Ask me questions.

[Zkribbler]

What are you doing up at this hour? It must be the middle of the night there.

[onodera]

What are you doing up at this hour? It must be the middle of the night there.

No. Do your math again.

[Dinner]

The only Russian restaurant I've ever been to served late 19th century Czarist Russian style food (essentially recipes cooked for the upper classes). It was quite good but I imagine it had little to do with the food average Russians ate then or now. Please describe the food average Russians might eat including traditional foods.

[onodera]

The only Russian restaurant I've ever been to served late 19th century Czarist Russian style food (essentially recipes cooked for the upper classes). It was quite good but I imagine it had little to do with the food average Russians ate then or now. Please describe the food average Russians might eat including traditional foods.

Okay, let's try that.

First of all, we do not follow the breakfast-lunch-dinner routine.

The first meal of the day, the one you have before going to work is zavtrak. Traditionally, you are supposed to eat kasha (groats), but almost no one does that now, so it's usually coffee or tea, and either fried or boiled eggs, boiled sausages or simply some sandwiches (except they are open in Russia so it's not exactly a sandwich).

Around 1pm you have the second meal, obed. A lot of people work in places that don't provide full scale meals so they substitute it with fast food or ramen, but I do. A complete obed consists of:
0) a salad, which normally has no salad leaves at all, it's boiled vegetables and some meat or fish chopped into pea-sized cubes and usually mixed with mayo.
1) a soup, which is usually chopped boiled vegetables in a meat or fish broth. It can be a traditional soup like borshch, shchi, ukha or okroshka, or something invented in the Soviet era or a recipe imported from another country. Pureed soups aren't generally popular.
2) the main course, which is usually some meat or fish or poutlry with some side dish of potatoes, macaroni, rice or buckwheat groats. Pelmeni is another option and a traditional food. Plov is something that's not exactly Russian, but is also a common dish.
3) optionally, some dessert or tea with pastries.

When you get home, it's time for uzhin, if you have a housewife or someone else to cook it for you. It can be 1-2-3, 1-2 or 2-3, using the obed enumeration. If no one is waiting for you, it's something you should cook yourself, probably the same old pelmeni.

The problem with the Russian cuisine is that it has existed as separate cuisines for a very long time. The peasant food was simple and unsophisticated: shchi (with fresh or pickled cabbage), porridge, bread and kvas. The food of nobility was excessively complex, incorporating many imported foodstuffs. The middle ground was occupied byt the cuisine of small-scale provincial nobility and merchantmen: a mix of peasant food that has been enhanced with money (shchi were no longer vegetarian 99 times out of 100) and dumbed down haute cuisine of the top nobles.
Modern Russian cuisine is essentially Soviet cuisine with a thin Westernized veneer that includes fast food, sushi, ramen and rare steaks. Soviet cuisine is a dumbed down version of the merchantmen's cuisine, enhanced with dishes from all over COMECON and the USSR like borshch, stuffed bell peppers, plov, kharcho and shashlik.

[Patroklos]

How exactly does that not conform to the Western breakfast/lunch/dinner schedule?

[onodera]

How exactly does that not conform to the Western breakfast/lunch/dinner schedule?

Is lunch the main meal of the day?

[Patroklos]

It sounds like your dinner is pretty substantial as well.

[DanS]

Is lunch the main meal of the day?

Hell no. I'd have to take a nap afterward.

[onodera]

It sounds like your dinner is pretty substantial as well.

I've taken a look at wikipedia, and it says that in rural regions of the English-speaking world the meals are breakfast, dinner and supper, with dinner being eaten around 2 or 3pm. This sounds a lot like the Russian meal system.

[Felch]

Dinner in America is the evening meal. Lunch is usually around noon, and it's generally lighter than dinner.

[Alinestra Covelia]

"Dinner" in England can be midday or nighttime, depending on where you are.

I was invited out to a neighbor's home for "dinner" while I was staying in a small town near Derby. They called me at about 2 pm asking politely if I'd be making it. I'd already had a big lunch but I realized it would sound terribly snooty if I said I misunderstood them. So I went over and they had a lovely big roast and spread. I tried to force-feed myself some but I had to plead off, saying I was very full from an unexpectedly indigestible breakfast.

[DanS]

Dinner in America is the evening meal. Lunch is usually around noon, and it's generally lighter than dinner.

The noon-time meal can be called dinner in some areas of the US. Dinner or supper during the evening. Just like England, although I can't say as a 2 o'clock meal is that common here (although I do have my lunch at around 2).

[Alinestra Covelia]

Most Brits have a pretty big noontime meal, and then a small meal at about 5 pm that they call supper or tea. I was surprised at this because in the Chinese culture usually the family gets around the table at the evening meal and we eat a load of food.

The Brits would get maybe a sausage or two, some beans, mashed potato, and a few cups of tea.

[Riesstiu IV]

I know that in the US there is a single World War I veteran that is still alive. Do you know if there are any living World War I veterans in Russia?

[Nikolai]

As we all know, 42 is the answer. But what is the question?