Russian food - is it the worst food in the world?

That looks disgusting. I find most "northern" food unappetizing sounding even German. It's so heavy and stodgy but, yes, Eastern Eurpean and Russian food seems especially unappetizing. Lots of cabbage, beets and potatoes.

But it's good for you R1

Is this supposed to look appetizing!

A friend visited Russia about 25 years ago. She said most restaurants had a giant pot bubbling in the back where they would scrape in everyone's leftovers and then sell that to people who couldn't afford anything else.

Omg.

R4, one man's leftovers...

A lot of it seems disgusting, but overall, I don't think it's worse than German food. Some Russian food is good - blini, shashlik, etc.

I lived in Germany for 8 years and don't miss the food at all. Do you want gruenkohl or rotkohl? Yuck.

Russians are rude, nasty, ignorant assholes, why would their food by any different?

There are thousands of Russian immigrants in my city. There are arrogant, pushy and totally lacking in any form of civility. To a man, they think Putin and Trump are tremendous.

Most people with culture were killed during the Revolution. Knowing the proper way to use cutlery was enough to get someone killed.

As for food, a lot of Russian food is tasty, and usually pretty healthy. The salad pictured, herring under a fur coat, is delicious. But Russians do tend to drench food in mayonnaise.

Shashlik is excellent but remember, it is Georgian, not Russian though adopted by the latter.

Maybe that's why they drink so much fucking vodka. It kills and dulls their tastebuds, so they don't mind their terrible food as much.

Posting something disgusting (in your eyes - it just looks like aspic to me) and then pretending it represents an entire cuisine is not only silly, it's boring.

Russian cuisine has many, many lovely features, especially since "cuisine" includes not just what's eaten but how and where it is shared and enjoyed. A bowl of ukha or okroshka, shashlyk with a good vegetable and a proper Olivier salad is nothing to dismiss, and it's all simple and fresh. But Russia is large enough to include eastern European, middle eastern and central Asian foodstuffs and preparations, plus a strong base of French in St. Petersburg and Moscow, so sniffing at a sturgeon liver is just a form of bigotry.

As for conducting a dinner, thank God for service a la Russe, the international standard for staging and ordering a dinner. Even in our modest 2-4 course meals now, we are using it. (Except for the tyranny of restaurant salad-first convenience, a barbarity.

R8 is a Trumpling in disguise. And R7 is referring to kale and red cabbage in German cooking - how shocking! If someone wants to complain about German fare, she should knock currywurst, a ubiquitous recent arrival.

It is easy to imagine the posters here, pudging their fat fingers into their greasy phones to declare their outrage about things they don't know (complaining of any cuisine is ignorance in action, since diversity exists everywhere and even grilled grubs in the Amazon can be delicious) while KFC flecks sleet from their shaking cascades of chins.

R12 = angry, offended Russian.

Sorry, dear: There's a reason absolutely [bold][italic] nobody [/bold][/italic] in this world says: "Hey honey, wanna go out for some Russian food tonight?"

Just to reiterate: shashlik is Georgian, not Russian. Georgia is a country and culture that knows how to cook. Russia is not.. despite being neighbors with or adjacent to some of the world's better cuisines (China, Korea, Japan, Georgia, and Iran, Afghanistan during USSR).

Not up there with the fine cuisines of the world, that's for sure. Most of my immigrant Slavic family totally converted to "American" food, alcohol and lifestyle; one aunt and uncle stuck to the old peasant ways: a chunk of meat with potatoes and cabbage, a shot of vodka once in a while. While sisters and brothers died in their late sixties, these two lasted until nearly 100 and were active until the end. I don't know if I'd want to live 30 extra years on that diet, but it worked for them.

-R1- was that already eaten once!? Gahhhhhh-hhhhhh! Revolting!

For your reference, the holupki was invented in 1380 as a tribute to Prince Dmitri of Moscow at the battle of Kulikova. The pirogi was invented 200 years later to celebrate Ivan the Terrible. To this day on his birthday, an enormous pirogi festival is held with thousands of cheering school children dressed as stuffed dough balls. Even the Russian air force sends jets as a show of respect. Feodor Chaliapin, one of the greatest singers, was working on a holupki based opera at the time of his death.

bump

which cuisine is even worst?

nasty food, nasty people

Apparently Russian mayonnaise has produced this guy. Not too shabby.

Interesting side note: Baryshnikov is only 5'5".

I'm not very familiar with Russian cuisine except for a few dishes, but I have never met a fat Russian person in my personal life.

They're typically all skinny with nice bodies. I'm talking about the ines I've met, of course. Not saying that there are no fat Russian people.

Regardless of how terrible their food might look to some, it does seem to come with some health benefits.

I LOVE German food. Their desserts are pretty awesome - Kirschenmichel, Stollen cake, Königsberg marzipan, buchtelns, Nuremberg gingerbread, Baumkuchen, Eierschecke, Quarkkäulchen...I'm get hungry just thinking about this stuff.

* I get hungry

I love German food as well. They have the best bread and cakes in the world.

I believe this dish is Russian, and I LOVE it.

Russians themselves are a foul smelling vile lot of people. They are some of the most negative, bossy, nasty people you'd ever want to meet. While Trump is banning Middle Eastern people because of the alleged links to terrorists, Russian mobsters are taking over entire neighborhoods in several major American cities.

In my twenties I knew some White Russians, namely people in their 80s and 90s who had fled the Revolution and remembered, however vaguely as they had been young then, the days of the Czar. And I knew their children and grandchildren. They were the most refined, educated and polite people you would want to meet. Their food was good too. Not like the lot that came over later, debased by years if Communist Party rule. To a man they were also the reactionary Republicans you could imagine. I've come to agree with them on some points.

Borscht with sour cream is really good.

Can't speak to anything else.

Love the dressing!

It depends - my partner and I were in St. Petersburg 6 years ago and the food ranged from dismal to superb. The pre-revolution, imperial cuisine was amazing, with a lot of French influences, but you had to pay the top dollar for it (more expensive than the top restaurants in the West.) At other places, getting stale bread with the meal was the norm.

Russians are the worst people in the world so it's not a stretch that most of their food would suck.

Why do we have to pretend that Georgia is some altogether different country? Russia was parceled into about a thousand little mini countries years ago but it's all still Mother Russia in the end. To insist otherwise is absurd.

R32 You speak about the pre-revolution era almost as if you lived through it.

I was visiting Moscow, and it was about 20 degrees outside. I went into a restaurant and had blinis with sour cream and caviar, served with shots of pepper vodka. Best meal of my life.

There's great food in Moscow if you look for it. I hope people don't judge American cuisine by deep fried Snickers bars.

What's wrong with deep fried Snickers? Never mind. I really tried to defend American "cuisine" for a second, but it's not an easy task.

[quote]American "cuisine"

Funny you should mention that, R37...

[QUOTE] R19 which cuisine is even worst? [QUOTE]

Of the 'warm' Countries Portuguese. Even worse in some of it's former colonies, a particular toilet busting holiday in Cape Verde is fixed in my mind forever.

Giles Coren of The Times wrote an excellent article - Highlights below

[quote]A friend visited Russia about 25 years ago. She said most restaurants had a giant pot bubbling in the back where they would scrape in everyone's leftovers and then sell that to people who couldn't afford anything else.

So what? Denny's does this too and no one complains.

R12: *cough*

We ate splendidly at the Moika Palace, and there was plenty of sweet champagne to rinse away the taste of Rasputin's smegma.

I heard that Polish food was the worst. And this was from a Pollack. Lithuanian is reportedly pretty shitty too.

Absolute worst food is Japanese.

Portuguese food ate by the poor is disgusting. Also, it STINKS. Hideous cuts of meat.

Yup, Polish food is awful. Most Slavic nations in Eastern Europe have terrible food. Number one rule there seems to be that there can never be enough grease, salt and sugar in everything.

Ex-Yugoslav nations (Croats, Slovenians, Serbians, Bosnians...) are an exception to this rule. Their cuisine was strongly influenced by Italian, Hungarian, Austrian and Turkish cuisine so it's a lot more diverse and very tasty.

[Quote] And this was from a Pollack.

Sidney Pollack?

Friends, stay away from the steak tartare.

Could somebody send me a sample so I could join in this discussion?

Thanks in advance.

(Since I may not have a chance to thank you later...)

I like Lutonian haloopniks

Polish food, at least, has some redeeming dishes, such as that hunter's stew. Russian food has no such thing.

Japanese food as worst than Russian? Are you kidding me? High-quality sushi and sashimi is in demand all over the world.

Also, what good does it do if Russian food is "healthy" when these people have such a low life expectancy, due to all of their drinking anyway?

Cabbage rolls and coffee can't be beat

It's absolutely tremendous. Better than any other food in the world. Everybody knows that.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Russian breakfast = cigarette and a glass of vodka

Russian lunch = more cigarettes and more vodka

I spent three days in Juneau: pelmeni abounding!

I hate beets so borscht and much other Russian food is in the no go zone.

I love it! Its as tasty as Russian bribe money!

Please, everyone, learn the correct use of the comparative and superlative of adjectives--eg, bad, worse, worst.

Dumb, more dumber, more dumbest

eww, what the fuck is this shit??

No thank you. I'd rather stick to grass and mud.

truthyier

Russian food when freshly prepared can be good. They have a lot of pickles. Dishes made with wild mushrooms are very tasty.

russian canned goods.

More Russian food.

R65, that looks like the hot springs my cousin Ursaz IV fell into last monsoon season.

You better love mayonnaise.

Russian food is made much more unappetising by the hideous Russian taste in tableware and table linens, both luxury and proletariat.

The cakes look promising here.

I doubt Russian hottie Sergey 'Vyacheslavovich' Lazarev eats any of that icky Russian food or vodka:

Who's the twink, R70?

I wanna know what's wrong with German red cabbage?

I love red cabbage.

Roast meat, potato pancakes, red cabbage

R71 Now that's a Russian dish that I wouldn't mind trying.

This thread reminds me of a Mexican delicacy known as huitlacoche, basically fungus that grows on corn. I've tried it; it's very earthy. Wouldn't be my go-to choice at an upscale Mexican restaurant, though.

Russian venereal disease = rochakokov

What the hell is so special about borscht, their national dish? A beet soup? Big damn deal.

Actually I love cold borscht.

I cant say the worst OP. the competition is stiff in my experience: English, American, Canadian, sub Saharan Africa, Tibetan, Dutch, Scandinavian. Germany has has the wurst.

Are you Russian, R79? I can think of 195 countries who make a better, tastier soup.

F'ing Mozambique has better food. Nothing in Russian food is this colorful or flavorful.

Maybe Finnish food is equally as dreary? Who knows? You never hear about it. Even then, I'm sure somebody here has tasted Finnish delights better than anything offered in Russia.

What's the decorative schmear for, R78?

This one of very few instances where the kosher alternatives are better.

Yes. Kosher and its Islamic equivalent of halal can ensure freshness. Whether the practice is a cuisine is another matter.

Russians are disgusting vile, I hesitate to say, human beings.

Outside of Russia the worst food is from counties that receive UN food aid. In most of Africa (Cape Verde as mentioned before) the oil given is full of Palm Oil which just tastes fatty and smells disgusting. The locals cannot smell or taste it and coat all of the food liberally in it.

After a few visits to African countries the smell makes me vomit

How can anyone not like headcheese?

If I was in a war or living in a poor country I'd rather starve to death than eat anything sent by the UN.

People of Sarajevo even erected a funny monument depicting the notoriously bad canned beef that the UN was feeding them during the siege in the 90's.

I forgot to mention this - the legend has it that the ICAR canned beef tasted so nasty even the dogs and cats of Sarajevo refused to eat it.

Bosnian food is delicious. I traveled through Europe quite a bit, and I was surprised at how delicious the food was in Bosnia and Croatia.

I have worked with both a German American and a Polish American guy, and both have told me their traditional family cooking was terrible. Of course, it could just be their mother weren't good cooks.

Flavorless.

What about Beef Stroganoff, piroshki and Chicken Kiev? Veal Prince Orloff was developed by a French check (natch) for the Russian ambassador to France. There are a handful of nice dishes. I really think the Russian Jews probably have some of the better dishes.

I'm surprised about Russians and mayo. I knew sour cream but I didn't know they used so much mayo. A Russian friend took me to a supposed nice Russian restaurant in Brighton Beach Brooklyn, NY. It was a fancy restaurant but the food pretty much sucked. The beet and beef soup wasn't too bad. The sour cream helped it a lot but the rest, I'm not sure what because he ordered, was awful. The only thing I really recognized was the bottle of Diet Coke I got. Strangely they did make a nice creme brulee, which I was surprised to see on the menu. Unfortunately, between the meal and the long car ride back to my apartment I puked as soon as I got home.

Also, the place was damn expensive, a little over $150.00 before tax and tip for two and that was without any booze. Neither of us drink. It was his treat but if I had been the one paying I would have gone over that check with a fine tooth comb. BTW, I was the only American in the place. Maybe they thought he wanted to show off for me and double charged him. We didn't order anything fancy or smoked fish or anything like that. I think the appetizer was stuffed cabbage. The main course some kind of pork smothered in some kind of gravy with very bland mashed potatoes. They served some kind of decent bread and like I said, we had Diet Cokes, regular coke for him and we both had creme brulee for dessert. That was it. Both meat dishes came with sour cream, no mayo. I thought the dessert was going to come with sour cream too, lol.

I was shocked when I sneaked a peek at the check while he went to the men's room. I offered to leave the tip but he wouldn't hear of it. Nice guy.

R34, Georgia was not always part of the Russian Empire. Georgians were Christians before the Russians. They were under siege from Iran and asked their fellow (Russian) Christians for aid (there is dispute on this point). Georgians always retained their language and culture within the Russian Empire.

Hi, Georgia!

R92 - they sell excellent Yugoslavian red pepper spread at Trader Joes, try some! There's a Croatian restaurant near me that has a dish of cepivici sausages, onion, pepper paste and a huge round of THE tastiest bread I've ever had!

I spent a couple of weeks in St.Petersburg and a couple in Moscow, a few years back. Food was awful. Worse than Ireland (which is saying something).

I went to a well-regarded Russian restaurant in Portland.. Kachka, or something like that. I give them points for effort and ambiance.. the food still was not memorable. Maybe I just don't "get" Russian food... I just don't think it's anything special in comparison to so many other tastier cuisines.

The food is dreary because the people are dreary...depressive dour people. I think I may hate them worse than Italians.

Excuse you, R102. Italians do not belong in any discussion about terrible food.

After this, I guess who gives a FUCK what the food tastes like.

That's why you follow it up with *this* delicacy!

R103

Italian food is not terrible, but it can be boring.

R107 real Italian food in Italy is generally very good (especially in the North). What usually passes for Italian food in the States results from Sicilian immigrants (whose food was crappy anyway) adapting their cuisine to American (lack of) taste.

R92 Macedonian food is delicious too.

Sicilian food is not crappy. It is robust and bursting with flavor. If you think Sicilian food is terrible, I would hate to think what you think about the rest of European cuisine.

You can do a whole food tour of southern Italy that would take weeks.

How long would a food tour in Russia last?

R110 I've been to Sicily several times. No thank you. Give me Bologna - best food in Italy.

Even the worst food in Sicily tastes 1,000 times better than any Russian food. You can probably say the same thing about the entire Mediterranean coast.

Have you ever been to Naples? Even Bolognese cuisine can't hold a candle to it.

OK, back to terrible Russian food.

They just love their ass-pick, don't they?

when I was little in cuba my mom used to buy me apples from russia and they smelled and tasted so good that I have never been able to explain why apples in the usa ,canada and other countries in europe just do not smell at all and they are so flavorless.I remember that if any one passed by a house where they had these apples and one could smell them from far away

I like the wine-y, berry richness of their food, the pickled hints, the dark mushrooms. The heavy purees, the fragrant creams, the stewed root vegetables, the vaguely distinguishable but heavy in presence spices, the general liquored density of Russian food.

I can see why you wouldn't like this Sicilian item

Eeeeesh. That clip @ r104! I knew the Ruskies are alcoholics almost to a person. However, I had no idea they're so messy about it.

R117, that's like a fancy wine description for a Franzia box.

I like their heavy bread, too.

R120 Only my finest for you, DL.

Ha - if THESE are the delicious ones . . .

More mayonnaise-y, delicious Russian culinary goodness.

I don't know what the fuck it is, but you know you bitches want some.

Cuban food. The most overrated cuisine EVER. Painfully simple ingredients, lacking in any sort of spice or flavor, loaded with grease, lard, salt, and sugar, visually unappealing. Definitely not worth the inevitable heartburn afterwards.

R116, those apples might have been from Kazakhstan.

They are renowned for their wildly-flavored apples.

Heavy liquor and cream. Russian food is made for those who know what counts.

Sometimes you need a belt loosening big heavy meal. German and Russian food is good for that. I used to go to the Ukrainian restaurants in the East Village for that. Germantown in yorkville is long gone, sadly.

Well gee, now I HAVE to try Russian food to see how gross it actually is!

the most tasteless food that I have ever tasted in my life is american,and I live in the US so I know what I'm talking about by experience, every time that I go with my husband who is from Finland to an american restaurant and order a steak we have to ask for barbecue sauce because they are just a tasteless chunk of grilled meat on the plate and to boot they cut it way too thick.

The pot bubbled and bubbled

As part of a grad school project, a classmate and I had an interview with an information officer at the Polish consulate in NYC. She more or less referred to Polish-American food (galumpkis and such) as "peasant chow".

Didn't apples originate in Asia around Kazakhstan? Would explain why there are great apples from around there.

I've had excellent Polish and Ukrainian food--blintzes, pierogi, white borscht, hunter's stew. Not a huge variety and it tends to be heavy, but, like most cuisines, if made well it can be very good. I've only had Russian food a couple of times--didn't love it, didn't hate it.

Keep in mind that these are places with long winters and short growing seasons--so you're going to get a cuisine that relies on high-calorie foods that can be stored over long periods of time.

Lots of potato and turnip

At least get Béarnaise on your steak instead of barbecue sauce, r130!

Lordy.

yikes

A good steak needs nothing more than butter

Hunger is the best sauce.

As the world weans itself off crude oil, Russians will end-up back in bread lines.

or mayonnaise lines, by the looks of that food

I used to work by a Russian store and all they sold were chocolate covered marshmallows, strange tasting chocolates and lumpy kefir.

[quote]Shashlik is excellent but remember, it is Georgian, not Russian though adopted by the latter.

Shashlik is Ottoman Turkish in origin. Whether the Turks brought it to the conquered Middle East or adopted it from there is another matter.

It's very cat-foody.

"the most tasteless food that I have ever tasted in my life is american." I could maybe agree for a lot of American food. But, "tasteless" doesn't necessarily mean it's gross (though some is) or the "worst."

I guess it goes back to the American food thread - what is it? I think our BBQ and southern cooking is tasty (when done well).

What the fuck is that at OP

Fuck I just googled it. It's like a jello mold with meat in it. Jesus Christ!

mmmmmmmmmm

R147, that is also a Ukrainian dish. My mother and grandparents loved it. It was my Grandfather's favourite dish. Pigs feet and pork hocks, garlic, bay leaf, salt, and peppercorns. When cooked, it is put in a dish with broth. The broth is the gel. If made by someone skilled, that broth will be clear. As a kid, the look of it grossed me out, but it is actually quite delicious. In Ukraine it's also made with white fish.

The worst "food" in the world is, as everyone knows, American "food." Absolute garbage, not even adequate for composts. Choose your trough: Cracker Barrel, Golden Corral, fucking Krekel's, Olive Garden, Sonic, Roy Rogers, Denny's, Domino's, ad nauseum, over and over again, the list goes on for years...this is what people are eating.

What authentic cuisine has the USA churned out that isn't a complete rape and pillage and revision of some other country's cuisine, or that isn't deep-fried and smothered in more fatty shit? For a country obsessed with goddamn ranch dressing, you are going to say that the Russian's love of mayo in a few select dishes is an abomination? One glance at traditional Thanksgiving dinner and they're howling all the way to the banya. Yep, marshmallows in sweet potatoes and onion rings on instant-soup casserole is haute cuisine.

American food can definitely run bland, but Russian is vile and disgusting. Also, the USA has only been around for a couple of hundred years, so you could argue it is a cuisine still inventing itself.

What the fuck is the Russian's excuse for that shit they call food?

And Russia has raped and pillaged its way through plenty of nations and cultures, so why have they not picked up any of the culinary benefits?

yummy yummy in your tummy

More.

i feel VERY triggered by this thread!!

Of course American cuisine is a mix of things--it is a nation of immigrants (not all voluntary). Some of the food is crap, but fried chicken, strawberry shortcake, cheesecake, chocolate chip cookies--good stuff.

Russians really like their layered mayonnaise salads...

I'm sure not all of it is bad.. I just haven't eaten or seen any that's very good yet, either..

R12 I often say let's go out for Russian. I live in East Berlin and the Russian dumplings are the best, or the potato pancakes with salmon, or the blini with red caviar, or the smoked fish.

A few idiots pulling a few random examples is no no way representative of the true cuisine of the country.

R158, so you are basically a person who lives in a country filled with terrible cuisine, who often goes out to eat another even more terrible cuisine?

When you're hammered the taste of your food s't important r150. Neither is texture.

R159 nailed it.

R149, you have crossed the line. How dare you make fun of Roy Rogers! Best fast food hamburgers EVER!!!

The Russians shouldn't be so defensive and butthurt. They have excellent literature and ballet. But they can't fucking cook worth a damn. They should just accept their culinary ineptness and embrace it. It could be a big "inside joke." Hell, maybe Chef Gordon Ramsay can do a special edition of "Kitchen Nightmares: Russia."

Olympic athletes at the Sochi Olympics complained about the host's less-than-stellar food..

R149, there isn't really any "true" American cuisine except maybe chili, which was made by a German settler for cowboys on the trail. Our food is a variation of different ethnic cuisines brought over from the old country and modified for available ingredients. That's what happens in a new country. Chicken fried steak is schnitzel modified by German immigrants who settled here. Some say bbq is American but I don't believe it is since other countries all have smoked or grilled meats. I have an old cookbook called Early American Cooking and it has recipes used by the early colonists and they were, of course, all brought over by English settlers. BTW, both chicken fried steak and chili were both created in Texas because of the very large contingent of German settlers around Fredericksburg, Gruene and New Braunfels in the Hill Country who also set up a brewery ASAP. Shiner beers are very popular around here. Tex-Mex fajitas were created for hungry vaqueros on the trail. Just a little trivia for your day.

Seriously, though, you sound as if you have a major chip on your shoulder. Everyone knows every country has good food but unfortunately Russian food does have a bad rap. As a caviar hater, I have to say it's not my choice for dining options. Italian, suchi, Tex-Mex, good bbq, Thai or any variation of SE Asian cuisine i.e. Indonesian, Malaysian. Jamaican or Indian will have be grabbing my wallet. I don't know any fellow Americans who eat the shit you are writing about. Do all English people eat jellied eels and mash? Doubtful.

[quote]Thanksgiving dinner and they're howling all the way to the banya. Yep, marshmallows in sweet potatoes and onion rings on instant-soup casserole is haute cuisine.

Oh, sweetie, that shit went out in the seventies except maybe in flyover country trailer parks. Sweet potatoes are usually eaten with butter, salt and pepper and green bean casserole, which was a vile 50's invention, is so passe no one would dare cook it.

[quote] go with my husband who is from Finland to an american restaurant and order a steak we have to ask for barbecue sauce

Oh, honey, bbq sauce and Finland and you're complaining about American food? It makes me think what places you are ordering steaks from because there are excellent steak places that will serve it perfectly pink in the middle (or to order) and no bbq sauce anywhere. Salt, pepper and finished with butter, or a nice cognac/pepper sauce, is all that's needed in a good restaurant. It may be pricey but it's worthy it. I work with several English and Australian ex-pats and they all think the US has the best steaks they've ever had so, seriously, where are going in the US with these charred, tasteless steaks? Denny's?

bump

To answer the OP: YES!

Nobody has listed a truly, legitimately worse cuisine.

[quote] Russian dumplings are the best

No they are not. Try Chinese, Japanese or Korean dumplings instead.

If Bosnians don't want shit food they should try not starting wars.

R104 sad! The guy with the shakes is also the fuckable one.

R165,

Indo-Malay is my favorite, I could have roti canai and mee goreng every day.

R171 - Yes, he certainly is within the standards of Data Lounge posters.

That reminds me: I need to buy some FANCY FEAST for my two cats.

R172 I've been on a serious Asian food kick lately and thinking of going to the Asian market for some ingredients to try and start cooking my own.

Beyond the peeled potatoes, I'm not sure what I'm looking at here. Doesn't look [italic] too [/italic] bad.

Btw, is that water or vodka in the pic at R176, you think?

It must be vodka, as there are two shot glasses in the bottom left corner. Also looks like mushrooms and some kind of slaw to go with those potatoes. And some kind of beet product with the potatoes? And what's in the bottom left corner? Dried fruit? Yeah, looks simple but fine.

Shashlik probably originated in Mongolia, a nomad culture. Nomads had no cutlery save a knife and no dinnerware. Too bulky to take on horseback. Just the meat and some sticks (or a sword) to cook it on. Koreans get their BBQ dishes from Mongolia. The Mogols, aka the Turkic people, spread westward in the early 13th century.

Ever heard of White Rabbit in Moscow?

I don't know much about it, R80, but the chef is not a bad-looking guy.

He's gay, right?

I make green bean casserole, but NOT the version you are thinking of. Cream cheese with herbs is the base, I use fresh green beans only, mushrooms ( a blend of flavorful ones from the supermarket) and home-made onion rings from scratch. A bit more work, but light-years away from the canned version and so full of flavor, too.

Sweet potatoes MIGHT be mixed with pecans and maple syrup/sugar, butter and that's it.

Cranberry sauce is flavored with orange rind. So good.

Yes, American food is evolving. It doesn't have to be like something from the 1950's out of cans.

He's definitely smelling some Russian tea cakes in R181.

Green beans and cream cheese?

I pour a jar French's Homestyle Beef Gravy over green beans and feed it to French-Canadians -- I call it "Groutine."

They'll eat anything swimming in gravy.

[Quote] Green beans and cream cheese?

And proudly proclaims it, as if it is haute cuisine.

The cream cheese is thinned with milk and cream. No cream of anything soup, and it is easier than a cream sauce. Tastes better, too.

R186 thinks all you can eat buffets are cuisine and eats at Taco Bell when he wants Mexican.

LOL. This thread is hilarious. Only on DataLounge can a thread about awful Russian food (soon) reach 200 posts or more..

Ha, R181 & R183!

You hear that, Russia?

Your best chef in Moscow is a homosexualist.

terrible food

Mongolian food is pretty bad.

Fermented mare's milk, camel milk, yak butter, sheep organs boiled in sheep's blood over a dung fire, then retrrnrd to the inside of the sheep carcass to be served.

Screw the humorless Russians.. they troll us and our elections. The least they could do is have a sense of humor about their God-awful food.

Lighten up, Russians. Americans make fun of our often-awful terrible food as well...

R192 What do you expect of nomadic food? It's animal byproducts from breakfast to dinner.

It has been said the French hate us because they gave the world croissants and we gave them croisandwich.

Casu marzu, anyone? Every country has good food and terrible food. My father had a Sardinian friend who offered this atrocity to my parents during a visit. My father tried it, of course, because he tried everything once, while my mother spent an entire day vomiting after looking at the cheese. Not all Italian food is great.

russians just have a vast majority of shit food

I love all you can eat Chinese buffets. I don't eat for 2 days before I go except for water so I'll be starving and I usually get my money's worth. Sure I'm getting my money's worth of the cheapest, most shitty, old one step from poison filled with MSG and sodium food, but it sure does taste good. Oh and around here all the Chinese buffets also have really good Italian food on the buffet. At night they have lobster and crab. You pay double but it's still all you can eat. At nights I don't fool around with fillers like rice and noodles or dumplings or anything cheap. I eat lobster and crab until I need a fork lift to get me out to the parking lot.

I can't imagine an all you can eat Russian buffet. WTH can they give you....beets made 50 different ways?

The Chinese buffet near us got in trouble a few years back. The help in back was all Mexican. They would peel the garlic by putting it in a bucket and stomping on it with there dirty boots.

I believe there's just something genetically wrong with Russia (or whatever they call it now). Generations of sociopathic, inbred dullards.

Now they're going out into the world and spreading their... poison.

Actually no, Russians are not inbred.

I saw that smashing of the garlic by stamping on it on the news a couple of years ago. Disgusting. They all probably still do it but not where anyone can film them.

NO thanks r55. I can smell their BO through my iPhone. They are nasty and gross.

foul people! In addition to their nasty food, Russians must be the most miserable people on earth!

😂 r197. I worked at an accounting office with a guy from Sardinia and he told me about cazu marzu. I was shocked and disbelieving until I saw Andrew Zimmer eat some on his show. Maggot filled cheese...my heavens!!

To be fair, Ukrainian food is also awful, but they much less land to work with.

Ukraine has a lot of fresh vegetables and fruit in its cooking. It grows a far larger variety of vegetables than Russia because the weather is warmer.

poor clueless me thought Mongolian bbq was authentic mongolian food until I googled it and found it was from Taiwan..

It's not all headcheese and vodka in Russia

The buffet thread reminded me of a breakfast buffet I had at a Moscow hotel. It was excellent. Caviar in blini, but my favourite are syrnikis, which are a sort of cheese pancake. I've never been able to replicate it because dairy there is different. I've tried making it with quark, which is the closest, but still not the same.

It's not that the dishes in the list at R210 are terribly "bad." They are just not very exciting, either.. well to me, anyhow.

There is so much better food out there.

Reading this thread just kept reinforcing how completely retarded, brainwashed, and sad most Americans are. And the entire world knows it. Keep on with that "allegiance to the flag" brainwashing to keep yourselves in check; it has worked for over two centuries now.

Are you new here, R213? Over half of the threads here on DataLounge are American posters criticizing and poking fun at our own food, culture, politics, etc. But hey, at least we have a sense of humor about ourselves and can turn a critical eye towards our own shortcomings!

What is the problem with you Russian people? Why are you all such fucking sour, miserable, humorless, people? How about instead worrying about Americans, you worry about your own damn people and your insane alcoholism and short life-spans?

LOL - I shed no tears for poking fun at Russians. Miserable, miserable people. Racists and homophobes to boot, too!

And yes, your food fucking sucks! You've only had over thousands of years to learn to make some edible food, and you share more borders with more countries than anybody else. Maybe all of Russia could take some lessons from the Republic of Georgia on how to cook food that people want to eat.

Oh yeah, and Polish vodka is better! And they are nicer, too!

Get over yourselves, Russian bitches!

... just to chime in on Portland's Russian restaurant Katcha ("Very Probably America's Best Russian Restaurant" - Willamette Week). Boy, that herring under a fur coat is a fishy fishy fishy fish fish fishy tasting dish. We also had horseradish infused vodka shots, which were surprisingly tasty. The servings are a little on the small size, but the waitstaff was one of the most handsome I've seen in a long time (granted, this was a year or two ago, maybe they've got all hobos serving now, I couldn't say)

My Mom's family is Russian/Ukrainian, and every fall we make and can huge batches of borscht - me because I love borscht and my Mom because she has the know how having made it with her mom growing up, and it's a nice thing to do with her every year. Sometimes we also make varenyky, too

Herring under a fur coat should not taste fishy. The restaurant added too much herring.

I'm Ukrainian and my Baba used to can borscht as well. I helped her with that. I prefer to make mine fresh.

I doubt there are Russians posting here. But having lived among them, and no, I'm not Russian, I don't think they are dour. The USSR ruined them though. No culture, and no manners.

Herring under a fur coat sounds very "Cheryl-ish".

It is delicious. But, I'm a big fan of beets.

Before the US influence on British breakfast deviled kidneys and kedgree were common English breakfast foods. Still are with the country house weekend set.

Filipino "cuisine" might be the worst. Anybody up for cloyingly sweetened spaghetti? Balut? Fuck.

I worked with a bunch of Russians and Ukrainians during the 90s. Pigs with no class all of 'em.

In Vietnam, Russian tourists are known as "the 'poor' Americans".

In Rome American tourists are called 'piedi neri,' (black feet) by the locals because they wear flip-flops (slides, thongs) in the City. Breakfast is cake and coffee there as well.

You mean pancit, R223? I like it with Chinese sausages. Cheddar and corn ice cream is very addictive!

Quark???? Damn, my Key Food was all out of quark this morning.

R214 Floridians look as though they are starting to get a bit of decorum and refinement. Wow! The fact that there are no bath salts or machine guns in the photo means progress for the USA! USA! USA!

There used to be a burger joint in boys town in west Hollywood run by a Russian woman I believe. Never smiled and would turn the lights down really low to save electricity. Just an unpleasant woman. Place closed shortly after she took over.

I remember that fat bitch, R230. I heard her Russian twink son liked to take loads at the Slammer.. maybe that's why she was so foul?

Is all of Russian culture really that bad? I did a fast search. There must be SOME highlights. My search led to women in costumes from the Middle Ages ? that were stunning. Houses were featured with elaborately carved window frames, beautifully set tables that showed what must be a French influence. Food looked very good, elegant yet simple. I understand the criticisms in this thread, but still. Can it be all that bad?

And as for that criticism about mayonnaise, we Americans are no one to talk about THAT. Our cooking has come a long way, but for many it still has a long way to go. For example, I had dinner once in the northern midwest. They served their version of lasagne. It was made with ....mayonnaise and canned soup. That is nothing. It seemed any casserole I ate out there had mayo in it. Then there is potato salad.

And we are criticizing Russians?

The French influence is interesting, R232. I know that the pre-revolution aristocracy brought a lot of French influence to Russia, even as far as to speak French among each other. I'm sure they spoke Russian, at least enough to communicate with their servants, but maybe to each other too? Anyway, I wonder how much French influence over cuisine survived the revolution, as only the aristocracy must have been privileged enough to have French/French taught chefs. I know some DL historian can enlighten me :)

Russia has a fascinating history and until about the 1930's, an interesting culture. The Bolsheviks destroyed it all, killed most people who could think, and degraded the country with a proletarian culture. Russia has not yet recovered.

Sounds like paradise to me, R235.

I remember reading decades ago about a woman in the USSR who was preserving the old stories from elderly peasants. She described meals of basic, down-to-earth foods like home-made pickles, soups, breads, potatoes, vegetables from gardens. Okay, not elegant but earthy and homespun. What is wrong with that? So, maybe the average peasant couldn't incorporate foreign influences in their food. It was a different time with no tv, radio, internet. Heck, could those peasants even read? So, they did the best they could with what they had, kinda like many of our ancestors in the USA did in our history. I am no one to criticize their food.

At least the Russians have caviar.

Worst food:

1. Finnish

2. Swedish

3. Russian

4. German

5. British

6. Polish

7. Ukrainian

8. Norwegian

9. Czech

10. Dutch

Best food:

1. Italian

2. French

3. Chinese

4. Greek

5. Moroccan

6. Thai

7. Korean

8. Persian (Iranian)

9. Japanese

10. Vietnamese

German and Dutch food = delicious. You have no clue, R238.

Russians are disgusting vile, I hesitate to say, human beings.

A word of advice: They have LOTS of nuclear weapons and know how to use them. So it's probably not a good idea to piss them off just to make yourself feel oh so superior.

r238 makes some good points, and nobody is in total agreement. The Germans do do some things well, like veal, duck and trout. And excellent pastry. I've been to Russia twice, and the food was horrible both times. But the Philippines and Egypt are right there with Russia. r238, South America has fantastic food, easily rivaling Europe. I think Brazil has the best food in the world.

Russian food tastes about as appetizing as Kellyanne's pussy! :-O

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Disgusting, vile food not even fit for a dog.

Nasty shit!

r132 makes sense, I think a lot of popular European ethnic foods in America is viewed as peasant food in their native country since most immigrants would be poor and so it's the poor people food that becomes well known in the states. It's like how in America we eat corned beef on Saint Patrick's Day because it's what the Irish immigrants could afford.

Foul, unpleasant people. Foul, unpleasant food.

More Russian food.

It's mmm mmm good!

Disgusting.

Russian army MREs at least seem like they'd be good for a growing boy

Greasy borsch, the Moscow metro Literally reeks of it.

I'd put my cock deep inside this hot russian dish

these doods tooo

Who doesn't love cold purple soup?!

It looks like animal shit.

Yuck!

Those potato dumpling things with fried onions are good. Maybe they're Polish and not Russian. I'm not sure. I just know I like them.

The borsht (sp?) they sell in jars in the ethnic food section is good if it's really cold it's refreshing. I think it probably has more sugar in it than soda so I guess it's not really healthy. I was told to try it with a boiled white potato in it. Very good.It's fun eating a pink potato. It's kind a like an Easter egg only tastes better because it's a potato. I was told to put sour cream in it too. That I didn't like. But if you pull out the potato and put it on a plate and then put the sour cream on the potato it's okay.

[quote] The Russians shouldn't be so defensive and butthurt. They have excellent literature and ballet

Indeed. No country excels in everything. England, and china have no great classical dance and music so they borrow.

Rough cuisine like Russian Polish and Ukrainian is enjoyable in a comfort food sort of way. As a poor youth in nyc's east village I remember many warming filling meals.

Refinement has its charms but is not everything. Never fucked a Russian but I imagine they are good basic brutalist sex. Certainly they are hot with big fat uncut cocks.

This thread has really gone on. It's in NYC, of course, but do they have good Russian food.?

Agreed. And I have been to Moscow and St. Petersburg. It's a terrible place in so many ways.

Disgusting.

My Russian coworker is one of the kindest, most generous people that I have ever met, with a dry sense of humor. I have to wonder if her refinement comes from being the daughter of an idealistic general, but I also know other fun-loving Russians, so they aren't all bad. Opportunistic, definitely, but not necessarily brutish or horrible.

Is this why they turn to cannibalism?

R249, that is herring under the fur coat and it is delicious. It’s potatoes, beets, herring pieces, sour cream and mayonnaise.

The recent defector from North Korea was found to have various worms/parasites by the surgeons who were repairing his several gunshot wounds. So I imagine that North Korean cuisine is probably one of the worst.

What the fuck is that at OP?

Beef Stroganoff is great

When I lived in SF, which had a good size Russian population, I enjoyed piroshkies, chicken Kiev, shashlik, borscht, rich pastries.

Here you go, OP.

The world's worst food:

[quote] 😂 [R197]. I worked at an accounting office with a guy from Sardinia and he told me about cazu marzu. I was shocked and disbelieving until I saw Andrew Zimmer eat some on his show. Maggot filled cheese...my heavens!!

I saw a documentary on this, and it literally made me want to gag! But don't they outlive almost all the populations of Earth there? Gotta wonder if there is some medicinal benefit to it, like some mysterious growth factor or something.

Maybe they live to 90, but if they didn't eat that dreck, they'd live to 120.

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Been to Russia and honestly I didn't think the food was that bad. Nothing really sticks out about it except the zakuski and borscht.

I miss good German food. There used to be so many good German restaurants and bakeries in NYC. My favorite was actually an inexpensive chain place called Zum Zum. Everything on their menu was delicious and good quality and prepared perfectly.

Piroshkies (different from pirogis) are delicious. Hard to find in NYC.

Yes. It's up there as one of the worst at least.