The only thing, that is known about Russians is that they drink vodka. But what they do eat?

The main peculiarity of Russian cooking is a great variety of products. Due to the abundance of forests at the territory of Russia its inhabitants have used different forest products since time immemorial: mushrooms, berries (cloudberries, cranberries, cowberries, ash berries, bilberries), nuts, honey, etc.

Since the ancient times Russians have eaten beef, pork, mutton and poultry. Dairy cattle breeding has allowed to have large variety of milk products: a sort of dry, granulated cream cheese called "tvorog", thick sour cream called "smetana", several types of sour milk products of the youghourt type. Kefir is pleasant, useful beverage made from cow's milk, yeast and lactic acid bacteria. It's dietary product. Ryazhenka is a sour milk product made from baked milk, very pleasant to taste.

As cereals cultivating was widely spread, pies, pan-cakes, kashas (porridge) and baked puddings became popular Russian dishes. Cabbage, swede, turnip, radish, cucumber were the first vegetables used by Russians. Potatoes, tomatoes and vegetables were introduced much later.

Try to imagine now, what perfection could be achieved in cooking having such a variety of products!

There is huge variety of appetizers - salmon, hot and cold smoked sturgeon, pikeperch in aspic or stuffed, herring, red herring. Baltic salt-sprats; fried, smoked, marinated smelt and the like. As for cold meat dishes, our guests can taste ham, lean cold boiled pork with spices (buzhenina), jellied tongue, meat jelly and horse-radish sauce and various salads beginning with salad "Stolychnii" to beet salad. For a change, you can taste frozen apples. They are delicious. Russian bliny are popular hot appetizers. In the old days Russian rivers were overfilled with different kinds of fish, that made for variety of fish table in Russia. Fish, caviars and milt became part and parcel of every meal and especially of "Zakuski" which usually a hearty introduction to a still heartier meal or cold appetizers served with vodka.

For a Russian person a dinner without a soup is not a dinner. The diversity of these dishes is diddicult to be described.No cuisine in the world can claim a variety of soups as large as that known in Russian cooking. The word itself appeared in the Russian vocabulary in the time of Peter the Great. Today there are many different kinds of soups. Shchee (cabbage soup), borshch (beet and cabbage soup), rassolnic (cucumber soup), ookha (special fish soup), mushroom soup and such cold soups as okroshka (radish, cucumbers, sausage, boiled potatoes and sour-cream in special beverage called kvass) and cold beetroot soup are very popular with our guests.

Main course. As for the hot dishes, guests can order fried burbot or carp, or meat dishes to their taste: beef-Stroganoff and mashed potatoes, roast veal, golubtsy (meat and cabbage rissoles), pelmeni (meat-filled dumplings), boiled potatoes with pickles and so on. There is a large variety of poultry and game dishes: roast chicken, roast duck and goose stuffed with apples, roast partridge, hazel-grouse, wood grouse, blackbird, pheasant and quail.

For desert you can have baked apples, fruit and berry kisel, compot, dessert fruit: aromatic melons from Middle Asia, water-melons from the Volga, juicy grapes, apricots, peaches, oranges. Russian cuisine is famous for its Russian pies which were baked in Russia in good old times and remain popular nowadays. There are a lot of different cakes and pies at the bakers, but the best samples are sure made at home. Some special pies are nearly unknown, but one is rather famous in the world. They are: kulebiaka, rasstegay, vatrushki, krendeli, boubliki, baranki, sooshki, Russian Easter cakes and various fancy-cakes.

However, the tasty and substantial food was not eaten all year round. The mode of life of Russian people was closely connected with the orthodox calendar. Holidays and fasts corresponded with it. A fast is a period of abstention from dishes, containing meat and milk products, eggs and sometimes fish. It also implies abstention from wrong thoughts and actions. So during this period the organism is purified and the soul is perfected. Even though in the present days not many Russians keep the fast strictly and nobody will make you to keep the fast, in some restaurants you are welcome to try some dishes from the special postny (fast) menu.

Steam bath helps to cure diseases when all other means are helpless.
Hippocrates

There is nothing in the world more joyful and useful than a steam bath.
Pythagoras

Steam bath cleanses not only your body but the whole essence of a man.
Socrates

Medicine is good but Banya is better.
Peter the Great

There can be few more pleasurable experiences than a good clean up at a traditional Russian banya. Russian banya or sauna is known as an exotic Russian tradition. It is known as a combination of dry sauna, steam bath, massage and plunges into ice-cold water. It is certainly a part of Russian culture and one of the widely accepted entertainments, even among modern urban people in Russia. People visit sauna because they want to wash themselves, chat with friends, rest, relax and feel good.

Types of the Sauna

Swiss researcher of saunas Jan Bjarnhag distinguishes 4 types of sauna in terms of temperature and humidity. The first is dry sauna with the temperature of 90 to 110 C and humidity of 5 to 10%. The second is wet sauna with the temperature of 75 to 90 C and humidity of 20 to 35%. The third is steam sauna with the temperature of 45 to 65 C and humidity of 40 to 65%. And finally the last is steam bath with the temperature of 40 to 45 C and humidity of about 100%.

Russian banya perhaps refers to the third category in this division. However, there is a big difference between the steam sauna and Russian banya. Both may have the same temperatures, but the difference is in steam itself - in Russian banya it is dry and light while in steam sauna it is usually wet and heavy. The difference comes from the temperature of the stones. In Russian banya the temperature of the stones is about 800 C while in sauna it raises to about 200-300 C or even less - 100 to 200 C. Therefore, Russian banya is a separate and unique kind of sauna.

What is the advantage of Russian Banya? It is in the way that the steam is increased. It is done with the help of kamenka (a stone stove). If you want more hot steam just throw some more water on the kamenka.

The procedure of attending Russian banya is perfectly represented in the book "Description of Moscovia" by a German scholar Adam Olearium, "Russians can withstand extraordinary hot steam. They lie down on the benches and request others to whip and rub bodies with a warmed-up whisk made of oak tree twigs. In winter they jump into the snow, rub their bodies with it and then again get back into the banya. Such dramatic temperature change hardens their bodies." (bast whisp - "mochalka")

Healing properties.

The people's wisdom and belief in the healing properties of Banya were confirmed by the research work of scientists in different parts of the world. With cautious and rational approach banya helps to normalize blood pressure. It also helps people with diabetes and those who have kidney problems. It is exceptionally good for people with rheumatism and for those who have problems with their metabolic cycle.

A real Russian banya is inconceivable without cold water. This creates One of the banya's magical secrets is in it's capability to train our thermoregulation systems and improve secretion of sweat glands.

We hold a view that it is better to try once than to hear about it a hundred times. We hope that those who don't know yet what the Russian banya is, will try it and love it. After all, it's Vigor and Vitality.