Food in the USSR. A Soviet Cafeteria Menu Review. Stolovaya

Food in the Soviet Union. Soviet cafeteria menu. Stolovaya (Soviet diner). A detailed review of the Soviet cafeteria menu.
0:00 The video discusses Soviet food and the concept of a cafeteria (stolovaya) or eatery.
3:20 The video discusses the prices of food in Soviet cafeterias and compares it to modern salaries.
6:10 The video is a food review of various Russian snacks and main dishes.
9:17 The video is a menu description with translations of food items.
12:30 Comrade Sergei goes to the cafeteria to grab some food and enjoys a variety of dishes.
Recap by Tammy AI
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[@UshankaShow]

You can visit the Soviet-style stolovaya in modern-day Belarus together with my friend IRISH PARTIZAN: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bpm5aperatOfbs0 Hello, comrades! My name is Sergei. I was born in the USSR in 1971. Since 1999 I have lived in the USA. Ushanka Show channel was created to share stories as well as my own memories of everyday life in the USSR. My book about arriving in America in 1995 is available on Amazon: www.amazon.com/s?k=american+diaries+1995&ref=nb_sb_noss Please contact me at [e-mail] if you would like to purchase a signed copy of “American Diaries” You can support this project here: www.patreon.com/sputnikoff with monthly donations Support for this channel via PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow Ushanka Show merchandise: teespring.com/stores/ushanka-show-shop If you are curious to try some of the Soviet-era candy and other foodstuffs, please use the link below. www.russiantable.com/imported-russian-chocolate-mishka-kosolapy__146-14.html?tracking=5a6933a9095f9 My FB: facebook.com/sergey.sputnikoff Twitter: twitter.com/ushankashow Instagram: instagram.com/ushanka_show/ Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/The_Ushanka_Show/

[@mikecarone7320]

So Soviet Citizen didn't drink coffee

[@mrguiltyfool]

Can u add the spelling of the food in the description coz can't google it without knowing how to spell it

[@UshankaShow]

Just use English names and add a word "Russian " in front of it. As is: Russian cabbage salad, Russian soup and so on

[@Aggie-iu2ox]

USHANKA SHOW talk about gopniks

[@user-si2oq4iz8u]

Well done, I invite you to visit my channel, I will be happy with that

[@neilwalsh4058]

I always hunt down an old Soviet cafeteria when I visit one of the old Republics. Found them in Tallinn, Vilnius and Riga so far but they are becoming rare now. I love the retro looks, wood panelled walls, cold tiled floors and old lighting. They tend to be full of old people in heavy drab clothes, and to help with the Soviet experience the staff are usually quite dour, not smiling a lot, no please or thank you and look like they really don't enjoy working there. I guess this is the closest I will ever get to the old days back in the USSR

[@psychosneighbor1509]

Why TF would you want to?

[@neilwalsh4058]

@@psychosneighbor1509 Nostalgia? Experiencing something we in the West never could back in the day? It called history !!

[@psychosneighbor1509]

@@neilwalsh4058 What we in the west never could? We call that being lucky. I like this channel and find it interesting but... no thanks. I don't feel like I missed out on anything lol.

[@bf1255]

@@psychosneighbor1509 good for you

[@michaelf7093]

In the 80s, I found many of these in Budapest. The food was pretty good and solid, and by Western standards, ridiculously cheap.

[@turbowolf302]

I only really know of Soviet cooking from Life of Boris. So KZbin recommending this video to me was nice.

[@justarandomsovietofficerwi2023]

Boris' recipes aren't actually that bad! I followed his Borsch recipe and it was the tastiest Borsch I have ever eaten!

[@509megsy]

I love his plov recipe. Most delicious meal ever.

[@kevincarlson7148]

Life Of Boris is hysterical,and I'm not even Slavic.

[@sarjim4381]

Pickled herring was a relatively popular dish in the US in the early 1900's, and it's still popular in places like Jewish delis. Many popular foods from the turn of the 20th century have faded from most menus now. Things like like scrambled calf's brains with eggs, pig's feet, sweetbreads, boiled cow's tongue sliced for sandwiches, liverwurst, corned beef....all kinds of foods our grandparents used to eat but are now rarely seen on a menu.

[@shaggybreeks]

My mom used to eat all those things, and there wasn't a Jewish deli for hundreds of miles from where we lived. Sweetbreads are thyroid glands, and I've seen them on menus. Glad I asked before I ordered.

[@sarjim4381]

@@shaggybreeks What part of the country do you live in? Those kinds of organ meats are more popular in the South than anywhere else, and pickled fish in the Northeast. I never had tongue until my mother bought one for me when went to a kosher deli in Cleveland called Corky and Lenny's after a show. I don't know if it's still there but it had great food. The tongue is really great in a sandwich, as long as y9ou don't think about being part of a giant tongue.

[@TheLocalLt]

Sar Jim corned beef is still a thing along with pastrami, tongue is only a thing at Jewish delis

[@zack41564]

We're Norwegians, and we eat it around the holidays. Everyone in Oklahoma was grossed out the one Christmas I got some when I lived there.

[@jupitersailing]

In England my mum used to make pickled herrings. They were called 'roll mops' for some reason, and probably had any British roots in Cockney type snacks. They weren't cooked, just raw herrings in pickling vinegar and a few spices. I didn't think I'd taste them again after mum died, but was surprised when a Russian guest at a party in New York offered me one. It tasted just like my mum's ones! They look weird and don't excite the palate too much until you eat some, and then you are hooked. It's very strange how delicious they are, and they must be very good for you too.

[@dalesedgwick858]

In my home town there's an old Finnish restaurant that's in a building that was called The Finnish Labour Temple, and it was built by the Finnish Socialist Party. The restuarant used to serve workers and was laid out like a cafeteria, a lot like Stolovia.

[@ashcarrier6606]

Dale Sedgwick Was there a picture of Otto Kuusinen on the wall?

[@69Peopleshit]

Kiintoisaa

[@sofknsad]

In Finnish we call it ruokala, food... place?

[@shockedcurve453]

If American cafeterias served this kind of food people would actually buy school lunch

[@m.w.6526]

School lunches in most public systems are atrocious. All processed garbage, no wonder test scores are low in many areas

[@Billhatestheinternet]

Most public schools now probably no longer have proper cooks (from scratch cooking). Even when I was in, it was slop. It would not surprise me that in addition to using "Gov't Cheese", they were using supplies that were marked "For military or prison use only" (yes I was in the service, and have actually seen said crates).

[@Billhatestheinternet]

@@m.w.6526 Scores are low because our government (fed, state, local) is too busy lining their own pockets to fund schools and infrastructure, therefore you have underpaid teachers who don't give a fuck, especially when you are dealing with a bunch of kids that, at best don't give a fuck themselves (neither do their parents), at worst should already be in jail.

[@radiofreeacab]

@StahlBlitz lol stop lying, there's no such thing as "food for only soldiers and prisoners" that's so stupid you liar

[@marialiyubman]

Oh please!!!!! This would be what an engineer at google would be getting, not a school-kid.

[@PaleoCon2008]

Плов is Pilaf in English. It was always a top choice for us when we lived in Russia. And friends would bring us homemade compote from their gardens and it was always a favorite.

[@gb6710]

Come on Comrade Sergei, you know that the regular Soviet lunch was a shot of vodka and a cigarette. Love your content.

[@brianwalsh1401]

I'm sure for some people that was it.

[@KR-hg8be]

Only one shot?

[@32582657]

Despite being American, I think that pickled herring is one of the best foods there is. Overall this Soviet cafeteria food looked pretty appetizing.

[@steventrosiek2623]

Love it

[@captainbackflash]

Actually, the herring is not pickled, it is fermented by its own pancreas gland, wich is left inside. then the herring is stored in a barrel (or tank) with salt and left to ferment.

[@dijikstra8]

@@captainbackflash Sounds like something we have in Sweden, especially the northern parts, surströmming. The smell is extremely foul though, I wouldn't want to be in the cafeteria that served that dish.

[@karlscher5170]

No surströmming is fouled. Fermented with pancreas gland is dutch matjes, which doesnt smell fishy at all and tastes creamy and amazing

[@deanronson6331]

May you and Trosiek be reincarnated into Soviet citizens and enjoy their inimitable specialties. Once in a great while, I buy the jarred pickled herring we can get in American grocery stores, which is probably better quality than the Soviet cafeteria style.

[@shaunw9270]

Very interesting. I am astonished at how expensive this work canteen food was !

[@daca8395]

Expensive? This same meal costs about 14€ today in my country...

[@shaunw9270]

@@daca8395 What at a works canteen ? Rip Off . Nobody in Britain would bother , just go to McDonalds or KFC ...

[@daca8395]

@@shaunw9270 I'm sorry, I'm affraid I don't understand your question...

[@Vontux]

Kopecks are the equivalent of cents, $0.92 for all that food ain't bad.

[@andreaswee2671]

@@Vontux But mate you have to take into account that the whole salary was 130 rubles. 16% of the salary just for food, I expected better from USSR.

[@johnthefinn]

My experience of Soviet cafeterias and restaurants was that many - or even most - menu items were not available. The polite thing was to ask the staff 'What do you recommend?' They would then tell you what was actually available.

[@turkishcoffeeguy]

For people wondering, the rice dish started Al pilau in Persia, then spread. North and it’s plov. South East to India, it becomes pulau. In Africa it remained pilau, but changed to paella in Spain

[@livics610]

Piláf in Romanian

[@harrisonbuck2749]

rice pilaf is what i heard in the states as a kid. i only heard of plov maybe 5 years ago from youtube. I even had ukranian neighbors. never mentioned plov. it was all cabbage rolls, pierogies, and borsht, stuffed peppers

[@luisvaldes8945]

Very interesting, we named 🥘 paella in Cuba to

[@syndicalistcat3138]

@@livics610 Piláf is in Hungarian ,there is no á letter in the Romanian alphabet only a,ă and â.

[@livics610]

@@syndicalistcat3138 it's an accent, not a letter

[@Nothing-fp7jg]

I really like the context you provided in terms of prices. At first the prices sounded quite inexpensive, but then when you compared it to the cost of other things and also adjusted for inflation. it was like wow, definitely not cheap!

[@Mortablunt]

That was the paradox of the Soviet Union, necessities cheap, luxuries, expensive and rare. So basically you had very little to spend money on. There was very little lending or consumer debt; either you managed to pool the cash or you didn't. That's actually kinda how Russians still work today financially, taking on consumer debt is much less common than in countries like America, so you have your savings, but basically your whole check is up for spending. Apart from rent and taxes, Russians generally don't have quite so many recurring expenses like we Americans do. It's very hard to convert Soviet Rubles to anything else; not only are they a historical currency, but the currency value was artificially fixed, and you also couldn't use them outside of the USSR. A NYT article about Soviet housing puts the conversion rate as x1.3USD in 1974.

[@brianburns7211]

Thank you for explaining the dishes. I work in Montreal where there is a Russian market across the street. Beside the grocery items, they have a stolovaya. Many of their dishes are a very similar to what I’m used to because my hometown has many residents who came from Poland.

[@debradonley3825]

My grandparents came from Germany and I've eaten quite a bit of pickled herring. YUM! Perogies are good, too!

[@JanusXAlvarenga]

Loved the video. I am Latin American, so when I saw "Milk Soup", it somewhat reminded me of our "Arroz con Leche" (literally, rice with milk), whose taste kind of matches your description. Interesting stuff.

[@HagiaFantasia]

I don't know if anyone has eaten this but as a kid sometimes I was served "rice cereal" white rice with milk and a little sugar. I still fix it as an adult, but I make sure to be active after eating and eat it only in moderation 🌞

[@justdustino1371]

Rice Pilaf with lamb. We have rice pilaf dishes in the US. I think Rice-a-Roni and Zatarain's offers boxed versions you can add stuff too. The baked hotdogs with bread around them are called "Pigs in a blanket" here. Fried eggs with Polska Kielbasa is eaten here! I've eaten plenty of pickled herring, there is an imported brand in tomato sauce with pepper that is good. I've eaten Riga sprats and we have smoked "kippered" herring,... smoked kippers are excellent!!! The cabbage salad with sunflower oil looks good to me. Awesome vid!

[@muffinsavior3004]

Dirty rice and jambalaya too

[@momkatmax]

It isn't so unusual back in the old days to eat sour cream straight. My Dad who was born in 1918 and raised in Indiana told of people eating clabbered milk and cream with a spoon. This is really sour cream using the rich top milk and a controled souring process. People added salt and pepper or are it sweet with sugar or jam. He remembered an old man sitting on his front porch one day eating a whole quart dish of it while visiting with people who stopped by to say hello. Dad hated it and while a little spoon on top of a dish was okay he turned green of the thought of eating it like that! You can imagine how he looked at me eating yogurt.

[@_EVANERV_]

Tea is chinese in origin. Regionally in southern China tea is pronounced Daé, in northern China tea is called chá. So depending on the point of original contact it may be translated into tea or chai. For example the British imported tea from Guangzhou southern China with the original pronunciation of Daé, so it is called tea. And Russian Empire imported tea from northern China where tea is called chá; so it is called Chai in Russia.

[@ZhongXiangyu]

The Te/tea/dae pronunciation is not Cantonese, but rather Hokkien. You're right about everything else though

[@_EVANERV_]

@@ZhongXiangyu I did not say the origin of the pronunciation for tea was Cantonese and yes I'm aware tea is called cha in modern Cantonese. I merely said Guangzhou was where the English first imported tea from. And chances are back in the mid 1600's the pronunciation daé was actually widely used in the province of Canton. And if I wasn't clear on my original posting, well, I apologize for the confusion.

[@shaggybreeks]

Tea is only one plant from which chai is made. IOW, tea is a type of chai. In the US, it's the other way around. Chai is a type of tea. I think the British loved tea chai so much, that was the name they used -- tea.

[@ZhongXiangyu]

@@shaggybreeks the character 茶 is pronounced differently in different Chinese languages. It's pronounced te in Hokkien, and that's where we get "tea" from, and it's pronounced cha in northern languages like today's Standard Mandarin. They're both quite literally the same thing: 茶, with all of its varieties

[@honourandtradition8078]

Tea is also called chá in portuguese

[@BradleyVanTreese]

I found your channel only recently, but I really enjoy your content. Thank you so much for sharing your memories and knowledge of the USSR with us.

[@UshankaShow]

Welcome aboard!

[@boxfighters4480]

Man those soviets ate pretty healthy

[@GreedPainLove]

Food shortages does that 😄

[@willg4802]

And, no plastic's used in packaging or service!

[@snowblow1984]

@@willg4802 That's true. Interestingly enough, plastic bags in Western supermarkets were an envy for many soviet consumers. People even brought them back in USSR from vacations. Now days we are prohibiting plastic bags. for a good reason.

[@xboxstudent]

@@archenema6792 Well, European ate that since the ancient time, now you complaining?

[@Tonyx.yt.]

@@archenema6792 wtf are you talking about... vegetarian diet improve health. the problem with peasant's diet in the past was the scarse amount of fats and proteins, but cereals itself are 100% good with some amount of other foods.

[@shaggybreeks]

9:10 Plof is an Uzbek mainstay. In the US, it's called pilaf ("PEEL-off"). How an Uzbek dish became popular in America, I have no idea. But you can find pilaf mixes in supermarkets -- dry, in boxes. Or people make it from scratch.

[@genethemachine7169]

Pilaf came from the Arab and Israeli immigrants in the 60s, and started getting popular in the 80s. Good stuff!

[@humansvd3269]

They sold this stuff in Afghanistan when I was there back in 2014. Absolutely delicious!

[@curtisthomas2670]

Pilaf is kinda universal dish, with varieties in Middle East, Asia, Iberia, Mediterranean and North Africa.... Caribbean and Latin America even

[@steveboy7302]

It would be eaten by those populations not so much by Whites or natives

[@VladamireD]

@@genethemachine7169 Italian and Armenian too. Rice-A-Roni, a pilaf-like dish, was produced by an Italian-American owned company after the wife of one of the owners was inspired by the pilaf recipe she received from Armenian immigrant Pailadzo Captanian and was first introduced in 1958 (and nationwide 4 years later).

[@gabriellechung356]

I just subbed so watching all your videos of the food, very interesting!

[@sean900fps]

great show good explanation on price easy to follow .. also like the two picture routine .one from the magazine all polished up and perfect and one from regular working folks great idea do more of them ..🍺🍺

[@marialiyubman]

This is awesome, but you’re forgetting this is when Soviet Russia was at its richest. Before that people died of hunger and even I remember no fruit in the stores in 1989.

[@jupitersailing]

Have really been devouring your videos Sergei, and am binge-watching your videos watching some of them several times over. Soviet life reminds me so much of post-war life in the UK. I was born in 1955 and all my young life I remember state control of so many things, eg pub opening times, the phone system (phone ownership only became possible under Mrs Thatcher in the 1980s - before that you could rent only), state TV and radio, enormous respect for authority, politeness and kindness coming first before money, free state education from 3 yrs old to university, and even free adult education etc. Our healthcare has been free since just after WW2, and I hope one day that the Americans can enjoy the same luxury - it is surely the only civilised way to look after a people, and the arguments against it are hopeless, eg that it is a Socialist principle: If that is the case then how is it America has state run roads, military, police, drains, airports and so many other things? Aren't those Socialist principles? There is nothing wrong with removing greed from healthcare. In the 1970s we used to have dealerships for some Eastern bloc cars such as Wartburg, Moskvich, NSU, Skoda, Polski-Fiat and others. The strange thing about a lack of abundance is that we were physically fit, never fat. We were very happy indeed, though we had few luxuries. We ate a good, balanced diet, but fried or processed food was minimal (except for delicious heaps of fish and chips on a Friday!). School lunches were very cheap and plentiful. They were healthy, delicious, well-balanced and never ever processed. I would smell them cooking from about 10am on and be salivating and daydreaming about what wonders those dear dinner ladies had made for us today. We had free milk at morning break in little 1/3rd pint bottles. I used to yearn to go to Russia (Thomas Cook used to sell a two week package to Moscow and the Black Sea - a two centre holiday) and the price at £250 was pretty competitive. It included the compulsory Intourist rep to guard you, and regular briefings on behaviour and supplying things like Levis jeans to locals - a big no-no! I used to listen avidly to Vladimir Posner each night on Radio Moscow in the 70s and 80s, although he generally only spouted state information about the major successes of collective farms and steel making, which apparently actually wasn't far from the truth! I loved Russian consumer electronics, like Volga radios, Rigonda tvs and stereos etc. The little 5" tvs were especially wonderful. I still gaze at pictures of Bukhanka (UAZ 452) vans and dream of owning one. They've barely changed since 1965, and I heard somewhere they still manufacture them. My pal had a Cossack motorbike and sidecar, though the competition from Japanese bike makers wrecked nearly every motorbike industry in the world. It seems to me that the richer a people become materially, and the more plentiful the availability of consumer goods, the less happy the people are. It's the same the world over, the poor ones are happier and the spoiled ones are miserable. I spent a couple of weeks in Ukraine, travelling between three football ('soccer' in American) venues for the 2012 Euros, and without fail the people were selfless, considerate, fun, helpful, kind, sweet and generous. I could cite many examples of Ukrainian people going to so much effort for us, yet absolutely refusing any sort of payment. I have never met such amazing people. We adored the lovely Ukrainians, especially all the intensely beautiful and FEMININE ladies! So many women in Europe look like bulls, with short spikey hair, lots of facial metalwork and ugly tattoos, and many dress and act like men. Not the case with Ukrainian ladies. We went to Kiev, Kharkiv and Donetsk, and the cities were beautiful and unpretentious and the countryside and weather were second to none. All three of us lads loved Ukraine a great deal and hope so much to return one day. I hope they take care of Ukraine, and don't let it turn into just another European-style generic country. It is way too special for that, and so are the people. I don't wish communism upon them, but I hope they can retain the magical aspects of life, and not get swallowed up in fast food blocked veins and consumerism. It does not lead to happiness. Thank you so much for your gentle, fascinating videos Sergei - you have certainly seen some major changes in your life. I am trying to learn the very basics of Russian and your videos are helping with that too - to learn easily one has to be interested in the subject. Kindest wishes to you. Mike.

[@brianwalsh1401]

Thank you for sharing that. I agree with a couple of your points especially about health care in the US. I do think it is what a loving people can give to themselves and that nobody should be with out it. A lot of people's reaction to that in the US is you are a commie pinko for even thinking about universal health care. I understand why the health care companies want to keep it is because it is a cash cow for people who provide nothing. I also agree that the more materially wealthy we become the less spiritually developed we become. It's always about finding the middle. It's not healthy to not have but it's not healthy to have too much especially without having love, affection and belonging from your parents. You sound like you've had some interesting adventures.

[@jupitersailing]

@@brianwalsh1401 Thank you so much Brian for your kindness. If you ever get the opportunity to visit the former Eastern Bloc then jump at it. It's a real eye-opener. Do you like to travel? (when we haven't got rags tied round our heads like bank robbers!

[@CharlieBam]

Enjoyed your post, sad how much things have changed since you posted 😔

[@andrewmiller5794]

Our goverment health care is terrible in the first place especially from the VA it simply wont help to force everyone to have it, we would probably end up like canada having to wait many months to be seen by a specialist. However our healthcare costs are highly inflated because it is supported by many politicians to be that way it is rediculous that pressing a button on an x-ray machine costs upwards of 20,000 dollars. We need to stop the price gouging of health care not make it "free".

[@Fotosaurus56]

My wife slipped on ice at a business and broke her ankle. Their insurance paid more than $6000 for my wife's medical treatment. We were lucky. For a person without insurance that could be life changing. I looked online and in France it would have cost about $27. Yes, there is something wrong with our system.

[@harryfallius7470]

I love these types of food. It was what my grandmother used to make when I was a kid. I have very fond memories.

[@johnwatson1442]

Sergei Really enjoy your videos. Unusual and entertaining.

[@yawnandjokeoh]

I could eat sour cream / creme fresh with a spoon any day, making me hungry Sergi..I'm waiting on friend I'm making pierogies and slaw

[@sarjim4381]

The lamb ragu is more like what the French call _"ragout"_ , also pronounced _"ragu"_ . The ragout is more of a thick meat or fish based stew. Ragu is a pasta sauce that contains tomatoes and sometimes ground meat. This is the one that's closest to the Ragu in a jar.

[@monnezzapromizoulin5169]

The lamb ragu looks to me like a "navarin de mouton"

[@deanronson6331]

I don't know where you live, but American Ragu brand in jars is strictly tomato pasta sauces with different flavors, including meat flavor, which contains no ground meat inside. The Italian ragout usually refers to dishes like pasta Bolognese, which has a lot of ground meat in it and has therefore no resemblance to the American Ragu brand of pasta sauces.

[@simonebaruzzi156]

but served with rice or miaze porridge instead of pasta is good anyay . maybe it would be my first choice .

[@flingonber]

@@deanronson6331 The meat flavor Ragu that comes in jars literally lists "cooked ground beef" as one of the ingredients...

[@ReapWhatYaSow]

When I was young, growing up in Central Illinois, I, too, had white rice in milk with sugar. I quite enjoyed it and have had it as an adult if I have leftover white rice from dinner.

[@josephsmith4143]

Watching this made me hungry.

[@jamallabarge2665]

I used to eat "Cocoa Wheats". They are farina with cocoa powder. I used to put a lot of sugar into it. The stuff was really good cold, it formed a thick chocolate mass. I used to carve it into blocks and eat it.

[@robertodykirk]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

[@ccb150]

so cool and informative this one i liked.

[@elizabethshaw734]

There is a lot of Soviet food that I love and I found recipes for to make at home. :-)

[@snowblow1984]

There's Stolovaya in Brooklyn. I went there many years ago and it was quite good. I am not sure trying to compare meal prices in the centralized USSR economy to US make sence. As far as I remember, utility payment for an apartement was something around 15 rubles. Comparing to say NYC it's about 10% of paycheck. Without concidering the rest of the factors it's fairly useless.

[@cccpredarmy]

the same goes with earnings, especially today. "In India people earn only 100$ per month" - yeah but they also spend a couple of cents per day because everything is very cheap there (exageration of course but you get the idea). The most informational global statistic about "quality of life" is the PPP (Purchasing Power Parity). By studying it closely the picture of "rich countries" starts to turn very quickly...

[@petman515]

@@cccpredarmy yeah that can be very very true . in some ways it's more like what goods are affordable vs what's expensive in a given nation. The big thing I always come back to as an American is food quality most "cheap food" here in the US is as a whole quite low quality as a hold over of the cold war over focussing on calories where as in a lot if developing and 3rd world nations a lot of what makes for "expensive food" in the USA fresh fruit and vegetables are rather affordable.

[@tripsbacks]

I'm an American who lived in Yoshkar-Ola in the '90's, and I loved the Russian cafe's. I ate their 5 days a week for lunch. Always something amazing to eat.

[@robmclaughjr]

As the son of a Finnish refugee from the CCCP invasion of Finland in 1939, I have a great curiosity for the Soviet Union and a great suspicion. I love this channel all his content. Don't let Ukraine fall to whatever russia has become.

[@keithlarsen7557]

Did many Soviet people "brown bag" or pack a lunch?

[@hiimryan2388]

Do you think they are a flesh pocket for food like a kangaroo...

[@fantochedollmaker7030]

@@hiimryan2388 Way besides the point, he's asking if soviets had a habit of bringing their lunch from home

[@alessandrotubero]

13:09 "You can tell I'm not an American spy because I eat pickled herrings" :)

[@oneginee]

I cannot get to the end of your food video without salivating.

[@Leleanor8]

My mother, from New England in the USA, always called hot dogs in dough, "Pigs In A Blanket". Nice to know the classics are a worldwide phenomenon XD

[@simonh6371]

In the UK that's what we call sausages (not hot dogs) wrapped in bacon, normally eaten as just a small part of Christmas dinner. But hot dogs in dough are delicious too.

[@jasonboynton-lee109]

I had something very much like what you called "kolbasov tiestye" at the 11 min 16 sec point in the video in a small Greek street food outlet in York (here in the UK) just two days ago! It was pretty tasty. I wonder if Greek cuisine had a lot of influence on Soviet and Eastern European dishes in general?

[@jamesw17]

That is a pretty big lunch! I did some guesstimates about the equivalent cost of each dish sold individually in a standard office or factory cafe/lunch room today. I think all that would cost around $39 Australian dollars. Here's what I thought each would cost: Borscht - $8, Cutlet - $6, Herrings - $6, salad - $5, buckwheat - $5, blinis - $6, tea - $3 Of course an ordinary worker here would never eat that much for lunch and would probably get a smaller but decent meal consisting of a soup or salad, a main dish and a drink for around AUD15.

[@Tonyx.yt.]

here in italy main dish + drink at workers caffetteria is 5.5€, but in the past years is think was a little bit cheaper

[@drcovell]

Half of those calories were needed just to fight the cold!

[@ImNotaRussianBot]

As a Russian immigrant, столовая always meant cafeteria. A place food was sold and prepared, but without any fan fare or ambiance. Just scuffed vinyl floors, stained ceiling tiles, grumpy middle-aged cafeteria ladies ladling out mush, and uncomfortable seats.

[@geraldjarosch536]

Plov is Pilaf in English, some say it is another basic way to prepare rice, on par wit Risotto and Fried Rice.

[@NarnianLady]

The cafeteria type places are still wonderful in Russia.. I have visited a few in St Petersburg, great queueing system and inexpensive tasty food

[@richardpearson8653]

Excellent.... Everything that moose and squirrel like

[@jarikinnunen1718]

If the Soviet salary was enough for 120 meals, it would be equivalent to Usa 3600 average salary divided into 120 parts, making it a meal cost 30 $. In reality average commercially-prepared meal cost 13$ in US today.

[@ivancho5854]

Very interesting indeed. I get the impression that in Communist Bulgaria it was much more affordable, but very similar but with more pork. Cheers. 👍

[@tristanholland6445]

Interesting stuff. I remember in basic training in the US Air Force in 1999 the guy the next bunk down was Ukrainian. I think his last name was Voronin he was from Tampa,FL but had come to the US in 1994. Anyway he was very impressed with the chow hall especially the breakfast which rotated every day. One day it was pancakes the next it was French toast. Well Voronin really liked French toast and had never seen it before and didn't know what it was called finally I said "it is called French toast but is not actually French it's American"

[@UshankaShow]

Cool story! But VORONIN is strictly Russian last name though.

[@tristanholland6445]

@@UshankaShow Yes I could be forgetting his last name exactly. I remember he would tell people that he was not a Russian so maybe he had a different last name that I forgot or he claimed his mommas heritage 😁.

[@oakpope]

It is French. We call it pain perdu.

[@briancasey7971]

I remember several of these food items. They weren't bad. The 'Rossiya' hotel had a breakfast buffet for it's guest every morning. The biggest item was the salad bar. I always had a plain salad and those creps with jam.

[@simonebaruzzi156]

the first dessert is like crepe , but sometimes also an omelette or a pancake. my launches always ended with it when i had my summer vacations in Yugoslavia .

[@Mortablunt]

I remember a ton of meals and late nights at the Moscow State University stolovaya. I have very pleasant memories, especially late night when the will to keep studying faded, so you would find yourself talking to other students, the ohranas, professors, and the staff. Many wonderful late nights passed over cups of tea, bowls of schi, and various snacks with conversations, jokes, and games of chess.

[@fifi3649]

Wow, I didn't expect it to be so expensive compared to the monthly wage! Especially if you consider this kind of lunch was part of an ordinary working day. I noticed you didn't mention water among the drinks. Was plain water an option, too? I'm asking because water was the only drink we had at my school's canteen. Also, I'm surprised they didn't have coffee. I know some people who would go crazy if they couldn't have coffee after lunch. But maybe that's just a cultural thing of my country.

[@cccpredarmy]

Russia was a tea-country for most of its history. Even in middle ages people drank herbal teas on daily basis. Coffee-mania only gained popularity in the last 20 or so years. As Sergei pointed out in earlier videos: people in SU also knew how and where to save money. Some workers brought their own food to work to not overspend on prepared food. Same goes with clothing. Soviet people were masters in keeping old clothes in tact by reparing them by hand very skilfully!

[@GasPipeJimmy]

Water wasn’t a common drink. Drinking tap water is mostly a USA thing because we have pretty great water quality compared to most of the world. The Soviets didn’t. The Russians don’t drink tap water either but boiled it to make tea.

[@jamesjacocks6221]

My pop (stepfather) loved most of the food you showed. He was practically off the boat from Germany, a Lutheran turned Methodist. We might have scoffed at his preferences but I thought the food was interesting. I am a bit surprised at the cost of food, particularly meat. I thought Ukraine was the breadbasket of Europe. It looks like farmland from heaven on Google Maps.

[@Bialy_1]

The stuff that they could export and sell in the west for real money was expensive... and stuff that was not an export material was cheap. The same in Poland they were selling food so hard to the west that they were giving special papers that was allowing you to buy exact ammount of meat cheap and no more -> because they were selling it to the west for $ and DM.

[@nuffsaid0]

I know it's a 2 years old comment, but anyway. The menu and prices he's discussing is from Khabarovsk region 2:30. Which means it's from Far East of Russia, which is know for both higher prices and higher salaries.

[@mathewweeks9069]

Awesome video

[@TedWiggins]

🔥 Congrats for your 200K views! 🎉

[@UshankaShow]

Yes, we nailed it! Thank you!

[@BartBe]

This all sounds pretty nutritious. All depends on how fresh the ingredients really were and how much they where stretching them.

[@UshankaShow]

All depends how much butter and meat went home 😊 kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnmToWaYiL6jiJY

[@jonlouis2582]

I'm sure it was all very delicious , but that still seems a little expensive for working person.

[@ironwolfF1]

Actually, the costs for running a factory cafeteria (mainly the food) were heavily subsidized. Stolovias served two main objectives...keeping workers properly fed (shutting the door to worker discontent); and, propaganda. An attractive, inexpensive menu touts the 'success' of the Soviet state and it's superiority to 'capitalist' analogues (which had concern itself with labor and food costs at market rates..😉.)

[@eila2088]

If you made 130 a month then it doesn't seem too off my uncle spending $20 each lunch while working at well paying call centre.

[@daca8395]

@@ironwolfF1 if keeping people fed, housed, educated and healthy is propaganda, then long live soviet propaganda!!!

[@ironwolfF1]

@@daca8395 And it worked...until the Soviets ran out of money, and their Warsaw Pact slave-states didn't want to play anymore. And the rest is history... 😏

[@daca8395]

@@ironwolfF1 agree, ever since that dckhead Khrushchev destroyed almost everything people of USSR won in 1917 and 1945... But at least soviets destroyed themselves trying to feed the people. Capitalism will destroy the whole planet trying to make rich richer...

[@TheBengalDragon]

The Indian people also called tea in the same way, although generally the South Asian tea around India Pakistan Sri Lanka and Bangladesh is generally served with a bit of milk and sugar and sometimes some spices like cardamom.

[@rafaljankowski2807]

Good stuff. You made me hungry.

[@lauterunvollkommenheit4344]

Just to put the prices into perspective, when I spent a month in the Soviet Union in the 80s, I sold a pair of jeans that I brought with me for 120 Rubels.

[@tricial9779]

Most of that looks really healthy, low glycemic. Avoid the grains and sugars. Lamb ragu, and all those ‘appetizers’ would be aces. I really want to try this menu - ncluding the herring❤️

[@muslimsocialist9310]

This food looks amazing and very fulfilling comrade Sergei.

[@PaleoCon2008]

When I first moved into may apartment there was a stolovaya next door. The food was good and inexpensive (for foreigners). I would often buy a few extra portions to help my wife out at home so she didn't have to cook every meal. But eventually, they closed the access to the stolovaya and only permitted company employees to eat there. It was one of the best deals in our neighborhood and even in the city.

[@mattd7135]

I remember back in the unpleasentness, the legend went that in Russia you could have a hot potatoe and cold borsht OR hot borsht and a cold potatoe, but could not have both hot or cold in the same meal.

[@thevictoryoverhimself7298]

Over 4 dollars for one egg! Truely a workers paradise!

[@vladislavfeldman6562]

At a certain stage in my life, I ate daily at the cafeteria across the road in the 70's when I was about 6. The price for my meal with cake and kompot (boiled fruit drink) the price 31 kopeks. Sour cream was a condiment for Borsht. Wages Engineer $130-160 per month, Teacher $90-120 Per month, Construction worker $180 -240 per month. Selling foreign goods on market $1000 per month.

[@mm4750]

OMG. The food you show in the thumbnail and videos look tasty

[@timothywells8589]

For anyone wondering манка (manka) is semolina. Was pretty popular in the UK as an alternative to rice pudding or tapioca when I grew up in the 80's.

[@eliehazeem8585]

I'm Syrian who lived in Odessa for long time, and I'd always see meat jelly "kholodets", as far as I know it's also popular and was popular in the Soviet Union

[@ImNotCreativeEnoughToMakeUser]

I'm watching this while eating lamb, mashed potatoes, and tea from my soda machine glass 11:52 I'm currently drinking tea out of one of those glasses as I watch this

[@lymb3914]

You mention people eating sour cream, and I find that very interesting. I do like sour cream a lot myself, but I don't know that I'd sit down and eat half a cup of it straight, though I could easily see someone who's body is very lean, from overworking and underfeeding, craving something so high in fat. It conveys a portrait of hard times.

[@kevincarlson7148]

If anyone's interested,Please To The Table is a great Russian cookbook.

[@B1900pilot]

It all looks really good! Especially all the different soups.

[@lupusdeum3894]

I remember when I was just turned 16 I went with a group of students to the Soviet Union with our Russian teacher Roger Frost, Dyed Maroz", as I called him. Roger had to get some paperwork signed off by some bureaucrat & told us to meet back at the VW Bus at 2 PM so we could continue on our city tour of Moscow. My friend Jeff & I decided we were going to get something to eat, so we left on our own. Jeff wasn't in our Russian class, but ended up taking German for a year. We found a workers cafeteria like in the pictures & I proceeded to order us lunch: borscht with sour cream, fried beef cutlets with braised cabbage, fresh bread & butter, kvas, tea, blini with berry preserves (varenie), topped off with ice cream (morozhenoye) from the street vendor outside. We staggered back to the van just as Roger showed up & we asked the other four students what they did in the interim. They told us they had stayed in the bus waiting, apparently too intimidated to leave! LOL I told Roger what we had for lunch & he just smiled & said, "Molodyets, Misha!" These videos take me back there over 50 years.

[@Earthstar_Review]

Zucchini is definitely edible raw, but probably would've been quite bitter raw back then. I remember just thirty years ago it being bitter if undercooked, but it's inoffensive today.

[@xxDrain]

Fresh sour cream is just delicious. It's like a dessert. As a kid, before putting some in the soup, I'd just have a spoonful or two straight from the container.

[@jackspedicy2711]

these foods, its what my mom used to allways make when i was small. now i know where these recipes came from

[@noahmizrahi9834]

I like the Hot dogs baked in dough, at our school they call them "Wiener wraps" they usually come with fish sticks and jello

[@prussian7]

Cover imagine looks so good! I've been thinking about making borscht for a few days.

[@UshankaShow]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZTPi4hmiKx6nLs

[@vernshein5430]

I loved eating at the stolovaia in Magadan that was near our office. The food was good, simple and cheap!

[@grundgesetzart.1463]

looks way better and healthier than the school buffet food offered in Vienna, Austria....

[@howardjohnson2138]

Your food looks good to me. Thanks

[@TheBengalDragon]

In my culture, PLOV is usually served in big occasions such as weddings and religious holidays

[@aidanfarnan4683]

I'd had chosen the same food as you, but I’d want a Pickled cucumber as well. Maybe swap the Blini for the milk soup with rice if i was very hungry. Great video!

[@AnonYmousxxx69420xxx]

Speciba balshoye, gospodin. Great video.

[@eriknervik9003]

7:46 In Mexico they have a similar dish, Arroz con leche. Then they have a thin version served as a cold beverage called “horchata” which has sugar and cinnamon. Really tasty

[@odenviking]

We a similar herring in Sweden but with lingonbery jam and what you cal smetana and whith garden onions .

[@joycebowen8958]

Most of that looks great. 😋

[@elizabethshaw734]

When I was 4 years old I loved herring in sour cream a lot. It used to be on the fancy restaurants we went to as an appetizer. If we went to a restaurant and Herring with sour cream was not on the menu I was very upset! LOL. I still love it and you can buy it in any grocery store in a jar. I prefer to purchase the plane one and add my own sour cream.

[@wallyshedd3157]

That kasha looks similar to a farina cereal such as “cream of wheat”. Regarding ragu - a stewed meat dish is ragout, and a Italian meat and tomato sauce for pasta is ragu ... both are pronounced the same. Likely similar origins.

[@odbhut424]

A bit of tea trivia: apparently the character used in China was pronounced cha, but te in one port town (different language I presume). Tea that moved thru land is called cha or variations of it -- think much of India, Arabia, Persia, and parts of Africa and Eastern Europe thru Arabia/Silk Road. Tea that moved thru that port, so by sea, is called tea or variations of it -- think of coastal places, like much of Western Europe and parts of Africa. Discovered your channel recently, and loving the content. Keep it up!

[@Surv1ve_Thrive]

✌🇬🇧

[@yolo_burrito]

Prague has a restaurant that goes over the history of Soviet Menu. It’s called Lokal. IIRC The Soviet Command allowed the production of Czech beer.

[@seanm2216]

I always liked going to stolovayas when I was in Russia. I especially loved when they also had a café in the same building, usually near the stolovaya hall as they would usually serve better quality food. I don't know how it was better, because it seemed to come from the same kitchen. My favorite was schnitzel and fried potatoes (not fries) and they were heavily coated in oil. I think they steamed the potatoes first and then sautéed them in oil. I also loved the garlic and cheese salad. The solyanka was also delicious. That was back in 1999-2000. When I returned in 2019, none of those cafés or stolovayas were still there. I was disappointed at all of the fast food places. I wanted to find some of those simple old Russian eating spots but had a hard time. There are many good restaurants now, some very fancy, but the good old spots just may be a memory, at least in the bigger cities. I'm not Russian obviously, so I can't say if that is actually the case or it was just my bad luck because I couldn't find them.

[@Fatmanstan606]

I fkn love the Internet! How could you ever see this kind of content anywhere else I hope to meet someone who lived in the Soviet Union some day, I think I would probably want to listen and talk to them for hours and hours

[@elpsykongroo8308]

great video...stumbled upon it while i was searching for recipe of blini with meat ...I am Indian but studied for 6 yrs in Smolensk medical academy in russia...and our academy had a soviet style stalovaya where me and my friends used to go for lunch everyday....its been 3 yrs since i came back to india but i still sometimes find myself dreaming of rasolnik, gulyash, mashed potato, blini and a glass of kampot.

[@williamnessanbaum7464]

Kefir is readily available here in deep southern Brooklyn. Virtually every store on Nostrand Ave. has it. I found it a bit too tart and the manufacturer add a lot of extra sugar.