diet is made UP of sour bread and
cabbage soup, and they are always eat.
ing. green cucumbers. see cucumbers
sold from the corners OF many OF the
streets, and they are used in all sorts of
ways. The favorite way of serving them
at the hotel tables Is just as they come
from the vine, without being pared or
cut, and you are expected to dress them
to suit yourself. The peasants eat but
few vegetables. They know nothing
about raising vegetables, and the only
articles of this kind that they use to any
extent are potatoes and turnips. I have
seen good many peasant families at
dinner. They use neither plates nor
knives nor forks and fair set of table
furniture for a Russian family IL a
wooden table bowl for soup aud dozen
large wooden table spoons, which the
different members of the family slick
into the common bowl Of soup and,
helping themselves, thus carry the ice.
cold or steami ng-hot liquid 10 their
mouths. They have milk aud eggs, but
little meat, and they do not seem to care
for much more than bread aud cab.
bage.