Food in Russia has been a pleasant surprise for Joey, Isaac and I. As it turns out, the food here is delicious, affordable (at least at the school canteen), and very hearty.
A typical dish is dominated with mayonnaise, a meat, vegetables, eggs, potatoes, and almost always bread. No doubt this ingredient list can be deceiving, and often the appearance of a particular meal is as well. For instance, if I hadn't experienced a Russian "salad" (a casserole like dish that seems to involve mayonnaise, cheese, and just about any other ingredient you could mix in) I would have been wary of it. But I've been nothing but pleasantly surprised at all the prepared food I've had.
The canteen offers a wide variety of food that you pick out in cafeteria line style. However, even with the help of my Russian classmates I never know exactly how much I've bought, but it always ends being more than enough and at an average price of six dollars I can't complain.
Preparing our own food has been relatively simple. We have a kitchen with three stoves and ovens on our floor and recently received some plates and silverware left over from previous students. Along with the food we've brought from home (largely being a healthy amount of peanut butter and candy) , the store across the street from the hostel offers a fair amount of food that is again priced very reasonably. Fresh fruit, milk, delicious Russian black bread, cheese, and really about all the normal staples you'd expect to find in a small American grocery store can be found there. Cooking a meal in itself is really no harder than it would be back home, but cleaning is often more tedious due to the fact that the water in our hostel is not potable. After preparing a meal, we scrub out the pots used, place our silverware and cups in the pots, and then fill them with water and boil the whole affair for a few minutes.
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