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Considerable care should be taken when eating on your journey. Luckily, times have changed, and quality food can be found outside cities. While rainy season calls for staying at home and thinking of future trips, let me introduce a sort of survival guide through Russia's native cuisine.
Thinking Ethnic
The bad news should come first: real Russian ethnic cuisine has nothing common with caviar and other luxurious meals. Those items should be considered the "tsars' menu," and you can have them in almost any high-class Russian restaurant, including provincial ones. To learn, though, what real-life Russian peasants eat (or rather ate a century ago on holidays), moderate-price restaurants should be visited. Recognizing a proper ethnic food spot from the range of numerous moderate-price cafes and restaurants is simple, but takes practice. In short, places decorated by wood and stone craftwork should be chosen (much like Moscow spots "Taras Bulba" or "Mu-mu"). Unlike in Moscow, provincial cafés decorated in such a way will offer you high-quality specially prepared meals. Among others, meat dishes served in ceramic pots are usually the best. Another advantage of ethnic restaurants of Russian province is their big portions and modest prices.
Soviet style
Do you know what a Soviet stolovaya means in terms of taste? It's good, I swear; and trying this kind of service makes any journey unforgettable. In Moscow this kind of place is almost extinct, but provincial towns and big highways still boast numerous examples of authentic Soviet stolovaya. Eating there is quite safe; today's stolovayas can be recognized by labels reading «Ñòîëîâàÿ» and specific old-fashioned curtains on windows. Prices vary from low to medium (150 - 500 rubles per person). The only significant disadvantage is the lack of alcohol on the menu, also a feature of Soviet catering style.
meat and dough
Meat and dough, what more do we need? At least, it was for centuries here - and there are still lots of specific spots that specialize these simple dishes. Blins are Russian-style pancakes, often used as wrapping for meat, cheese, etc. You find them at a blinnaya, and they are usually tasty. Pelmenaya and cheburechnaya deal respectively with pelmenis and chebureks. The former are boiled little meat dumplings, the latter are fried mutton-stuffed pies. Both are very tasty when cooked properly. If the place reads «Ïåëüìåííàÿ», or «×åáóðå÷íàÿ», chances are you'll be alright.
‘From Dusk Till Dawn' cafes
Such places can be found near railway stations and along highways (though not all highway eating spots are such!). Tarantino's suspense will seem nothing compared to the atmosphere of such places after sunset. The places are for local drunkards, militia sergeants and Chechen-born KAMAZ drivers. In the daytime they have nothing to offer, except poor thin hotdogs and deep-frozen pieces of bread and cheese mislabelled pizza. In the evening, people drink here - and they drink hard, almost as hard as the frequent fights. Such spots are best for seeing the bottom of Russia. To learn the utmost bottoms of Russia one can simply go to the square of Three Stations (i.e. near the Komsomolskaya metro) and feel it to the full at night.
Fast food as it is
Big yellow M's can be found all over Russia, with most McDonalds in the cities. But fans of this chain still won't find these spots along highways.
Native fast food is something different. Hotdogs, potato chips, and deep-frozen pizzas are the best Russian fast food can boast. On the other hand, Asian food is widely available: shashlik, shawarma, fresh-baked Asian bread. Both variants are quite cheap (under 200 rubles per dinner). Choosing is quite hard, with a range from the tasteless to the medically unreliable. Grilled chickens («Êóðû ãðèëü»), offered along highways, are tasty and cheap (100 - 150 rubles per whole chicken), but their safety is doubtful.
Traditional Travel food in Russia
Don't think though, that Russians have always chosen between expensive quality food and cheap trashy things; there is a considerable domestic way out, formerly omnipresent and still popular: Take all the food you need from home. Traditionally, railway and automobile food included home-fried chicken, boiled eggs, fresh vegetables like cucumbers and tomatoes, cookies and chocolate. Thermos bottles with tea or coffee is a nice addition.
Ways Out
Unlike Europe or America, journeys in Russia require food planning. First, choose the category of food you want to get. Nice ethnic restaurants, especially in places of interests like Rostov and Novgorod etc., often require pre-booking (sometimes, weeks of advance are essential!). Places like blinnaya, pelmennaya and cheburechnaya are almost always accessible on short notice, but can be hard to find. Choosing a suitable road café on your way is possible, but you have to know what to look for.
The final test is to look inside: an empty hall or gangsta-looking guys inside are reasons to keep going (or prepare for adventures). Odors are your friends: smelling helps distinguish bad fast food from a nice café. Sadly, the latter category of eating spot - i.e. nice calm family-run cafes - is the rarest thing in the country.
when nature calls...
Restrooms are still not standard features on Russian highways. And polluting the surrounding fields and forests is already becoming less popular. Finding a toilet is an essential skill for travelers here.
The simplest way to proceed is to try to schedule your biological needs and use restrooms at the cafés and restaurants you visit. These are often adequate, though still not always up to European standards. McDonald`is often called in Russia "the world's leading chain of free toilets." Rooms at highway cafes can be even less comfortable than fields around - so the choice gets narrower.
Wooden cabins, often seen along the highways, usually serve men only. Ladies' rooms may be available, but it takes a certain temperament to brave them.
For those unfamiliar with Russian toilets and unwilling to get acquainted with them, having a portable toilet in the trunk is probably your only option. That, or be patient and wait for the next good café to come along.
By Anton Razmakhnin
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