N.N.-D.
CHAPTER XIV
RUSSIA
Food of the country--Restaurants in Moscow--The dining places of
St. Petersburg--Odessa--Warsaw.
Russian Dishes
The Russians are a nation of gourmands, for the _Zakouska_, the potatoes
and celery, spiced eels, stuffed crayfish, chillies stuffed with potato,
olives, minced red cabbage, smoked goose-flesh, smoked salmon, smoked
sturgeon, raw herring, pickled mushrooms, radishes, caviar, and a score
of other "appetisers," and the _petits pates_, the _Rastegai_ (tiny pies
of the lightest paste with a complicated fish stuffing and a little
fresh caviar in the openings at the top), the _Tartelettes St-Hubert_,
any other little pasties of fish and flesh eaten with the soup, could
only be consumed by vigorous eaters. Soups are the contribution of
Russia to the cuisine of the world, and the moujik, when he first
stirred some sour cream into his cabbage broth, little thought that from
his raw idea the majestic _Bortch_ would come into existence. The two
cold soups of which salt cucumber juice forms the foundation are
curious. There are other admirable soups of Russian invention, one,
_Selianka_, a fish soup made from the sterlet and sturgeon, being much
liked when a taste for it has been acquired.
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