Well, the chances are you wouldn’t be able to communicate effectively with serving stuff here, due to their lack of English and yours – of Russian. So we made this short guide on typical Russian soups in Novosibirsk, which you might find interesting. They all named as you say it in Russian, so just naming them and may be pointing finger at the displays in the canteen will do in most cases.
Borsch
Probably the most famous one. Generally, Borsch being a hot soup is thought of as a beet soup due to its deep purple or bordeaux color it gathers from actual beet which is one of the main ingredients.
But don’t take it as a light vegetable soup. The meat is also present there, beef most usually. It also contains a good deal of fat which comes out of meat when boiling and is very nourishing. Often it is served with garlic bread or bread and garlic separately.
I’m really sorry to say it right here as it is supporting popular stereotype of everyone drinking here, but yes, Borsch is very good to go when drinking vodka.
Solyanka
That’s another hot, very filling soup, typically of dark orange/brown color, it is made most usually from several different tastes of meat – boiled beef and a couple of different sausages. It also has some veggies in and typically served with some black or green olives and a slice of lemon in it.
And well, yes, it goes very well with vodka 🙂
Okroshka
That’s a cold soup, normally served during summer only. It is made of small cut cucumber, radish, boiled eggs, sausages and variety of greens. Then it is poured over with kvass or kefir. Kvass is, if you don’t know – a fermented drink, very very low in alcohol, made from rye flour or bread with malt. And Kefir is a milk-like sour product similar to yogurt or sour cream but very liquid.
It’s either dark brown in color when the main filler is kvass, and watery/milky when with kefir, and is very satisfying in summer as it is cold.
Some folks prefer it specifically either with kvass or with kefir and when you develop your own preference, it is better to check when ordering, do they do it on kvass or kefir.
Some people even eat okroshka as a salat, not filling it with kvass, but using some dresser like sour cream or mayonnaise.
Schi
Schi is a hot, sauerkraut soup basically, it also contains meat. We don’t really like it due to some sour taste of it, but many people do, and it is very popular soup here.
Ukha
Ok, this is a fish soup. Basically a fish boiled with potato and some vegetables in. Again, very good to go with vodka.
Boullion
That’s a chicken broth as you understand it. Chicken and noodles soup.
Some other soups to recognize
They’re not Russian but rather international but they still kinda popular soups in Novosibirsk, in local diners or restaurants.
- Gribnoy – mushroom soup. Sometimes it may be called as Gribnoy cream soup, which means it – it is very thick.
- Syrniy – cheese soup. Very thick and filling.
- Gaspacho – that’s the fun one. If you’ve ever been to Spain, you might find it being very far from real gaspacho as Russia is from Spain.
Final words – there are huge varieties of recipes for all mentioned above. The outcomes will vary depending on the place you’re in and the tastes of local chef. Also, most of the soups are normally served with a spoon of sour cream in it. So if you’re against it, warn the personnel ‘bez smetany’ when ordering a soup.
There might be a huge discussion of whether some of them are Russian or Ukrainian or from some other nation. We just don’t want to go into that. Some of them may have roots somewhere else, but since long became a cornerstones of Russian cuisine.
Where to try soups in Novosibirsk
We nearly died of starvation while preparing this text, so if you fee like soup – go ahead and try some of our local ‘eateries’.
