Honestly, this video should just be re-titled as “Most common Russian dishes that people have been eating for centuries and still continue to eat”

American: "these are unconventional Soviet foods" And then they proceed to list off the food that Eastern and central Europeans eat every day nowadays

I am Russian, living in Canada, and I'd say 99% of these dishes were a staple in our household...it was not unconventional food, it is part of ordinary Russian cuisine. And continues to be, post- USSR times.. Nothing odd or desperate about any of these dishes- they're all delicious and common!

it's honestly disgusting to talk about the horror of Leningrad without telling your audience that the reason for the catastrophic situation was that the Germans deliberately tried to starve every inhabitant of the city.

When your normal everyday meals are described as unconventional food

This is literally normal slavic food. No idea how tf these foods are "unconventional"

As a Russian, these foods are my everyday foods.

Growing up in the USSR, I remember most of the foods mentioned - and living in the USA NOW we STILL eat most of them (and a bunch of others - Makaroni po Flotski, Salat Olivier, etc.). We were more likely to eat Solyanka than Rassolnik. Eggs were available, but not in the greatest of quantities, so we had them either IN things or boiled to better enjoy them. Caviar was always available, and even as kids we had it - though mainly for get togethers or holidays. For beef or pork as things like steaks or chops... that was extremely rare - and when available everyone either sliced them up or cubed them for stews or dishes with lots of veggies. I don't recall ever eating a beef steak growing up. To this day, my former Soviet friends/family (even here in the USA) tend not to have steaks or chops (heck, most of us don't really know how to cook them LOL). Sausage & tinned meat (Tuschjonka - beef or pork in sauce were the mainstays). When minced meats came into the shops the queues were immediate and huge - and the entire city would smell of Kotleti that night LOL GENERALLY, in order to buy such "defitsit" items like meat, you could only do so by buying items that were not popular. Almost always tinned seaweed salad. For every kilo of meat/sausage, you had to buy 2 or 3 tins of seaweed salad. It was only a few Kopeks, but everyone's shelves were FULL of the small tins LOL If you refused... NEXT COMRADE! So we bought. NOW I love the stuff, but as a kid I despised seaweed salad (and it was a few Kopeks then, here in the USA I'm paying over $3/tin LOL). To this day we eat a lot of Buckwheat (we're Jewish, so we have it with pasta, not so much as porridge). Americans tend to be EXTREMELY haughty & dismissive of Buckwheat - they don't like the smell, yadda yadda yadda... good. More for US! So... this video is fun, but we ate the foods shown because we LIKED them, and not out of some dire necessity. Yes, life under Socialism was insanely difficult and boring... but we ate quite well, drank well... and - sit down for this - we even enjoyed ourselves sometimes. And I pity Americans who eat Bologna - our Doctorskaya is SO much better (we eat Doctorskaya and Tsarskaya now... like Soviet ice cream, our sausages and breads were SUPERIOR)

This video was so inaccurate.The foods are staples in Slavic kitchen. They actually really tasty even if here was shown in a bad light. The curd is similar to ricotta. Borscht is like a cream soup. Mayo salad is like potato or egg salad. Most Europans are familiar with these foods.Has nothing to do with Soveit Union Era. Please do not spread ignorance.

These are just traditional slavic foods, still eaten (and loved!) to this day.

As a Romanian, we make” borș”(borsh) not with broth but by preparing ahead a sour, fermented liquid from bran, lovage leaves, thyme and hot water poured then left to ferment for few days then strained and added to the boiled meat/vegetables to sour the dish. In some regions of the country they use green grapes, smashed and the juice was used to add sourness to the borș. Also, “borș” is soured with the fermented liquid called borș, but “ciorba”(chiorba) is soured with small amount of vinegar.

You miss out on "Doctor's Sausage" It's basically pink meat made as a dietary supplement to people exhibiting signs of prolonged starvation. Because it was mild-tasting, inexpensive and relatively healthy source of meat (when meat supply was low), it became popular in the USSR and to this very day.

Alternate title: Foods you eat at your grandmother`s house

Bro this is just normal Slavic food I grew up with this

The aspic is something we grew up eating. My Polish Mom would make it and we'd eat it with vinegar . She called it gallaretka. Years later I realize it's essentially bone broth in solid form..... basically a superfood. Thanks mom 💕💕🍎

That beet salad “Vinegret” is eaten a lot in Peru. Its called- Ensalada Rusa- translated is literally Russian Salad. The ingredients are: beets, potatoes , carrots, mayonaise( or a drizzle of oil) , salt, pepper.

you cite Leningrad 1941-1942, this is siege of Leningrad when almost 600 thousand people died from hunger, you cite this as normal Soviet food. And then citing an ex- Soviet soldier, a traitor who was speaking on German propaganda radio when Nazis have a war with USSR as a truth :) Hello, we are millennials, not idiots

Russian isn't even my first language and these pronunciations still hurt my soul. And none of these are even unconventional. Come on y'all, your content is usually better than this

Most people of Slavic descent are very familiar with the foods mentioned in the video along with regional variations. Being of Polish descent I can remember my babcia i moja matka making a type of cabbage soup or stew called kapushniak. Don’t worry about the spelling my Slavic friends, brothers, and sisters. This soup also had boiled ribs, onions, garlic, buckwheat, leaks, potatoes, celery and maybe other things I’ve forgotten. All I know is that on a cold winter day a dish of this served hot was both nourishing and tasted smaczne!

There’s nothing unconventional among these foods…they’re literally just traditional Eastern European foods.

My grandmom made the BEST borscht I ever tasted . She gave me the recipe before her passing but I can never make it without her. There is something about the smells in the kitchen that brings back fond memories.❤️❤️ Miss you Nana R.I.P

I grew up in Estonia and I am half Russian. All this is completely normal food. USSR was HUGE and had many different cultures mixed in. All of this is normal food, not something starving people ate. Much of this food is something grandmothers would cook for family or grandkids. All of them are absolutely delicious and tasty. I have cooked most of these myself for my husband and he loves them. Our absolute favorites are Soljanka, kotleti and buckwheat porridge with pork and onions. My Grandmother and my aunt were both survivors of Leningrad Blockade and things people ate there were pretty much as described- saddles, leather belts and boots, animals of any variety (cats, dogs, rats, horses) and even children.

This looks like mostly healthy, tasty, and sensible recipies that I would like. It looks much healthier that most of the food we eat in the USA. Those soups look so satisfying.

I'm a 73 yr old Canadian and my siblings are closer to 90 but our grandmother who came from Scotland made a form of aspic she called head cheese. If was filled with leftover meats, spices and whatever else laying around and gelled by the boiled bones juices. I really liked it

I work at a college as a cook and we have many international students. I always asked them what foods they miss from home. The guys from Serbia said soups and that they are a staple at every meal. The soups they described sounded delicious. Some of the russian students brought me dried shredded squid for beer snacks. A Thai student brought me back boat noodles. A student from amsterdam brought me stroopwafels. I love my job lol. Excuse me I'm going to make braised short ribs right now! If you're genuinely curious and respectful of other people's cultures its easy to make friends. Thank you I really enjoy this channel!

Romania and Poland were NOT in USSR.

Syrnik is a subset of blins, where the milk is substituted by fresh acid set cheese. Germans call it quark/quarg Kotlet (Not kotleti) is in essence a flattened and fried meatball. Chicken Kiev is...well chicken kiev Borch (not borcht) is a red beetroot based soup, sometimes even considered a soup with "beetroot stock" kind of dish. Vinegret is primarly a sidedish. Like giardinera is fermented, vinegret is pickled. Can act as a garnish or as a dish on its own if one so desires. Steak and onion comes from a hunters tradition to cook the meat or liver of the fresh kill with some onions right there in the woods. What is actually shown is the "cutlett steak": pounded and breaded cuts of meat, usually (deep)fried in oil. Rossolnik soup is a potato-groat based soup. Because the groats take so long to cook, its usually not made with stock as it would "burn" easy. To enhance flavor, rossolnik gets fermented or pickled vegetables added. As part of the cooking or as a garnish on top. Blins are thick pancakes akin to buttermilk pancakes in the US...but alot smaller. Think of the analogy of sliders vs hamburgers. Salad Olivie does not contain any olives, but is more approprate to consider "Olivia Salad" or russian potato salad. Herring under Fur coat is a festive dish. Usually bland every day items arranged in a "luxury" manner. Testiment to the saying: "better than the sum of its parts" Okroshka (pronounced nice in this instance) is a cold vegetable soup, traditionally made with kvass, radish, carrot, beetroot and herbs like dill or parsley. Modern version swaps beetroot and carrot for cucumber and kvass for kefir or diluted sour cream. Aspic is not the correct term for this dish. Aspic is a clean broth that has lots of collagen and thus sets when chilled. Holodetz is also a clean broth, but chilled with the rendered meat. Some regions add boiled SOFT vegetables like carrots, beetroot, parsnips, turnips. Former being served traditionally with mustard or dilute wine vinegar poured over, latter served as a component along with potatoes, saurkraut and pickled pumpkin during russian orthodox "christmas". A cheap alternative would be the gelatin set dishes, very much like the Depression era gelatin creations.

This is interesting especially the one about Borscht. I never thought that a simple recipe was so closely guarded by the USSR

"Slavic foods" rather than "Unconventional foods" would have been more appropiate....but well, sensation rules I guess. Loved the vid tho

How is this "unconventional"? Stuff looks great & Slavic/Russian food is awesome. (Coming from a Scot who eats haggis & black pudding.)

I've always made Okroshka using shredded beets, buttermilk, scallions and white pepper. With the beets and scallions whirred together in a blender and the rest stirred in and the whole thing chilled, it's heaven in a spoon. Russian and Eastern European cooking is an endless source of delight. Get a cookbook and start eating!

The set-up to the video had me thinking _'Oh man, this gonna be some horrible food they were forced to eat out of necessity',_ then you come out of the gate with fried cheese pancakes covered in fruit jam and im like 🤤🤤

The highly processed food eaten today in the United States would be truly revolting to many cultures around the world.

This is not unconventional food, just a traditional Slavic food, present in other countries as well. I come from Poland, a country that during Cold War was a puppet state dependant of Soviet Russia, and my great-grandmother used to tell me how good sugar beet pancakes she used to cook. Polish people lived in a world where basic supply chain was broken, it was not uncommon for people to make their own soap (I have heard rabbit was to best for it, out of some reason), to drink grain coffee (because true coffee was too expensive and exclusive), chocolate-like products that were supposed to taste similar but were produced on other plant oils and fats than cocoa (again, because cocoa was too expensive). Still, we made soups and traditional food every Eastern Block citizen could relate. And out of many weird Russian things I have eaten "sallo" was the weirdest, basically a block of pig lard, seasoned and frozen before serving.

Pretty much all of these are average foods, and (depending on your view) even better than people ate in the past. There's an pre-USSR working class saying 《Щи да каша, пищи наша.》 In English "Cabbage soup and buckwheat are our foods". The unusual things are the powdered eggs and allegations of glue and leather in холодец.

Literally watched Boris make every single one of these as regular food. Not like these foods are "weird soviet foods"

“Here’s weird Soviet foods!” First item is a delicious cheesy pancake served like a plump crepe. If something that appetizing counts as “weird”, the baseline for “normal” must be gruel.

I can’t understand what is weird about this food, it’s absolutely normal in post-Soviet countries. You can easily find them in Russian cafes of prepare at home. Just prepared a vinegret few days ago, and it was very tasty. Some chopped in a cube shape boiled beet, boiled potatoes, boiled carrot, fresh cucumbers, salt cucumbers and boiled peas (the size of the cubes should be about the size of a pea). Add some salt and unrefined sunflower 🌻 oil 👍🏻 Syrniki and bliny I also eat regularly, but Russian pancakes are thin and large, in spite of the American ones. You just mix some milk, 2 eggs, a bit of salt, sugar and baking soda with wheat flour and slightly pour this liquid on a flat hot pan, wetted with oil. Syrniky are pretty good, too. Especially with home-made jam with entire berries or condensed milk. And buckwheat is very tasty with meat, chicken or vegetables and is also a healthy food 👌🏻 And “borshch” is pronounced (and written in Russian) as «борщ», without “t”

Chebureki is easily one of the best foods from Russia in my opinion. Its a beef and pork meat turnover with dill, onions, green onions, garlic, and parsley. That is then put in a dough and fried in sunflower seed oil. Then dip it right in to the national sauce, mayonnaise. Its truly the taste of slav power.

This segment of "Weird History" would come across as "informative and entertaining" had it been shown to a post-WWII/pre-Vietnam War/pre-9/11 American audience. However, we're in the 21st century, in a worldwide information platform that is the internet, on KZfaq where there are instructional videos on how to prepare and enjoy these so-called "unconventional foods". Which kinda makes the people involved in making this video appear as myopic shut-ins who are out of touch with the times. Have you considered taking this video down, or at least editing it?

From someone whose family is from the former eastern bloc, we still eat a lot of these.

This video is really inaccurate. These foods are not "unconventional" and quite tasty. Most are still popular in many Eastern European counties and are a part of their cultures. Also presenting people as flesh-eaters in such a manner is disrespectful. Cases of cannibalism in St. Petersburg happened during the siege, which was a huge tragedy and extreme circumstance, not a daily soviet thing (same goes for glue and belts).

I'm pretty much on board with trying all of these, minus the aspic with human flesh and wood glue.

I like how they didn’t mention the siege of Leningrad as if people ate belt soup and towards the end resorted to eating their dead as an “unconventional” food in the same list with caviar and blin

syrniki are as unconventional to westeners as hamburgers are unconventional to me. btw writing this comment while eating a syrnik.

Wait all those meals are what we eat now at home, at school, on work. Wherever we go, because it's just tasty???? I really can't tell why this video seem to make them strange or gross???

I ate many of these foods as a child in Riga (Latvia) in my grand parents' home in the 1930s and would gladly eat them again now.

My wife is from Belarus, and we regularly eat lots of these dishes. Tasty, hearty, healthy.

1:28 Actually, "kotlety" is a general term that means any fried pieces of minced meat. The term is a loanword from French ('côtelette') like a pretty half of Russian food names since Russians adored all the French during the 19th century when the Russian kitchen generally shaped itself. The same with the Salad Olivier which obvously is not a Russian name.

You mentioned other regions when talking about borscht -> Romania is a country not a region and was never part of the Soviet Union. @weirdhistory

I had a Russian cookbook and I noticed that alot of recipes had saurkraut in them. Especially the soups. Also alot of recipes had hard boiled eggs in them.

Now make one on how Americans eat deep fried pickles.Cause to me this is just normal Eastern European food,nothing strange

These seem like regular Slavic food to me. I'm from Sweden, and I see a lot of similarities between Eastern European food and Scandinavian cuisine. I expected a video entirely about how people would eat leather, foraged plants and pidgeons.

Most of them are actually very tasty😂 I am from a former communist country. We still eat most of these foods here.

As a Romanian, I have eaten most of these foods forever and they are all great good food. Not something poor people would eat. This is like a grandparent's special. especially on holidays. Not to mention you cant compare it with today's fast food mania.

It's funny because some traditional Russian meals like Olivier salad are also traditional in my country. Mostly for the holidays such as christmas and new year's eve. We call it something like "Russian Salad". I wonder how it became popular here...

I don't understand who decided that these foods are "unconventional". As a russian, I can confirm that most of these foods are absolutely delicious. Everyone in the west would like them as well.

This is literally food that we still eat today. Its super normal to eat almost everything in this video. Definitely not "unconventional".

I'm from Lithuania, and to this day 80% of the food mentioned is a staple in home cooking at least

I grew up in Soviet Russia. The names of foods are right, we ate foods named like this. The overall perception of shortages and poverty is also right. But recipes are bizarre, to be the most charitable.

I eat most of these dishes regularly 😋

Nothing unconventional about these foods just regional recipes.

These foods don't sound weird or unconventional to me...just recipes from different part of the world. The Syrniki sounds really good. Would love to try it.

"In Soviet Russia, Weird History subscribes to you."

My Grandmother told me stories of people eating leather shoes and tree bark during The Depression, while she taught me to garden.

Any other Russians low key bothered by how he pronounced most of these?

The wood glue and human remains dishes sound the most interesting to try... (since you asked). ;) We lived in Kazakhstan during times of Western influence and relative prosperity, and the daily grocery food choices were an interesting mix of 'expensive food for expats' and 'strange types of meat from peculiar animals and extremely irregular-looking (but excellently flavoured) vegetables and fruits. We grow our produce 'big/pretty/standardised' in the US, but other countries still grow for flavour--that was kind of a revelation living abroad. It should've hit me sooner--America's more about appearance--good taste typically passes us right by. :P

A+ video! LOVE IT! What a unique and (potentially) tasty cuisine!

These items are only unconventional to those that have never eaten them. In Western Canada most of these are very common amongst Ukrainians

My best guess is this is unconventional for people in the States. But this is definitely I stuff that looks similar to stuff I might eat in Mexico, particularly the stews.

Efficiency... Use what you have. That's a lesson from my immigrant father, from Russia. I'm 70 and wish I could now tell my father..."I did listen."

As a Romanian I have never seen someone putting fruits in Borscht. And we were not a region of the Soviet Union but a satellite state :)

In Soviet Russia, you didn't have to watch what you ate, because the KGB was watching for you.

I'm not even Russian and I've eaten most of these foods multiple times in my life

I think it's incredible how no one ever wondered why there was a shortage of food in USSR countries, it's not because of capitalist embargo, right?

This are the most popular dishes in Eastern Europe 🤦🏻‍♂️ some people really don't know what they are talking about. I still eat most of these and I don't life in Eastern Europe anymore this food is culture.

Jees bro.. you could've skipped the last part. Just if one exausted soldier under siege ate his comrade that doesn't make it into national diet. And besides that last part there's nothing unconventional about these foods. I eat most of them until this day.

When you’re Russian to eat, there’s no time for Stalin!

That fish in a fur coat image is hilarious lol

I've never had borscht,but always wanted to. The sound of beets and sour cream alone sounded pretty damn good

Cheese pancakes?! Omg why have I never tried this

"The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow" - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

That picture (3:29) of woman holding a child in a derelict place is not a poor Russian woman. Its a photo of Azerbaijani refugee who lost her home and family as a result of Russia backed Armenian attack on Karabakh. Where ethnic Azerbaijanis were either ethnically cleansed or forced to flee their homes. Photo is taken in Agdam sometime around 1993-4.

Grateful information.

You guys went overboard with "hungry starving soviets" stereotype. And good portion of these are common foods, both pre and post-soviet.

Half of the things were mouthwatering

"Salade Olivier" is a French expression. It was created by Lucien Olivier who was Belgian.

Not from Russia or former USSR and I just have to ask what is UNCONVETIONAL about all of this food? For example, Americans think that fries with mayonnaise is weird or let's say unconcevtional. But drinking coffee with flavors (like pumpkin, peppermint or disgusting cherry coke etc. ) with half a pound of sugar is ok, normal, convetional. :) :) In northern Texas they put salt on watermelon. :)

This is Life of Boris Approved lol

I know almost all of these foods, I'm from Slovakia, which was part of Czechoslovakia, which was never officially part of the Soviet Union, but we were under their control, and had socialist regime... just wanted to say that some of these foods are really healthy and delicious, but some are equally nasty and disgusting. Also eating meat used to be rare, like only once or twice a week, which was good for our health and good for the environment, meat should be a rarity, not necessity.

Most of these are traditional foods that people have eaten for centuries in the former Soviet Union

Not at all unconventional, these all sounds great and pretty normal

You know what they say "anything is edible except your children" - my dad hopefully sarcastically

This all looks a lot more 'conventional' and appealing than the mid-century American cuisine that was also being eaten at the time

Next video: "Unconventional foods people ate in capitalist America: Hamburgers, hot dogs, mac and cheese, apple pie, donuts...."

your failure to bring up all the weird sausage varieties that stalin had brought over, is really stunning.

"Don't forget: it's wrong to eat your children" (from a soviet poster).

It's basically a guide to the Eastern European food. Would change the name unless it's a clickbait

Aspics (as pictured in the thumbnail) were certainly not relegated to Soviet cuisine. Both British and Americans had them in somewhat fad usage for periods of time.

All these are Polish dishes too. Wawrzecki was tried and executed in Poland, and Poland was never a part of SU.