Actually, discrabed food was not a everyday food, but food for the feasts and celebrations. :) not available for everyday routine consumption in USSR :)
I am Russian, living in Canada, and I'd say 99% of these dishes were a staple in our household...it was not unconventional food, it is part of ordinary Russian cuisine. And continues to be, post- USSR times.. Nothing odd or desperate about any of these dishes- they're all delicious and common!
Russian food is delicious. In Brazil we like strogonoff (i don't know if it is the russian name) and mayonaise sallad (salada russa) we usually eat with barbeque
I don't know about you but my blinis don't have buckwheat. And my borsht does not have half of the garbage they list. In fact borsht is meat and assorted vegetables, it is healthy. I live in US, work with Brits and they asked for instructions how to make it Rassolnik is close to Mediterranean minestrone soup, and again meat an vegetable dish, very good indeed.
it's honestly disgusting to talk about the horror of Leningrad without telling your audience that the reason for the catastrophic situation was that the Germans deliberately tried to starve every inhabitant of the city.
Meh, brought about by the stupidity of both Russians and Germans for supporting their tyrannical dictators. Germans supported Nazis while Russians supported Bolsheviks. They did this before the war and suffered greatly for their own selfish decision for stomping out the rights of their neighbors and friends for the promise of equal wealth for all.
@@TreStyles-tq4le lol what? Nobody is starving in Gaza and nobody will. Unless they go into some kind of hunger strike but certainly not for lack of food.
@@gr3g0r5people are hungry and they don’t have water there Israel blockaded land sea and air so nothing goes in and it’s hard to get out It’s been called the worlds biggest open air prison for a reason
All these dishes are served in high end Russian and Eastern European restaurants, as well as made at home. These are not dishes to be made when there’s no food available. Also, learn to pronounce Russian dishes correctly when making a video about Russian food.
Ok, not only does this sound like super normal food, but... Ok, any American who thinks котлеты is strange has got to be smoking something, because that is seriously just meatloaf shaped into patties and fried. I realize meatloaf is very polarized in the States, but I love it, I will fight you over it, and I find it very hard to believe any American doesn't think it would be improved by being shaped into patties and fried!
Unconventional is a euphemism for gross. Actually though, these foods are not that gross. I also think that my perspective is skewed, because my Russian family have an addiction to misery, and seemingly they just cannot cook food that isn't depressing. I make Borscht, and it is bright, fresh and yummy. My grandmother's is like the juices of a decaying corpse.
@@punkybrewstar83 "Unconventional," in this case means, "The writer has never heard of them and thinks they sound weird." All of these that I've actually had have been delicious, that's why this video kinda pissed me off.
@@fatgineergaming you ever had a stromboli? basically a big homemade hot pocket have you had hot pockets? i think hot pockets are shit but probably a million times better than aspic, which you can get invading foreign nations.
Growing up in the USSR, I remember most of the foods mentioned - and living in the USA NOW we STILL eat most of them (and a bunch of others - Makaroni po Flotski, Salat Olivier, etc.). We were more likely to eat Solyanka than Rassolnik. Eggs were available, but not in the greatest of quantities, so we had them either IN things or boiled to better enjoy them. Caviar was always available, and even as kids we had it - though mainly for get togethers or holidays. For beef or pork as things like steaks or chops... that was extremely rare - and when available everyone either sliced them up or cubed them for stews or dishes with lots of veggies. I don't recall ever eating a beef steak growing up. To this day, my former Soviet friends/family (even here in the USA) tend not to have steaks or chops (heck, most of us don't really know how to cook them LOL). Sausage & tinned meat (Tuschjonka - beef or pork in sauce were the mainstays). When minced meats came into the shops the queues were immediate and huge - and the entire city would smell of Kotleti that night LOL GENERALLY, in order to buy such "defitsit" items like meat, you could only do so by buying items that were not popular. Almost always tinned seaweed salad. For every kilo of meat/sausage, you had to buy 2 or 3 tins of seaweed salad. It was only a few Kopeks, but everyone's shelves were FULL of the small tins LOL If you refused... NEXT COMRADE! So we bought. NOW I love the stuff, but as a kid I despised seaweed salad (and it was a few Kopeks then, here in the USA I'm paying over $3/tin LOL). To this day we eat a lot of Buckwheat (we're Jewish, so we have it with pasta, not so much as porridge). Americans tend to be EXTREMELY haughty & dismissive of Buckwheat - they don't like the smell, yadda yadda yadda... good. More for US! So... this video is fun, but we ate the foods shown because we LIKED them, and not out of some dire necessity. Yes, life under Socialism was insanely difficult and boring... but we ate quite well, drank well... and - sit down for this - we even enjoyed ourselves sometimes. And I pity Americans who eat Bologna - our Doctorskaya is SO much better (we eat Doctorskaya and Tsarskaya now... like Soviet ice cream, our sausages and breads were SUPERIOR)
Being Polish I think with beef steaks it's not just the unavailability of good cuts but the structure of agriculture. I grew up after fall of communism but steaks were not a thing simply because there weren't many beef cattle herds. Beef was byproduct of dairy cattle industry so from animals that didn't have those nice muscles for good steaks and were older making them less tender.
I love Buckwheat! Versatile grain. Makes the most flavorful pancakes! But try a fried bologna sandwich with mayonnaise and crisp iceberg lettuce before you knock Americans love of Bologna 🤗
Another Polish guy here. Thanks for that comment because this "unconventional foods" shown on film are just regular, delicious foods. Also thanks for the apreciation of buckwheat it's simply great,
As a Romanian, we make” borș”(borsh) not with broth but by preparing ahead a sour, fermented liquid from bran, lovage leaves, thyme and hot water poured then left to ferment for few days then strained and added to the boiled meat/vegetables to sour the dish. In some regions of the country they use green grapes, smashed and the juice was used to add sourness to the borș. Also, “borș” is soured with the fermented liquid called borș, but “ciorba”(chiorba) is soured with small amount of vinegar.
The aspic is something we grew up eating. My Polish Mom would make it and we'd eat it with vinegar . She called it gallaretka. Years later I realize it's essentially bone broth in solid form..... basically a superfood. Thanks mom 💕💕🍎
Aspic is just gelatin with broth. Many people may not know that gelatin comes from bones. It's an absolute must against osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, skin and hair problems.
This video was so inaccurate.The foods are staples in Slavic kitchen. They actually really tasty even if here was shown in a bad light. The curd is similar to ricotta. Borscht is like a cream soup. Mayo salad is like potato or egg salad. Most Europans are familiar with these foods.Has nothing to do with Soveit Union Era. Please do not spread ignorance.
Syrniki are literally just fried cheesecakes and are served in posh Russian hotels and restaurants. This video is seriously reaching and doing mental gymnastics about the food.
Playing devils advocate maybe they just meant that it was unusual for the time and/or developed during that time...idk just a though. For example soul food which is still eaten today came from black enslaved people only getting scraps and undesirable bits of food. Just using whatever they could and making it palatable. Obviously I know nothing about it but just thought it could be similar rationale.
@@Inamichan - these are mostly old traditional foods known well before the soviet era. Westerners equate people of former Soviet Union with being poor, but in average the people in Eastern Europe (Russia included) were always poorer than their Western counterparts. Even well before the communist rule. So much, the communists brought a much better world to them compared what they had before. I'm also from Eastern Europe.
and they failed to mention the ONE food that is actually Soviet: Doctor's sausages(Doktorskaya kolbasa), still popular in Eastern Bloc countries and other former communist countries(I'm part Chinese, and I definitely had something resembling Doctor's Sausage when visiting there)
@@holeeshi9959 Doctor’s Sausage is a modified version of American Bologna, made with higher quality ingredients, it wouldn’t fit the slanted narrative of this video
That beet salad “Vinegret” is eaten a lot in Peru. Its called- Ensalada Rusa- translated is literally Russian Salad. The ingredients are: beets, potatoes , carrots, mayonaise( or a drizzle of oil) , salt, pepper.
You miss out on "Doctor's Sausage" It's basically pink meat made as a dietary supplement to people exhibiting signs of prolonged starvation. Because it was mild-tasting, inexpensive and relatively healthy source of meat (when meat supply was low), it became popular in the USSR and to this very day.
I grew up in Estonia and I am half Russian. All this is completely normal food. USSR was HUGE and had many different cultures mixed in. All of this is normal food, not something starving people ate. Much of this food is something grandmothers would cook for family or grandkids. All of them are absolutely delicious and tasty. I have cooked most of these myself for my husband and he loves them. Our absolute favorites are Soljanka, kotleti and buckwheat porridge with pork and onions. My Grandmother and my aunt were both survivors of Leningrad Blockade and things people ate there were pretty much as described- saddles, leather belts and boots, animals of any variety (cats, dogs, rats, horses) and even children.
My grandmom made the BEST borscht I ever tasted . She gave me the recipe before her passing but I can never make it without her. There is something about the smells in the kitchen that brings back fond memories.❤️❤️ Miss you Nana R.I.P
My granny made the best vegetable soup and coconut cake I've ever had. She never would give me her cake recipe because she said she never used a recipe and wouldn't know how to tell me how much of each thing to put in, and I watched her made her soup dozens of times and never have been able to replicate it. I miss her so much.
Most people of Slavic descent are very familiar with the foods mentioned in the video along with regional variations. Being of Polish descent I can remember my babcia i moja matka making a type of cabbage soup or stew called kapushniak. Don’t worry about the spelling my Slavic friends, brothers, and sisters. This soup also had boiled ribs, onions, garlic, buckwheat, leaks, potatoes, celery and maybe other things I’ve forgotten. All I know is that on a cold winter day a dish of this served hot was both nourishing and tasted smaczne!
I'm Polish and I still cook and eat a lot of those or very similar dishes. Not due to hardship but because they are healthy and yummy and prevents food waste. Every cuisine will have similar one pot meals that we sometimes call "the review of the week" to use up leftovers.
Russian isn't even my first language and these pronunciations still hurt my soul. And none of these are even unconventional. Come on y'all, your content is usually better than this
@@loslingos1232 There’s a number of words that are pronounced based on the English letters instead of the Russian. For example, the first dish is syrnik (the letter C in Russian is always an S sound). Remember that USSR in Russian is CCCP (C = S, P = R).
Probably why many Grandmas in Slavic countries very much dislike any America n Fast foods with passion. 😂 They are always quick to remind you how unhealthy they are.
The honest truth lol. I sometimes watch those cooking videos with 3-ingredient "recipes" and literally each "ingredient" is some processed food product from a box, tin or jar and just sort of thrown together and I think, really? That's a recipe? and just..... why?
This looks like mostly healthy, tasty, and sensible recipies that I would like. It looks much healthier that most of the food we eat in the USA. Those soups look so satisfying.
I'm a 73 yr old Canadian and my siblings are closer to 90 but our grandmother who came from Scotland made a form of aspic she called head cheese. If was filled with leftover meats, spices and whatever else laying around and gelled by the boiled bones juices. I really liked it
Yep I'm canadian and you can find headcheese at most delis still. They would form it into a thick sausage shape and you'd cut it into disc shaped pieces
It’s called “head” cheese because the head of the animal was boiled and the tender meat from around the skull was picked out, sliced into small pieces and mixed into the gelatin. The skull is just a larger intact bone than ribs, or leg bones, and there’s lots of meat on it. That animal sacrificed its life to feed us, no reason to waste any of it. So, head cheese.
This is not unconventional food, just a traditional Slavic food, present in other countries as well. I come from Poland, a country that during Cold War was a puppet state dependant of Soviet Russia, and my great-grandmother used to tell me how good sugar beet pancakes she used to cook. Polish people lived in a world where basic supply chain was broken, it was not uncommon for people to make their own soap (I have heard rabbit was to best for it, out of some reason), to drink grain coffee (because true coffee was too expensive and exclusive), chocolate-like products that were supposed to taste similar but were produced on other plant oils and fats than cocoa (again, because cocoa was too expensive). Still, we made soups and traditional food every Eastern Block citizen could relate. And out of many weird Russian things I have eaten "sallo" was the weirdest, basically a block of pig lard, seasoned and frozen before serving.
@@malikamasimova7631 Słonina is totally different cup of tea. We use it to boil liquid lard out of it, and we feed birds (tits to be exact) during winter using it. We also chop it to small pieces, fry with onion to use on top on some of dishes, but, at least in my place, noone would dare to eat it "just like that".
My friend who lived and was imprisoned in East Germany in the 80s noted that what passed for speck (smoked pork belly) was actually the sallo product you mentioned. Soviet influence was clearly VERY far flung.
yeah I remember that era, i grow up in a small village so meat and dairy was at much better quality of what you would buy at the store somewhere in a bigger city..I still eat some food from back in da day, simple but tasty.
you cite Leningrad 1941-1942, this is siege of Leningrad when almost 600 thousand people died from hunger, you cite this as normal Soviet food. And then citing an ex- Soviet soldier, a traitor who was speaking on German propaganda radio when Nazis have a war with USSR as a truth :) Hello, we are millennials, not idiots
Syrnik is a subset of blins, where the milk is substituted by fresh acid set cheese. Germans call it quark/quarg Kotlet (Not kotleti) is in essence a flattened and fried meatball. Chicken Kiev is...well chicken kiev Borch (not borcht) is a red beetroot based soup, sometimes even considered a soup with "beetroot stock" kind of dish. Vinegret is primarly a sidedish. Like giardinera is fermented, vinegret is pickled. Can act as a garnish or as a dish on its own if one so desires. Steak and onion comes from a hunters tradition to cook the meat or liver of the fresh kill with some onions right there in the woods. What is actually shown is the "cutlett steak": pounded and breaded cuts of meat, usually (deep)fried in oil. Rossolnik soup is a potato-groat based soup. Because the groats take so long to cook, its usually not made with stock as it would "burn" easy. To enhance flavor, rossolnik gets fermented or pickled vegetables added. As part of the cooking or as a garnish on top. Blins are thick pancakes akin to buttermilk pancakes in the US...but alot smaller. Think of the analogy of sliders vs hamburgers. Salad Olivie does not contain any olives, but is more approprate to consider "Olivia Salad" or russian potato salad. Herring under Fur coat is a festive dish. Usually bland every day items arranged in a "luxury" manner. Testiment to the saying: "better than the sum of its parts" Okroshka (pronounced nice in this instance) is a cold vegetable soup, traditionally made with kvass, radish, carrot, beetroot and herbs like dill or parsley. Modern version swaps beetroot and carrot for cucumber and kvass for kefir or diluted sour cream. Aspic is not the correct term for this dish. Aspic is a clean broth that has lots of collagen and thus sets when chilled. Holodetz is also a clean broth, but chilled with the rendered meat. Some regions add boiled SOFT vegetables like carrots, beetroot, parsnips, turnips. Former being served traditionally with mustard or dilute wine vinegar poured over, latter served as a component along with potatoes, saurkraut and pickled pumpkin during russian orthodox "christmas". A cheap alternative would be the gelatin set dishes, very much like the Depression era gelatin creations.
I've always made Okroshka using shredded beets, buttermilk, scallions and white pepper. With the beets and scallions whirred together in a blender and the rest stirred in and the whole thing chilled, it's heaven in a spoon. Russian and Eastern European cooking is an endless source of delight. Get a cookbook and start eating!
“Here’s weird Soviet foods!” First item is a delicious cheesy pancake served like a plump crepe. If something that appetizing counts as “weird”, the baseline for “normal” must be gruel.
I can’t understand what is weird about this food, it’s absolutely normal in post-Soviet countries. You can easily find them in Russian cafes of prepare at home. Just prepared a vinegret few days ago, and it was very tasty. Some chopped in a cube shape boiled beet, boiled potatoes, boiled carrot, fresh cucumbers, salt cucumbers and boiled peas (the size of the cubes should be about the size of a pea). Add some salt and unrefined sunflower 🌻 oil 👍🏻 Syrniki and bliny I also eat regularly, but Russian pancakes are thin and large, in spite of the American ones. You just mix some milk, 2 eggs, a bit of salt, sugar and baking soda with wheat flour and slightly pour this liquid on a flat hot pan, wetted with oil. Syrniky are pretty good, too. Especially with home-made jam with entire berries or condensed milk. And buckwheat is very tasty with meat, chicken or vegetables and is also a healthy food 👌🏻 And “borshch” is pronounced (and written in Russian) as «борщ», without “t”
The set-up to the video had me thinking _'Oh man, this gonna be some horrible food they were forced to eat out of necessity',_ then you come out of the gate with fried cheese pancakes covered in fruit jam and im like 🤤🤤
I work at a college as a cook and we have many international students. I always asked them what foods they miss from home. The guys from Serbia said soups and that they are a staple at every meal. The soups they described sounded delicious. Some of the russian students brought me dried shredded squid for beer snacks. A Thai student brought me back boat noodles. A student from amsterdam brought me stroopwafels. I love my job lol. Excuse me I'm going to make braised short ribs right now! If you're genuinely curious and respectful of other people's cultures its easy to make friends. Thank you I really enjoy this channel!
If you liked stroopwafels, you should really try pepernoten too! Theres a million varieties, plain to caramel to chocolate, you should really taste them x
Pretty much all of these are average foods, and (depending on your view) even better than people ate in the past. There's an pre-USSR working class saying 《Щи да каша, пищи наша.》 In English "Cabbage soup and buckwheat are our foods". The unusual things are the powdered eggs and allegations of glue and leather in холодец.
Chebureki is easily one of the best foods from Russia in my opinion. Its a beef and pork meat turnover with dill, onions, green onions, garlic, and parsley. That is then put in a dough and fried in sunflower seed oil. Then dip it right in to the national sauce, mayonnaise. Its truly the taste of slav power.
@@IreneWY Yes, BUREK is a traditional Turkish dish that is commonly eaten. In the Balkans Burek is very popular in most slavic countries like Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria. It most likely came with the ottoman Turks as they travelled, traded or fought with the south slavic and other peoples in the Balkans.
the american education system is horrible at teaching history. most of the history or social studies teachers at my school are only teaching that so they can coach a sport so yk its not taught to its full extent for me and other places probably
@@larrysizemore2891 Yep it was awful... USSR was no joke there! They build roads, factories, univercities and schools! Also they rebuild railways, rebuild most of building, destroyed by nazi... But thank god, that time is ower and people can now do what they always were doing - go to Germany as cheap working force!
This segment of "Weird History" would come across as "informative and entertaining" had it been shown to a post-WWII/pre-Vietnam War/pre-9/11 American audience. However, we're in the 21st century, in a worldwide information platform that is the internet, on RUclips where there are instructional videos on how to prepare and enjoy these so-called "unconventional foods". Which kinda makes the people involved in making this video appear as myopic shut-ins who are out of touch with the times. Have you considered taking this video down, or at least editing it?
Honestly, that is the only one that is truly unconventional. I have had it before although I am sure there wasn't any glue or human remains in it. I really didn't like the look of it, texture or taste or it. I think it is very close to American head cheese and I don't like that either.
One omitted fact, or not made clear, that Aspic part is about Leningrad while it is besieged and starved by the Germans in WW2. That was obviously not a normal thing.
@@icantthinkofaname15 Well... it is quite offensive. We'd been eating some of those dishes centuries before Stalin and some of the recipes are definitely not for famine...
@@CieplinskiPawel you re too easily offended especially as I m guessing you're not from the former Soviet Union... true (ex-) Soviets wouldn't be this easily offended about such things as foods. Grow a pair buddy
This video is really inaccurate. These foods are not "unconventional" and quite tasty. Most are still popular in many Eastern European counties and are a part of their cultures. Also presenting people as flesh-eaters in such a manner is disrespectful. Cases of cannibalism in St. Petersburg happened during the siege, which was a huge tragedy and extreme circumstance, not a daily soviet thing (same goes for glue and belts).
The title, as always, is CLICKBAIT rather than any attempt to be accurate. "Common Slavic foods" won't garner you too many clicks. It has to be weird in some way.
Yes...I was waiting to hear about some disgusting things but a lot of the foods listed sound delicious. I have had borscht and it is really good. This is real clickbait.
Unless it's soup made of cow guts, that IS unconventional (still popular in Poland for some reason to this degree you can buy it in a shop frozen and the only thing to be done is to throw it in the water and boil).
1:28 Actually, "kotlety" is a general term that means any fried pieces of minced meat. The term is a loanword from French ('côtelette') like a pretty half of Russian food names since Russians adored all the French during the 19th century when the Russian kitchen generally shaped itself. The same with the Salad Olivier which obvously is not a Russian name.
@@Vii905 You, John and Vanesa, both are talking about difference between the meanings of this term in French and in Russian. Actually, you both are right, each about one of those to languages. This is due to the deviation of meanings. Russians, by loaning many things from French, changed their content.
@@johnadams3038 It’s true. Kotlety originated from the French word côtelette which means a slice of meat and over time in Russia the word evolved to mean minced meat.
I had a Russian cookbook and I noticed that alot of recipes had saurkraut in them. Especially the soups. Also alot of recipes had hard boiled eggs in them.
Wait all those meals are what we eat now at home, at school, on work. Wherever we go, because it's just tasty???? I really can't tell why this video seem to make them strange or gross???
Some of the soupy stuff looks kinda weird but thats just me cuz I dont care for soups but yeah we Americans are generally weirded out by non American food. Especially white Americans who view Italian, Chinese, Soul, and Mexican food as being exotic
Beings how Chinese food caused such a commotion over the past year and a half- yeah Chinese are notorious for eating absolutely anything that moves and some things are just not meant to be eaten unless absolutely life or death. Not to mention general Chinese sanitation at those food markets make burger king foot lettuce look like a wholesome meal.
@An unimpressed Rooster Did you try it? Coke is a tenderizer and it will give your meat a sweet note. It's really good actually. Especially if you like mixing your sweet/hot/sour/salty tastes. So I suggest a steak cooked in coke with a generous helping of hot sauce. You might be surprised.
I don't understand who decided that these foods are "unconventional". As a russian, I can confirm that most of these foods are absolutely delicious. Everyone in the west would like them as well.
His calling them unconventional because to him it is he comes from a completely different country so when he see the food as unconventional it’s because that’s what it is to an outsider Prospective because that’s not what his people eat everyday so for him it is weird
@@doom1894 I also don't live in Russia. Didn't grow up as one and it wasn't my food at home. And still, first I tasted it, it was delicious. So it is a wrong term to use the term "unconventional". Have a nice day!
As a Romanian, I have eaten most of these foods forever and they are all great good food. Not something poor people would eat. This is like a grandparent's special. especially on holidays. Not to mention you cant compare it with today's fast food mania.
Agreed 👍. My husband is of Polish/Ukrainian background, and he makes a lot of these...they're huge favorites for our daughter and me. His cabbage rolls, piroshke, bliny( forgive my spelling. We're teaching our girl Russian...she chose it for her foreign language for homeschooling), and others. I LOVE borscht but they don't. I learned it really must be eaten cooled. I now understand why it wS referred to as "cold" beat soup. I'm intrigued by the amount of dill and sour cream. Do other herbs not grow in Russia? Not judging...just curious. My husband also makes fabulous Tomales and chili Verdes. We like all sorts of food...from everywhere. If you wouldn't mind, please fill me in on why dill is about the only herb I've seen in Russian food.
These seem like regular Slavic food to me. I'm from Sweden, and I see a lot of similarities between Eastern European food and Scandinavian cuisine. I expected a video entirely about how people would eat leather, foraged plants and pidgeons.
My family was ethnic Germans living in Hungary so growing up I ate a mix of both, and I see many similarities as well. This isn’t odd to me so much so as similar to the foods I had growing up.
I like how they didn’t mention the siege of Leningrad as if people ate belt soup and towards the end resorted to eating their dead as an “unconventional” food in the same list with caviar and blin
Exactly. I don't know from where he gets this information, but a lot of it is wrong. If they would actually know history, they would know that Romania is a country, not a region, and was never part of Russia/URSS . And Transilvania is a region from Romania, and not a country (how a lot of Americans know) 🙄🤭....meaning they know s..th.
And fruit is never added to soup in Romania. The only culinary tradition somewhat related to that is the practice of using a "jam" or sauce of sorts made out of unripe fruit (typically plums) to sour up soups.
@@rollothewalker5535 you're mostly correct, however ... I remember a sweet bread soup with dry fruits, mostly apple, plum, and pear when i was in a kindergarten. It was called a "bread soup" on a menu, but I would say it was more like a bread pudding. And... I'm sorry, I missed your Romania part. I'm talking about USSR.
My wife is Russian so over the years I have been introduced to many delicious Russian dishes! That now throwing a dinner party she always gets compliments on her cuisine!!
@@HangTimeDeluxe we are talking about this particular video. I am not from Russia do not know if that is true or just an urban legend. But I am from Europe therefore know the cuisine and history.
The wood glue and human remains dishes sound the most interesting to try... (since you asked). ;) We lived in Kazakhstan during times of Western influence and relative prosperity, and the daily grocery food choices were an interesting mix of 'expensive food for expats' and 'strange types of meat from peculiar animals and extremely irregular-looking (but excellently flavoured) vegetables and fruits. We grow our produce 'big/pretty/standardised' in the US, but other countries still grow for flavour--that was kind of a revelation living abroad. It should've hit me sooner--America's more about appearance--good taste typically passes us right by. :P
It's funny because some traditional Russian meals like Olivier salad are also traditional in my country. Mostly for the holidays such as christmas and new year's eve. We call it something like "Russian Salad". I wonder how it became popular here...
I grew up in Soviet Russia. The names of foods are right, we ate foods named like this. The overall perception of shortages and poverty is also right. But recipes are bizarre, to be the most charitable.
Did you really expect someone from the US to make a decent pronunciation? Relax, comrade. Translations from one language to another will always be riddled with inaccuracies. But then again, the US has always been a strange place, especially since Biden took office. But I digress. No use complaining.
My best guess is this is unconventional for people in the States. But this is definitely I stuff that looks similar to stuff I might eat in Mexico, particularly the stews.
For real, I'm a white guy (grandmother is from Mexico though). We grew up far from rich and eating a lot of stews/soups from leftovers. From menudo to split pea soup.
No, here in the states, unconventional food (processed food) is still unconventional food. Looking out the diets of most from the United States of America, we love processed foods these days. The less actual food and nutrition it has, the more of it we will feast on as if Gushers and Mountain Dew is a 'balanced meal.'
@@bodyrumuae2914 Oh man. I come from England and when i visited the US i thought that the land was beautiful, most people were friendly, the cities were impressive, the farmland stretches forever. The food however, in a lot of places was little better than what i would feed my dog honestly. It was the thing i disliked most about the US. That and the segregated neighbourhoods.
@@salkoharper2908 Most people were friendly to you? Where the hell did you go visit, a prison? I'm a native born here and the most hospitable people I've met are convicts
This are the most popular dishes in Eastern Europe 🤦🏻♂️ some people really don't know what they are talking about. I still eat most of these and I don't life in Eastern Europe anymore this food is culture.
These foods don't sound weird or unconventional to me...just recipes from different part of the world. The Syrniki sounds really good. Would love to try it.
There actually really good i make them every now and again mainly when I have my kids with me lol normally I’m lazy on what I make for meals, i just throw things together that are quick so I can eat and go to sleep for work the next day.
Jees bro.. you could've skipped the last part. Just if one exausted soldier under siege ate his comrade that doesn't make it into national diet. And besides that last part there's nothing unconventional about these foods. I eat most of them until this day.
My late great grandfather escaped the USSR in the mid 50s, he would always tell us to take any food we didn't eat and put it in our pockets to take home. Not because he was an uncivilized human being but because the simple fact that you may not have any food later and apparently to go containers weren't really a thing in the USSR at restaurants. He would often put bread in a napkin and I'd see him sneaking it into his pocket, he'd look at me and do the "shh", me being a kid just smiled and went along with it because I thought it was a game. It wasn't a game. That's what he had to do just to make it through. I'm so proud he had the courage to come here to the US and create better opportunities for our family.
I still can't throw food away. Went through starvation in the 90s in Russia and my grandmother told me of her harsher hunger days during the WWII. Whoever starved, will understand!
@@justsomecommie2638 Da, many rubles but we invest wisely in vodka and counterfeit Adidas sweat suits. Now richest in whole village. Joke on KGB... Hold on knock at door... Brb...*gunshot* Hello, disregard what comrade previously said. Soviet Union has enough food and authentic sweat suits for all comrades.
None of these foods are unconventional and I have no idea what you're trying to achieve here. It's a nice, informative video, but frankly showing these completely normal, mostly delicious Slavic dishes as something weird is a bit offensive.
Gets people clicking on the video. I'm from the West bit I feel like Europeans have at least a bit of knowledge as to what the Eastern Europeans eat. Basically, resourceful and tasty af 😋
I know almost all of these foods, I'm from Slovakia, which was part of Czechoslovakia, which was never officially part of the Soviet Union, but we were under their control, and had socialist regime... just wanted to say that some of these foods are really healthy and delicious, but some are equally nasty and disgusting. Also eating meat used to be rare, like only once or twice a week, which was good for our health and good for the environment, meat should be a rarity, not necessity.
![[adult swim] - Smiling Friends Season 2 Episode 5 Promo](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/uStNEeR8LT4/mqdefault.jpg)
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Honestly, this video should just be re-titled as “Most common Russian dishes that people have been eating for centuries and still continue to eat”
entirely true
you guys still eating human aspic?
More like, "How to mispronounce some of the most common dishes, eaten in most Eastern European or adjacent countries".
i was waiting for stroganoff, otherwise i would agree with you
Including jellied pork? I thought that is Shanghai Chinese thing.
When your normal everyday meals are described as unconventional food
When Two Fishes fight in a Pond The Reason behind it Brit what ever they don't follow it's not civilized, unconventional, Foolishness
I hope one day they meet brazillian cuisine, they'd go nuts by our anarchy
btw everone reading this: try to do farofa, you'll thank me later
Actually, discrabed food was not a everyday food, but food for the feasts and celebrations. :) not available for everyday routine consumption in USSR :)
Reminds me when america thinks southeast asian fruits are strange fruits 😅😅😅
For the west
I am Russian, living in Canada, and I'd say 99% of these dishes were a staple in our household...it was not unconventional food, it is part of ordinary Russian cuisine. And continues to be, post- USSR times.. Nothing odd or desperate about any of these dishes- they're all delicious and common!
Russian food is delicious. In Brazil we like strogonoff (i don't know if it is the russian name) and mayonaise sallad (salada russa) we usually eat with barbeque
I don't know about you but my blinis don't have buckwheat. And my borsht does not have half of the garbage they list. In fact borsht is meat and assorted vegetables, it is healthy. I live in US, work with Brits and they asked for instructions how to make it
Rassolnik is close to Mediterranean minestrone soup, and again meat an vegetable dish, very good indeed.
I agree. Especially Beetroot variant of Borscht is damn delicious, especially when you put some sour cream on it.
This channel likes to sensationalize its content and clearly unapologetic for any mistake or offence caused. 😮💨🙄
it's honestly disgusting to talk about the horror of Leningrad without telling your audience that the reason for the catastrophic situation was that the Germans deliberately tried to starve every inhabitant of the city.
Meh, brought about by the stupidity of both Russians and Germans for supporting their tyrannical dictators. Germans supported Nazis while Russians supported Bolsheviks. They did this before the war and suffered greatly for their own selfish decision for stomping out the rights of their neighbors and friends for the promise of equal wealth for all.
Like Israel is doing to palestinians today
@@TreStyles-tq4le lol what? Nobody is starving in Gaza and nobody will. Unless they go into some kind of hunger strike but certainly not for lack of food.
@@TreStyles-tq4le also can you people stop making anything and everything about Israel? It's absurd and also getting boring.
@@gr3g0r5people are hungry and they don’t have water there
Israel blockaded land sea and air so nothing goes in and it’s hard to get out
It’s been called the worlds biggest open air prison for a reason
American: "these are unconventional Soviet foods"
And then they proceed to list off the food that Eastern and central Europeans eat every day nowadays
Just my Latvian thought :D
All these dishes are served in high end Russian and Eastern European restaurants, as well as made at home. These are not dishes to be made when there’s no food available. Also, learn to pronounce Russian dishes correctly when making a video about Russian food.
I was so surprised. These are not "survival foods" these are everyday foods that my family eats.
@@laumallamandra1847 Yeah Latvian here to,
This is just, food? wheres the wierd stuff?
Ok, not only does this sound like super normal food, but...
Ok, any American who thinks котлеты is strange has got to be smoking something, because that is seriously just meatloaf shaped into patties and fried.
I realize meatloaf is very polarized in the States, but I love it, I will fight you over it, and I find it very hard to believe any American doesn't think it would be improved by being shaped into patties and fried!
This is literally normal slavic food. No idea how tf these foods are "unconventional"
I'm fucking American and I've made most of these. Unconventional my ass
Most of those "unconventional" foods are just my lunch
Unconventional is a euphemism for gross. Actually though, these foods are not that gross. I also think that my perspective is skewed, because my Russian family have an addiction to misery, and seemingly they just cannot cook food that isn't depressing. I make Borscht, and it is bright, fresh and yummy. My grandmother's is like the juices of a decaying corpse.
@Joel Pik You got the name right and they're...comparable. I wouldn't say they're the same dish, but there are some definite similarities
@@punkybrewstar83 "Unconventional," in this case means, "The writer has never heard of them and thinks they sound weird." All of these that I've actually had have been delicious, that's why this video kinda pissed me off.
As a Russian, these foods are my everyday foods.
Damn, you're living like a king, I might say.
@@fatgineergaming right with food like that why would they ever go to war?/s
@@ryannu1578, I think food has nothing to do with war.
@@fatgineergaming you ever had a stromboli? basically a big homemade hot pocket have you had hot pockets? i think hot pockets are shit but probably a million times better than aspic, which you can get invading foreign nations.
Growing up in the USSR, I remember most of the foods mentioned - and living in the USA NOW we STILL eat most of them (and a bunch of others - Makaroni po Flotski, Salat Olivier, etc.). We were more likely to eat Solyanka than Rassolnik. Eggs were available, but not in the greatest of quantities, so we had them either IN things or boiled to better enjoy them. Caviar was always available, and even as kids we had it - though mainly for get togethers or holidays. For beef or pork as things like steaks or chops... that was extremely rare - and when available everyone either sliced them up or cubed them for stews or dishes with lots of veggies. I don't recall ever eating a beef steak growing up. To this day, my former Soviet friends/family (even here in the USA) tend not to have steaks or chops (heck, most of us don't really know how to cook them LOL). Sausage & tinned meat (Tuschjonka - beef or pork in sauce were the mainstays). When minced meats came into the shops the queues were immediate and huge - and the entire city would smell of Kotleti that night LOL GENERALLY, in order to buy such "defitsit" items like meat, you could only do so by buying items that were not popular. Almost always tinned seaweed salad. For every kilo of meat/sausage, you had to buy 2 or 3 tins of seaweed salad. It was only a few Kopeks, but everyone's shelves were FULL of the small tins LOL If you refused... NEXT COMRADE! So we bought. NOW I love the stuff, but as a kid I despised seaweed salad (and it was a few Kopeks then, here in the USA I'm paying over $3/tin LOL). To this day we eat a lot of Buckwheat (we're Jewish, so we have it with pasta, not so much as porridge). Americans tend to be EXTREMELY haughty & dismissive of Buckwheat - they don't like the smell, yadda yadda yadda... good. More for US! So... this video is fun, but we ate the foods shown because we LIKED them, and not out of some dire necessity. Yes, life under Socialism was insanely difficult and boring... but we ate quite well, drank well... and - sit down for this - we even enjoyed ourselves sometimes. And I pity Americans who eat Bologna - our Doctorskaya is SO much better (we eat Doctorskaya and Tsarskaya now... like Soviet ice cream, our sausages and breads were SUPERIOR)
Being Polish I think with beef steaks it's not just the unavailability of good cuts but the structure of agriculture. I grew up after fall of communism but steaks were not a thing simply because there weren't many beef cattle herds. Beef was byproduct of dairy cattle industry so from animals that didn't have those nice muscles for good steaks and were older making them less tender.
I love Buckwheat! Versatile grain. Makes the most flavorful pancakes! But try a fried bologna sandwich with mayonnaise and crisp iceberg lettuce before you knock Americans love of Bologna 🤗
Another Polish guy here. Thanks for that comment because this "unconventional foods" shown on film are just regular, delicious foods. Also thanks for the apreciation of buckwheat it's simply great,
These are just traditional slavic foods, still eaten (and loved!) to this day.
I was thinking the same. And borsh is beet soup from what I had as a kid. Better with meats and sour cream.
Thank you. It was kinda weird hearing it was 'poverty' meals
Alot of it sounds great i always assume they ate alot of unseasoned pickled fish and boiled meat
I want to know why stinging nettle soup with whatever you could beg borrow or steal is on the list.
@@JulieKore - As with just about every culture around the world, “poverty food” eventually becomes a staple for everyone.
Alternate title: Foods you eat at your grandmother`s house
Babushka ✌🏻
Babushka and dedyushka
As a Romanian, we make” borș”(borsh) not with broth but by preparing ahead a sour, fermented liquid from bran, lovage leaves, thyme and hot water poured then left to ferment for few days then strained and added to the boiled meat/vegetables to sour the dish. In some regions of the country they use green grapes, smashed and the juice was used to add sourness to the borș. Also, “borș” is soured with the fermented liquid called borș, but “ciorba”(chiorba) is soured with small amount of vinegar.
The aspic is something we grew up eating. My Polish Mom would make it and we'd eat it with vinegar . She called it gallaretka.
Years later I realize it's essentially bone broth in solid form..... basically a superfood.
Thanks mom 💕💕🍎
My grandma made the best aspic she called it zulca and it was amazing she whould serve it with dinner or lunch and i never complained it was delicious
it's not only popular in slav countries, in germany you can get aspik from the butchers just as easily
Aspic is just gelatin with broth. Many people may not know that gelatin comes from bones. It's an absolute must against osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, skin and hair problems.
That s a fact,a lot of what we eat is ahead of the time,even we beeen eating it forever ,greetings from Serbia🥰🥰🥰
This video was so inaccurate.The foods are staples in Slavic kitchen. They actually really tasty even if here was shown in a bad light. The curd is similar to ricotta. Borscht is like a cream soup. Mayo salad is like potato or egg salad. Most Europans are familiar with these foods.Has nothing to do with Soveit Union Era. Please do not spread ignorance.
Syrniki are literally just fried cheesecakes and are served in posh Russian hotels and restaurants. This video is seriously reaching and doing mental gymnastics about the food.
Playing devils advocate maybe they just meant that it was unusual for the time and/or developed during that time...idk just a though.
For example soul food which is still eaten today came from black enslaved people only getting scraps and undesirable bits of food. Just using whatever they could and making it palatable. Obviously I know nothing about it but just thought it could be similar rationale.
@@Inamichan - these are mostly old traditional foods known well before the soviet era. Westerners equate people of former Soviet Union with being poor, but in average the people in Eastern Europe (Russia included) were always poorer than their Western counterparts. Even well before the communist rule. So much, the communists brought a much better world to them compared what they had before. I'm also from Eastern Europe.
and they failed to mention the ONE food that is actually Soviet: Doctor's sausages(Doktorskaya kolbasa), still popular in Eastern Bloc countries and other former communist countries(I'm part Chinese, and I definitely had something resembling Doctor's Sausage when visiting there)
@@holeeshi9959 Doctor’s Sausage is a modified version of American Bologna, made with higher quality ingredients, it wouldn’t fit the slanted narrative of this video
Bro this is just normal Slavic food
I grew up with this
That beet salad “Vinegret” is eaten a lot in Peru. Its called- Ensalada Rusa- translated is literally Russian Salad. The ingredients are: beets, potatoes , carrots, mayonaise( or a drizzle of oil) , salt, pepper.
Its a specialty eaten all over Balkans too with roasted pork, beef...
On english it is russian salad too
We have it in Bulgaria and it's also called Russian salad. Our version has Carrots, Potatoes, Peas, Pickles and Mayonnaise.
You miss out on "Doctor's Sausage"
It's basically pink meat made as a dietary supplement to people exhibiting signs of prolonged starvation.
Because it was mild-tasting, inexpensive and relatively healthy source of meat (when meat supply was low), it became popular in the USSR and to this very day.
I grew up in Estonia and I am half Russian. All this is completely normal food. USSR was HUGE and had many different cultures mixed in. All of this is normal food, not something starving people ate. Much of this food is something grandmothers would cook for family or grandkids. All of them are absolutely delicious and tasty. I have cooked most of these myself for my husband and he loves them. Our absolute favorites are Soljanka, kotleti and buckwheat porridge with pork and onions. My Grandmother and my aunt were both survivors of Leningrad Blockade and things people ate there were pretty much as described- saddles, leather belts and boots, animals of any variety (cats, dogs, rats, horses) and even children.
Thank you for that raw story
I agree, this is completely fine. There is nothing weird about it.
I eat this stuff regularly
Hard to believe anyone anywhere would be struggling if they were eating chicken Kiev lol
Errr ‘even children” that’s absolutely disgustingly evil! I can’t imagine people doing such horrific things!
My grandmom made the BEST borscht I ever tasted . She gave me the recipe before her passing but I can never make it without her. There is something about the smells in the kitchen that brings back fond memories.❤️❤️ Miss you Nana R.I.P
Well lets have it , post the recipe , no point in having a good recipe go to waste ;)
I want to make my grandma’s veggie soup! I have not ate it in a long long time
I swear grandmothers make the best food
I bet she'd want you to make it though, maybe try for a special occasion.
:)
My granny made the best vegetable soup and coconut cake I've ever had. She never would give me her cake recipe because she said she never used a recipe and wouldn't know how to tell me how much of each thing to put in, and I watched her made her soup dozens of times and never have been able to replicate it. I miss her so much.
Most people of Slavic descent are very familiar with the foods mentioned in the video along with regional variations. Being of Polish descent I can remember my babcia i moja matka making a type of cabbage soup or stew called kapushniak. Don’t worry about the spelling my Slavic friends, brothers, and sisters. This soup also had boiled ribs, onions, garlic, buckwheat, leaks, potatoes, celery and maybe other things I’ve forgotten. All I know is that on a cold winter day a dish of this served hot was both nourishing and tasted smaczne!
I love kapushniak I’m also from Poland
I'm Polish and I still cook and eat a lot of those or very similar dishes. Not due to hardship but because they are healthy and yummy and prevents food waste. Every cuisine will have similar one pot meals that we sometimes call "the review of the week" to use up leftovers.
There’s nothing unconventional among these foods…they’re literally just traditional Eastern European foods.
Russian isn't even my first language and these pronunciations still hurt my soul. And none of these are even unconventional. Come on y'all, your content is usually better than this
Me too
Really? It seemed like good pronunciations.
Perhaps Bald and Bankrupt should have been consulted during the making of this video.
CIA was a patron of the channel this time
@@loslingos1232 There’s a number of words that are pronounced based on the English letters instead of the Russian. For example, the first dish is syrnik (the letter C in Russian is always an S sound). Remember that USSR in Russian is CCCP (C = S, P = R).
The highly processed food eaten today in the United States would be truly revolting to many cultures around the world.
Probably why many Grandmas in Slavic countries very much dislike any America n Fast foods with passion. 😂 They are always quick to remind you how unhealthy they are.
The honest truth lol. I sometimes watch those cooking videos with 3-ingredient "recipes" and literally each "ingredient" is some processed food product from a box, tin or jar and just sort of thrown together and I think, really? That's a recipe? and just..... why?
we just eat sea food or the other thing is deep fried stuff and also non processed stuff is way more expensive.
Highly processed food is not unique to the US. Please stop projecting
It’s also big in Latin America and Asia
This looks like mostly healthy, tasty, and sensible recipies that I would like. It looks much healthier that most of the food we eat in the USA. Those soups look so satisfying.
all of these are absolutely great! I recommend you try them one day
I'm a 73 yr old Canadian and my siblings are closer to 90 but our grandmother who came from Scotland made a form of aspic she called head cheese. If was filled with leftover meats, spices and whatever else laying around and gelled by the boiled bones juices. I really liked it
Yep I'm canadian and you can find headcheese at most delis still. They would form it into a thick sausage shape and you'd cut it into disc shaped pieces
It’s called “head” cheese because the head of the animal was boiled and the tender meat from around the skull was picked out, sliced into small pieces and mixed into the gelatin. The skull is just a larger intact bone than ribs, or leg bones, and there’s lots of meat on it. That animal sacrificed its life to feed us, no reason to waste any of it. So, head cheese.
I love the sour headcheese
@@oldgloryhillfarmturtlewoma9132 “the animal sacrificed its life to feed us”, that’s absolutely ridiculous, no animal has ever done that.
It's called brawn in the north of England. cheeks and jelly its hard to find nowadays
This is not unconventional food, just a traditional Slavic food, present in other countries as well.
I come from Poland, a country that during Cold War was a puppet state dependant of Soviet Russia, and my great-grandmother used to tell me how good sugar beet pancakes she used to cook. Polish people lived in a world where basic supply chain was broken, it was not uncommon for people to make their own soap (I have heard rabbit was to best for it, out of some reason), to drink grain coffee (because true coffee was too expensive and exclusive), chocolate-like products that were supposed to taste similar but were produced on other plant oils and fats than cocoa (again, because cocoa was too expensive). Still, we made soups and traditional food every Eastern Block citizen could relate.
And out of many weird Russian things I have eaten "sallo" was the weirdest, basically a block of pig lard, seasoned and frozen before serving.
And you tell me there is no słonina in Poland, you must be kidding me.
@@malikamasimova7631 Słonina is totally different cup of tea. We use it to boil liquid lard out of it, and we feed birds (tits to be exact) during winter using it. We also chop it to small pieces, fry with onion to use on top on some of dishes, but, at least in my place, noone would dare to eat it "just like that".
Salo or slonina or slanina is not Russian food, it is common in all Slavic cultures and not only Slavic - in Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania
My friend who lived and was imprisoned in East Germany in the 80s noted that what passed for speck (smoked pork belly) was actually the sallo product you mentioned. Soviet influence was clearly VERY far flung.
yeah I remember that era, i grow up in a small village so meat and dairy was at much better quality of what you would buy at the store somewhere in a bigger city..I still eat some food from back in da day, simple but tasty.
you cite Leningrad 1941-1942, this is siege of Leningrad when almost 600 thousand people died from hunger, you cite this as normal Soviet food. And then citing an ex- Soviet soldier, a traitor who was speaking on German propaganda radio when Nazis have a war with USSR as a truth :) Hello, we are millennials, not idiots
True. The video is incorrect and disrespectful.
your typical western propaganda cope. 50% outright CIA lies 50% anti communist exaggerations with no mentioning how the Red Army took out Hitler
Any chance ur name hv arabian routes, malika is arabic for queen
@@evanmedi6144 Russian Federation is a multinational state with over 150 nationalities living there
People wonder why Americans get made fun of.
Syrnik is a subset of blins, where the milk is substituted by fresh acid set cheese. Germans call it quark/quarg
Kotlet (Not kotleti) is in essence a flattened and fried meatball.
Chicken Kiev is...well chicken kiev
Borch (not borcht) is a red beetroot based soup, sometimes even considered a soup with "beetroot stock" kind of dish.
Vinegret is primarly a sidedish. Like giardinera is fermented, vinegret is pickled. Can act as a garnish or as a dish on its own if one so desires.
Steak and onion comes from a hunters tradition to cook the meat or liver of the fresh kill with some onions right there in the woods. What is actually shown is the "cutlett steak": pounded and breaded cuts of meat, usually (deep)fried in oil.
Rossolnik soup is a potato-groat based soup. Because the groats take so long to cook, its usually not made with stock as it would "burn" easy. To enhance flavor, rossolnik gets fermented or pickled vegetables added. As part of the cooking or as a garnish on top.
Blins are thick pancakes akin to buttermilk pancakes in the US...but alot smaller. Think of the analogy of sliders vs hamburgers.
Salad Olivie does not contain any olives, but is more approprate to consider "Olivia Salad" or russian potato salad.
Herring under Fur coat is a festive dish. Usually bland every day items arranged in a "luxury" manner. Testiment to the saying: "better than the sum of its parts"
Okroshka (pronounced nice in this instance) is a cold vegetable soup, traditionally made with kvass, radish, carrot, beetroot and herbs like dill or parsley. Modern version swaps beetroot and carrot for cucumber and kvass for kefir or diluted sour cream.
Aspic is not the correct term for this dish. Aspic is a clean broth that has lots of collagen and thus sets when chilled. Holodetz is also a clean broth, but chilled with the rendered meat. Some regions add boiled SOFT vegetables like carrots, beetroot, parsnips, turnips. Former being served traditionally with mustard or dilute wine vinegar poured over, latter served as a component along with potatoes, saurkraut and pickled pumpkin during russian orthodox "christmas". A cheap alternative would be the gelatin set dishes, very much like the Depression era gelatin creations.
I've always made Okroshka using shredded beets, buttermilk, scallions and white pepper. With the beets and scallions whirred together in a blender and the rest stirred in and the whole thing chilled, it's heaven in a spoon. Russian and Eastern European cooking is an endless source of delight. Get a cookbook and start eating!
“Here’s weird Soviet foods!”
First item is a delicious cheesy pancake served like a plump crepe.
If something that appetizing counts as “weird”, the baseline for “normal” must be gruel.
The last item qualified from the Siege of Leningrad - aspic made from putrefied human remains and wood glue.
I can’t understand what is weird about this food, it’s absolutely normal in post-Soviet countries. You can easily find them in Russian cafes of prepare at home.
Just prepared a vinegret few days ago, and it was very tasty. Some chopped in a cube shape boiled beet, boiled potatoes, boiled carrot, fresh cucumbers, salt cucumbers and boiled peas (the size of the cubes should be about the size of a pea). Add some salt and unrefined sunflower 🌻 oil 👍🏻
Syrniki and bliny I also eat regularly, but Russian pancakes are thin and large, in spite of the American ones. You just mix some milk, 2 eggs, a bit of salt, sugar and baking soda with wheat flour and slightly pour this liquid on a flat hot pan, wetted with oil.
Syrniky are pretty good, too. Especially with home-made jam with entire berries or condensed milk.
And buckwheat is very tasty with meat, chicken or vegetables and is also a healthy food 👌🏻
And “borshch” is pronounced (and written in Russian) as «борщ», without “t”
Weird to Americans.
@@danielwensink7792 not meant to be weird to us. It’s not weird to me. They just got this ring is all :)
My grandma cooked this all the time, it’s delicious not weird 💕🇺🇸
Funny seeing all the hurt feelings about this 🤣
One of the best things on this earth is blinchiky that has beef sautéed onion and rice and lots sour cream 😊from childhood
This is interesting especially the one about Borscht. I never thought that a simple recipe was so closely guarded by the USSR
It was not.
The set-up to the video had me thinking _'Oh man, this gonna be some horrible food they were forced to eat out of necessity',_ then you come out of the gate with fried cheese pancakes covered in fruit jam and im like 🤤🤤
How is this "unconventional"? Stuff looks great & Slavic/Russian food is awesome. (Coming from a Scot who eats haggis & black pudding.)
Haggis and black pudding are good tho
as an american who has never had haggis. im jealous i would love to try it
@@mycliumman2529 really haggis is just an extra-large natural casing sausage. It's pretty good.
@@mycliumman2529 Haggis is wonderful, it'll change your life brother
Haggis, black pudding, square sausage, tattie scones fuckin fling it in me!
I work at a college as a cook and we have many international students. I always asked them what foods they miss from home. The guys from Serbia said soups and that they are a staple at every meal. The soups they described sounded delicious. Some of the russian students brought me dried shredded squid for beer snacks. A Thai student brought me back boat noodles. A student from amsterdam brought me stroopwafels. I love my job lol. Excuse me I'm going to make braised short ribs right now! If you're genuinely curious and respectful of other people's cultures its easy to make friends. Thank you I really enjoy this channel!
If you liked stroopwafels, you should really try pepernoten too! Theres a million varieties, plain to caramel to chocolate, you should really taste them x
You are lucky yo be supplied with foods from students
Pretty much all of these are average foods, and (depending on your view) even better than people ate in the past. There's an pre-USSR working class saying 《Щи да каша, пищи наша.》 In English "Cabbage soup and buckwheat are our foods". The unusual things are the powdered eggs and allegations of glue and leather in холодец.
Chebureki is easily one of the best foods from Russia in my opinion. Its a beef and pork meat turnover with dill, onions, green onions, garlic, and parsley. That is then put in a dough and fried in sunflower seed oil. Then dip it right in to the national sauce, mayonnaise.
Its truly the taste of slav power.
It’s not Russian. Even the name isn’t Slavic. That’s a central Asian dish that spread during the soviet empire.
@@IreneWY Yes, BUREK is a traditional Turkish dish that is commonly eaten. In the Balkans Burek is very popular in most slavic countries like Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria. It most likely came with the ottoman Turks as they travelled, traded or fought with the south slavic and other peoples in the Balkans.
Romania and Poland were NOT in USSR.
the american education system is horrible at teaching history. most of the history or social studies teachers at my school are only teaching that so they can coach a sport so yk its not taught to its full extent for me and other places probably
Thanks, I was about to write such comment 👍
Weren't they satellite states but just occupied?
Like a puppet state? I have a friend from Moldova and her parents describe it as HORRIBLE.
@@larrysizemore2891 Yep it was awful... USSR was no joke there! They build roads, factories, univercities and schools! Also they rebuild railways, rebuild most of building, destroyed by nazi... But thank god, that time is ower and people can now do what they always were doing - go to Germany as cheap working force!
From someone whose family is from the former eastern bloc, we still eat a lot of these.
Same
What's your favorite?
Why though?
Most of these sound aweful.
@@d-at-sea1322 maybe borscht, although ough I haven't tried all of them so I can only speak for the ones I've tried.
@@CliffSavage2021 some are not as bad as they sound, others I'm not a big fan of lol
This segment of "Weird History" would come across as "informative and entertaining" had it been shown to a post-WWII/pre-Vietnam War/pre-9/11 American audience.
However, we're in the 21st century, in a worldwide information platform that is the internet, on RUclips where there are instructional videos on how to prepare and enjoy these so-called "unconventional foods". Which kinda makes the people involved in making this video appear as myopic shut-ins who are out of touch with the times.
Have you considered taking this video down, or at least editing it?
I'm pretty much on board with trying all of these, minus the aspic with human flesh and wood glue.
Honestly, that is the only one that is truly unconventional. I have had it before although I am sure there wasn't any glue or human remains in it. I really didn't like the look of it, texture or taste or it. I think it is very close to American head cheese and I don't like that either.
One omitted fact, or not made clear, that Aspic part is about Leningrad while it is besieged and starved by the Germans in WW2. That was obviously not a normal thing.
"Slavic foods" rather than "Unconventional foods" would have been more appropiate....but well, sensation rules I guess. Loved the vid tho
Indeed. Most of the stuff is from way before communism and popular today. Some just with significantly different quality of ingredients;)
What a putz
Idk I don't think it really matters to be honest, but 🤷♀️
@@icantthinkofaname15 Well... it is quite offensive. We'd been eating some of those dishes centuries before Stalin and some of the recipes are definitely not for famine...
@@CieplinskiPawel you re too easily offended especially as I m guessing you're not from the former Soviet Union... true (ex-) Soviets wouldn't be this easily offended about such things as foods. Grow a pair buddy
syrniki are as unconventional to westeners as hamburgers are unconventional to me. btw writing this comment while eating a syrnik.
I think it sounds pretty tasty.
Fair enough. Sounds great too.
I love syrniki.
@@annacalifornia6498 oh i love them too. Syrniki (Varškėčiai in Lithuanian) and blini (Blynai in Lithuanian). Could eat them every breakfast.
FUCK IT PUT THEM BOTH TOGETHER!
Literally watched Boris make every single one of these as regular food. Not like these foods are "weird soviet foods"
Ano cheeki breeki iv danke
My wife is from Belarus, and we regularly eat lots of these dishes. Tasty, hearty, healthy.
This video is really inaccurate. These foods are not "unconventional" and quite tasty. Most are still popular in many Eastern European counties and are a part of their cultures. Also presenting people as flesh-eaters in such a manner is disrespectful. Cases of cannibalism in St. Petersburg happened during the siege, which was a huge tragedy and extreme circumstance, not a daily soviet thing (same goes for glue and belts).
Every culture has tales of cannabalism. Dont let it bother you.
The title, as always, is CLICKBAIT rather than any attempt to be accurate. "Common Slavic foods" won't garner you too many clicks. It has to be weird in some way.
Yes...I was waiting to hear about some disgusting things but a lot of the foods listed sound delicious. I have had borscht and it is really good. This is real clickbait.
Unless it's soup made of cow guts, that IS unconventional (still popular in Poland for some reason to this degree you can buy it in a shop frozen and the only thing to be done is to throw it in the water and boil).
"Were clickbaited offendfully" idk
1:28 Actually, "kotlety" is a general term that means any fried pieces of minced meat. The term is a loanword from French ('côtelette') like a pretty half of Russian food names since Russians adored all the French during the 19th century when the Russian kitchen generally shaped itself. The same with the Salad Olivier which obvously is not a Russian name.
No, it's a slice of meat, it doesn't designate minced meat. A steak with a bone.
@@Vii905 You, John and Vanesa, both are talking about difference between the meanings of this term in French and in Russian. Actually, you both are right, each about one of those to languages. This is due to the deviation of meanings. Russians, by loaning many things from French, changed their content.
Iranians adopted the food, too. They were also jazzed by France.
@@johnadams3038 It’s true. Kotlety originated from the French word côtelette which means a slice of meat and over time in Russia the word evolved to mean minced meat.
@David Afanasiev I would bet anything that has to do with cooking probably has French origins. Probably German too.
I had a Russian cookbook and I noticed that alot of recipes had saurkraut in them. Especially the soups. Also alot of recipes had hard boiled eggs in them.
"In Soviet Russia, Weird History subscribes to you."
Wait all those meals are what we eat now at home, at school, on work. Wherever we go, because it's just tasty???? I really can't tell why this video seem to make them strange or gross???
I know, right? Maybe because it's american and americans don't know squat about food.
Some of the soupy stuff looks kinda weird but thats just me cuz I dont care for soups but yeah we Americans are generally weirded out by non American food. Especially white Americans who view Italian, Chinese, Soul, and Mexican food as being exotic
Beings how Chinese food caused such a commotion over the past year and a half- yeah Chinese are notorious for eating absolutely anything that moves and some things are just not meant to be eaten unless absolutely life or death.
Not to mention general Chinese sanitation at those food markets make burger king foot lettuce look like a wholesome meal.
@@Spongebrain97 Racist much? Get a clue before opening your mouth.
@An unimpressed Rooster Did you try it? Coke is a tenderizer and it will give your meat a sweet note. It's really good actually. Especially if you like mixing your sweet/hot/sour/salty tastes. So I suggest a steak cooked in coke with a generous helping of hot sauce. You might be surprised.
I don't understand who decided that these foods are "unconventional".
As a russian, I can confirm that most of these foods are absolutely delicious. Everyone in the west would like them as well.
His calling them unconventional because to him it is
he comes from a completely different country so when he see the food as unconventional it’s because that’s what it is to an outsider Prospective because that’s not what his people eat everyday so for him it is weird
@@doom1894 I also don't live in Russia. Didn't grow up as one and it wasn't my food at home. And still, first I tasted it, it was delicious.
So it is a wrong term to use the term "unconventional".
Have a nice day!
I live in the west after getting out of USSR in 1992. Still love the shit out of most foods in this video. Except for okroshka. Ew.
Yes, all looks delicious to me
I shall bet you 100$ that I would eat absolutely none of these foods!!!.
That fish in a fur coat image is hilarious lol
As a Romanian, I have eaten most of these foods forever and they are all great good food. Not something poor people would eat. This is like a grandparent's special. especially on holidays. Not to mention you cant compare it with today's fast food mania.
Most of them are actually very tasty😂 I am from a former communist country. We still eat most of these foods here.
My family is from Poland, and yes, I miss many of these dishes. Luckily, I can make a few of these dishes.
Wood glue?
Human remains? Ok bro, u do u
World never had a communist country so you must be from the future
Agreed 👍. My husband is of Polish/Ukrainian background, and he makes a lot of these...they're huge favorites for our daughter and me. His cabbage rolls, piroshke, bliny( forgive my spelling. We're teaching our girl Russian...she chose it for her foreign language for homeschooling), and others. I LOVE borscht but they don't. I learned it really must be eaten cooled. I now understand why it wS referred to as "cold" beat soup. I'm intrigued by the amount of dill and sour cream. Do other herbs not grow in Russia? Not judging...just curious. My husband also makes fabulous Tomales and chili Verdes. We like all sorts of food...from everywhere. If you wouldn't mind, please fill me in on why dill is about the only herb I've seen in Russian food.
These seem like regular Slavic food to me.
I'm from Sweden, and I see a lot of similarities between Eastern European food and Scandinavian cuisine.
I expected a video entirely about how people would eat leather, foraged plants and pidgeons.
My family was ethnic Germans living in Hungary so growing up I ate a mix of both, and I see many similarities as well. This isn’t odd to me so much so as similar to the foods I had growing up.
I ate many of these foods as a child in Riga (Latvia) in my grand parents' home in the 1930s and would gladly eat them again now.
I like how they didn’t mention the siege of Leningrad as if people ate belt soup and towards the end resorted to eating their dead as an “unconventional” food in the same list with caviar and blin
You mentioned other regions when talking about borscht -> Romania is a country not a region and was never part of the Soviet Union. @weirdhistory
Yup, this video is as dissapointing as it gets. Unsubscribed.
Exactly. I don't know from where he gets this information, but a lot of it is wrong. If they would actually know history, they would know that Romania is a country, not a region, and was never part of Russia/URSS . And Transilvania is a region from Romania, and not a country (how a lot of Americans know) 🙄🤭....meaning they know s..th.
Romania was a part of the Warsaw pact but eventually left it.
And fruit is never added to soup in Romania. The only culinary tradition somewhat related to that is the practice of using a "jam" or sauce of sorts made out of unripe fruit (typically plums) to sour up soups.
@@rollothewalker5535 you're mostly correct, however ... I remember a sweet bread soup with dry fruits, mostly apple, plum, and pear when i was in a kindergarten. It was called a "bread soup" on a menu, but I would say it was more like a bread pudding. And... I'm sorry, I missed your Romania part. I'm talking about USSR.
This is literally food that we still eat today. Its super normal to eat almost everything in this video. Definitely not "unconventional".
And this Yankee says it's delicious, too. But we like that kind of food in the Midwest. :)
Totally. And i'm not even soviet. I am a latin american and i eat those meals, fucking delicious.
A+ video!
LOVE IT! What a unique and (potentially) tasty cuisine!
Now make one on how Americans eat deep fried pickles.Cause to me this is just normal Eastern European food,nothing strange
Nothing unconventional about these foods just regional recipes.
My wife is Russian so over the years I have been introduced to many delicious Russian dishes! That now throwing a dinner party she always gets compliments on her cuisine!!
Down to the putrefied corpses, I'm sure.
@@HangTimeDeluxe we are talking about this particular video. I am not from Russia do not know if that is true or just an urban legend. But I am from Europe therefore know the cuisine and history.
I eat most of these dishes regularly 😋
Human aspic? 😋
The wood glue and human remains dishes sound the most interesting to try... (since you asked). ;)
We lived in Kazakhstan during times of Western influence and relative prosperity, and the daily grocery food choices were an interesting mix of 'expensive food for expats' and 'strange types of meat from peculiar animals and extremely irregular-looking (but excellently flavoured) vegetables and fruits. We grow our produce 'big/pretty/standardised' in the US, but other countries still grow for flavour--that was kind of a revelation living abroad.
It should've hit me sooner--America's more about appearance--good taste typically passes us right by. :P
It's funny because some traditional Russian meals like Olivier salad are also traditional in my country. Mostly for the holidays such as christmas and new year's eve. We call it something like "Russian Salad". I wonder how it became popular here...
My Grandmother told me stories of people eating leather shoes and tree bark during The Depression, while she taught me to garden.
True 👍
Oh wow that's really interesting!
Bark has nutrients as gross as it is fat help fry it
@@Stalkergames916 People sliced leather shoes thin, boiled for hours- and went from there.
this happened /s
In Soviet Russia, you didn't have to watch what you ate, because the KGB was watching for you.
Unlike in America, where you don't have to watch what you eat because the NSA watches for you.
Now it's true in the United States, the government is watching everything you do.
It's not what you eat but who you eat.
In Belarus it's still watching 😅
I grew up in Soviet Russia. The names of foods are right, we ate foods named like this. The overall perception of shortages and poverty is also right. But recipes are bizarre, to be the most charitable.
I'm from Lithuania, and to this day 80% of the food mentioned is a staple in home cooking at least
Any other Russians low key bothered by how he pronounced most of these?
It drove me up the wall.
Very.
Did you really expect someone from the US to make a decent pronunciation? Relax, comrade. Translations from one language to another will always be riddled with inaccuracies. But then again, the US has always been a strange place, especially since Biden took office. But I digress. No use complaining.
Это было смешно слушать)
Hell yeah
My best guess is this is unconventional for people in the States. But this is definitely I stuff that looks similar to stuff I might eat in Mexico, particularly the stews.
For real, I'm a white guy (grandmother is from Mexico though). We grew up far from rich and eating a lot of stews/soups from leftovers. From menudo to split pea soup.
No, here in the states, unconventional food (processed food) is still unconventional food. Looking out the diets of most from the United States of America, we love processed foods these days. The less actual food and nutrition it has, the more of it we will feast on as if Gushers and Mountain Dew is a 'balanced meal.'
@@bodyrumuae2914 wow that sure is an original thought no one’s heard of. That’s definitely not common sense for anyone without their head up their ass
@@bodyrumuae2914 Oh man. I come from England and when i visited the US i thought that the land was beautiful, most people were friendly, the cities were impressive, the farmland stretches forever. The food however, in a lot of places was little better than what i would feed my dog honestly. It was the thing i disliked most about the US. That and the segregated neighbourhoods.
@@salkoharper2908 Most people were friendly to you? Where the hell did you go visit, a prison? I'm a native born here and the most hospitable people I've met are convicts
Next video: "Unconventional foods people ate in capitalist America: Hamburgers, hot dogs, mac and cheese, apple pie, donuts...."
Awesome! In thoughts of cooking, the dish recipe's are my first to try, cook, and deliciously eat and enjoy!-----------Andria
These items are only unconventional to those that have never eaten them. In Western Canada most of these are very common amongst Ukrainians
When you’re Russian to eat, there’s no time for Stalin!
it was dinnertime, soviet.
1 beer for you
Lol
Because you’re so Hungary...
Did you ever hear about Putin's brother, the cheapskate gambler?
Nikolai Putin
Nickel I put in.
This are the most popular dishes in Eastern Europe 🤦🏻♂️ some people really don't know what they are talking about. I still eat most of these and I don't life in Eastern Europe anymore this food is culture.
These foods don't sound weird or unconventional to me...just recipes from different part of the world. The Syrniki sounds really good. Would love to try it.
The Syrniki sounds REALLY good. I love to cook and always have (even though I can't gain a flippin' pound) so I am going to try them.
@@enigma2k10 They are delicious both hot and cold!
Cheese pancakes?! Omg why have I never tried this
I make them with farmer cheese, so much better than regular pancakes
You can find a great recipe on Helen Rennie's RUclips.
I buy cheese pancake rolls regularly
Is good
There actually really good i make them every now and again mainly when I have my kids with me lol normally I’m lazy on what I make for meals, i just throw things together that are quick so I can eat and go to sleep for work the next day.
U can use ricotta instead, even a tofu. Add an egg yolk , some flour( not to much), bit salt-sugar, baking powder blend is ready.
Jees bro.. you could've skipped the last part. Just if one exausted soldier under siege ate his comrade that doesn't make it into national diet. And besides that last part there's nothing unconventional about these foods. I eat most of them until this day.
Efficiency... Use what you have. That's a lesson from my immigrant father, from Russia. I'm 70 and wish I could now tell my father..."I did listen."
I think it's incredible how no one ever wondered why there was a shortage of food in USSR countries, it's not because of capitalist embargo, right?
"The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow"
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Ты бы ещё Геббельса процитировал.
Ooooooo! Good one! Молодца!
I'm not even Russian and I've eaten most of these foods multiple times in my life
As a Romanian I have never seen someone putting fruits in Borscht. And we were not a region of the Soviet Union but a satellite state :)
“Unconventional” - americans discover that other cultures have different foods 🤦
You guys went overboard with "hungry starving soviets" stereotype. And good portion of these are common foods, both pre and post-soviet.
It’s not even a stereotype it’s reality
This is Life of Boris Approved lol
But these are conventional Boris food, must be Western spion around.
I hope Boris sees this and makes these recipies!! I would die if he would show how to make Salat Olivier, so much Mayo!
Boris is a Western spy sent to turn Slavic culture into a meme.
@@Mousey10101 Boris made many of these recipes and more.
I doubt it... Not a single mention of the bay leaf!
(or maybe two).
Most of the stuff I would try at least once, in fact, some of this sounds downright exquisite
Western food is not the only food in the world. Every culture has their own culinary skill. Stop calling it weird.
My late great grandfather escaped the USSR in the mid 50s, he would always tell us to take any food we didn't eat and put it in our pockets to take home. Not because he was an uncivilized human being but because the simple fact that you may not have any food later and apparently to go containers weren't really a thing in the USSR at restaurants. He would often put bread in a napkin and I'd see him sneaking it into his pocket, he'd look at me and do the "shh", me being a kid just smiled and went along with it because I thought it was a game. It wasn't a game. That's what he had to do just to make it through. I'm so proud he had the courage to come here to the US and create better opportunities for our family.
My dad used to yell at us if we threw away even a heel of bread; during WW1 in western Ukraine/Galicia deprevation was very real.
@@TheTraktergirl It's so true. I can only hope they're smiling where ever they may be.
I still can't throw food away. Went through starvation in the 90s in Russia and my grandmother told me of her harsher hunger days during the WWII. Whoever starved, will understand!
And most likely got paid for saying propaganda.
@@justsomecommie2638 Da, many rubles but we invest wisely in vodka and counterfeit Adidas sweat suits. Now richest in whole village. Joke on KGB... Hold on knock at door... Brb...*gunshot* Hello, disregard what comrade previously said. Soviet Union has enough food and authentic sweat suits for all comrades.
None of these foods are unconventional and I have no idea what you're trying to achieve here. It's a nice, informative video, but frankly showing these completely normal, mostly delicious Slavic dishes as something weird is a bit offensive.
Agreed, this video is trash
It's unconventional for western viewers
Gets people clicking on the video. I'm from the West bit I feel like Europeans have at least a bit of knowledge as to what the Eastern Europeans eat.
Basically, resourceful and tasty af 😋
agreed, totally ordinary dishes
@@Spongebrain97 Oh yes, because pancakes, cottage cheese, soup, potato salad and meat patties are just soo outrageous to Westerners...
I've never had borscht,but always wanted to. The sound of beets and sour cream alone sounded pretty damn good
your failure to bring up all the weird sausage varieties that stalin had brought over, is really stunning.
You know what they say "anything is edible except your children" - my dad hopefully sarcastically
I know almost all of these foods, I'm from Slovakia, which was part of Czechoslovakia, which was never officially part of the Soviet Union, but we were under their control, and had socialist regime... just wanted to say that some of these foods are really healthy and delicious, but some are equally nasty and disgusting. Also eating meat used to be rare, like only once or twice a week, which was good for our health and good for the environment, meat should be a rarity, not necessity.
based opinion
@@derhighlige5493 just as yours
You've a point there
Eating meat once or twice a week is healthy
All these are Polish dishes too. Wawrzecki was tried and executed in Poland, and Poland was never a part of SU.
Grateful information.
Half of the things were mouthwatering
It's all good. I'm slav, I know.
All good food
@Myra Bae I pity you.
Anything other than processed plastic is “unconventional food...” 🇺🇸 GBA.
Not at all unconventional, these all sounds great and pretty normal
Syrniki is one of the most popular desserts among all ages nowadays