Volga

Dishes of the national Tatar, Mari, Udmurd cuisine are far from accidentally delighting tourists who take home chak-chak, echpochmak, belish and other oriental delicacies with bags.

 

Full-water rivers full of fish, juicy meadows on which cows and horses freely graze, honey apiaries - the peoples who inhabited these fertile lands always had the opportunity to eat nourishingly. And for nomadic tribes, the satiety of dishes determined their survival - a warrior had to carry some food with him, but so nutritious that he did not feel tired. Thus was born a unique Volga pastry - cakes with meat, cereals and potatoes, capable of one thing to satisfy the hunger of an adult man.

 

The Volga was part of the Great Silk Road. On it sailed ships from distant Eastern countries, carrying strange spices. Caravans of merchants went through these lands from Persia, China, India. The most delicious dishes of oriental cooking: plov, halva, sherbet, were prepared in the caravanserais of ancient Volga cities and served on the table to the kings and nobles of the Great Bulgarian Empire, as Tatarstan was then called. Legends about the dishes of the Tatar rulers can be found in literary monuments of various countries.

 

Tatar cuisine and to this day is the hallmark of the cuisine of the Volga region. And the gastronomic traditions of the Tatars are familiar and loved in many countries, including Russia. After all, it was the Tatar chefs who taught the Russians to fry meat. Many centuries ago, they were the only ones serving the royal table. Kazan taverns became the prototype of Russian drinking establishments.

 

Cult Russian food - dumplings, also came from the Great Bulgarian Empire. And now all the peoples of the Volga region: Tatars, Mari, Udmurts, Chuvash prepare them especially tasty. And in Izhevsk and Perm, Pelmen is even immortalized in the image of a monument.

 

Hospitality and bread solitude for decades have been the basis of culture for the peoples of the Volga region. In the past, the Tatars had the custom of swearing bread - Ipi-der. Yes, Kazan itself was founded on a place where food was prepared especially well in Kazan. The ancient oracles saw this as a sign of the future wealth and prosperity of the city.

 

Coming to Tatarstan, appreciate the unique taste of national dishes:

"chuck-chuck." This original delicacy of nuts and honey is greeted here by guests and taken away for gifts close n

"Echpochmak." A cult cake with an amazing hearty filling of meat, onions and pieces of potatoes. It is sometimes called the “triangle”.

• Balish. The oldest meat-cereal dish baked in a pot. It is prepared from pieces of fatty meat (lamb, beef, goose or goose and duck gums) and cereals (milk, polba, rice)

• Tokmach. Soup with flour dressing, usually noodle soup

"Tutyrgan tavyk". Chicken stuffed with eggs and milk

 

Want to plunge into history a thousand years ago and find yourself in the middle of an oriental feast? Come to the Volga!