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Russian cuisine has long and rich history. It is very tasty and not very difficult to prepare. In old times the main food was grain and now bread is still important food. It is a tradition to meet guests with bread and salt given on a towel.
Pies have always been specific for Russians. They were filled with meat, fish, berries, mushrooms and were of different sizes. Also Russians liked other pastry products like kalachi, bubliki, especially on holidays.
Dishes from cereals played important role, they are called kashas. Vegetables widely used were turnip, cabbage, cucumbers and after 18 th century Ò potatoes.
Russians followed religious traditions and fasts strictly, that is the reason why Russian cuisine is so rich on dishes made of vegetables, mushrooms, berries. Most of villages were built on the bank of the lakes and rivers, that gave people a lot of fish to cook.
Since there were not fridges in old times, people developed many ways of keeping food.
Russian cuisine has a lot of soups which in old times were called pochlebka (a soup with cereal). Dishes with beef, pork, chicken are also numerous.
Russian cuisine has never been monotonous, because it had different ways to cook the meal. In Russian cuisine always used spices like garlic, onion, dill, pepper, parsley and bay leaf.
Russians have always taken things from other cuisines and adopted.
Nowadays people do not spend much time on cooking. Many of old recipes were made easier to cook. Fast food is becoming more and more popular and people do not eat healthy food very much.
In big cities there are restaurants where people can taste food of different cuisine around the world, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, European.
Meals time
• 7-10 a.m. Ò breakfast. Usually we eat coffee, butter bread with cheese or meat (sausage), or porridge with milk.
• 1-2 p.m. Ò dinner. Salad, the first (soup), the second (meat with garneour: potatoes or macaroni), the dessert (tea with sweets or cake).
• 7-8 p.m. Ò supper. Meat with vegetables or garneour. Or dish without meat.