  |
|
|
|
Rus cuisines are by nature eclectic, natural & individual depending upon the cook to make a dish distinctive as well as unique. Cooks use whatever is available when they are cooking. What you have to day may have the name as what you will have next week but may be very different each time it is prepared & served.
The basic origin of what is now Russian cuisine is & always has been Slavic. What we consider Russia began in Ukraine in the Kyivian Rus late in the 9th. Century. Tribal groups such as the Slavs, Khazars, Circassians, Pechenegs, Huns, Tartars, Turkic-Mongols all contributed relevant inclusions in the historical shaping of Rus cuisine. The most noticeable is the Slavic tastes particularly in the first courses for meals, usually soup. Borscht is a Ukrainian contribution that has been expanded upon, mutated, altered & changed but no matter what remains. . . borscht! Dumplings such as pelmeni, chibureki, varenyky & kulibiaka all have their origins in Manchuria & Mongolia. Fermented vegetables, most notably cabbage, in the guise of kapusta & others make up a large part of the Winter diet when fresh vegetables are in short supply & originated with the Gothic tribal groups. Long before Marco Polo brought pasta back from China in the 13th. Century peoples of the Rus were eating pasta in the form of stuffed dumplings and had been doing so for since the same were introduced to them by caravan traders on the old Silk Road. The Huns under Attila, the caravan traders, later the Kazakh, Kirghiz, Uzbekh, Turkmen, Uigur & other Turkic-Mongols all contributed such notable additions to the diet of the Rus as kababs (shashlik, pelmeni, chibureki, varenyky & kulibiaka naming just a very few. All of these are now considered to be primary examples of Rus cuisine in Russia, Ukraine & Belorussia today. Fats, starches, dairy products, red meats, smoked meats, dried meats, wild game & fresh, smoked & dried sea foods make up the major portion of the animal protein consumed in the Rus. Not everything is considered healthy today. In Ukraine pork lard or fat is called salo & is used as a flavoring, a cooking grease, a condiment & a taste expander. The amount of fats, triglycerides, cholesterols, etc. is horrendously high by Western standards but the fact that very little foods are chemically augmented, chemically preserved & and thus are full of natural fiber, minerals, vitamins, other vital nutriments seems to alleviate the problems associated with such a diet in the Western countries such as the USA & Canada. This is not to say that coronary disease, hypertension, diabetes & other chronic & syndromic health problems do not exist. They do indeed exist but do not seem to be as exacerbated by the diet as they are in the West Particularly important is the exceptionally high fiber content of the natural foods. Fiber is a most important preventative asset in any diet. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Rus Cuisines: Eclectic By Nature - Part 1 in Russian Culture is owned by . Permission to republish Rus Cuisines: Eclectic By Nature - Part 1 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
