Russie

Borshch

Beetroot soup served with sour cream and black bread, red and slightly sweet.

Pelmeni

Small meat dumplings boiled and eaten with butter, vinegar or sour cream.

Blini

Thin yeast pancakes with caviar, sour cream or jam, stacked high at Maslenitsa.

Shchi

Cabbage soup, fresh or sour, said to have fed the country for a thousand years.

Olivier

Diced potato, egg, pickle and peas in mayonnaise, made in bulk for New Year.

Selyodka pod shuboy

Salt herring under layers of beetroot, potato and mayonnaise, purple on the plate.

Beef Stroganoff

Strips of beef in a sour cream and mustard sauce, named for a count's kitchen.

Solyanka

Sour soup of smoked meats, pickles, olives and lemon, thick and salty.

Okroshka

Chilled kvass soup with cucumber, radish, egg and dill, summer only.

Pirozhki

Small baked or fried buns filled with cabbage, egg or meat, sold from trays.

Kulebyaka

Enriched pastry loaf layered with fish, rice, egg and mushroom.

Golubtsy

Cabbage rolls of rice and mince stewed in tomato and sour cream.

Kasha

Buckwheat cooked with butter, the default grain from breakfast to funeral meal.

Ikra

Sturgeon or salmon roe spooned onto blini, measured in grams and ceremony.

Syrniki

Fried tvorog cakes eaten hot with jam, condensed milk or sour cream.

Medovik

Honey cake of many thin layers softened by sour cream for a day before serving.

Ptichye moloko

Soufflé set on sponge under dark chocolate, the Soviet era's most copied cake.

Kvass

Rye bread fermented into a low-alcohol drink, sour and faintly fizzy.

Vodka

Drunk cold in measured shots with something salty to bite immediately after.

Chai

Strong tea diluted from a samovar concentrate, drunk with jam rather than milk.