TATAR AND RUSSIAN NATIONAL CUISINE

Tatarsare very proud of their national cuisine. The basis of the Tatar cuisine is a range of meat and pastry dishes. Counter to popular confusion, Kazan Tatars don’t eat raw minced meat, which is called “Steak Tatar” in Western Europe. Nor has the “Tartar” sauce with pickles anything to do with the Tatar national food. Also, in contrast to Eastern countries, we eat with spoons and forks, not with hands.

Russian cuisine derives its rich and varied character from the vast and multi-cultural expanse of Russia. Its foundations were laid by the peasant food of the rural population in an often harsh climate, with a combination of plentiful fish, poultry, game, mushrooms, berries, and honey. Crops of rye, wheat, barley, and millet provided the ingredients for a plethora of breads, pancakes, cereals, kvass, beer, and vodka. Soups and stews full of flavor are centered on seasonal or storable produce, fish, and meats. This wholly native food remained the staple for the vast majority of Russians well into the 20th century.

From the time of Catherine the Great, every family of influence imported both the products and personnel — mainly French and Austrian — to bring the finest, rarest, and most creative foods to their table. This is nowhere more evident than in the exciting, elegant, highly nuanced, and decadent repertoire of the Franco-Russian chef. Many of the foods that are considered in the West to be traditionally Russian actually come from the Franco-Russian cuisine of the 18th and 19th centuries, and include such widespread dishes as Veal Orloff, Beef Stroganoff, and Chicken Kiev.

SOUVENIRS

A popular souvenir is an embroidered men’s hat, called tyubeteika (in a style differing from central Asian hats). The works of Kazan embroiderers and jewelers were famous throughout Rus` in ancient times and made up a significant part of the Kazan Khanate’s exports. There existed two main forms of the Tatar “tyubeteika”, the hemispherical “takyya” and the “kalyapush”, in the form of a truncated cone. The takyya, sewn from separate triangular sections, is the more ancient form. Researchers trace it to the headwear worn beneath the helmets of ancient warriors. The kalyapush with its stiff sides and flat top appeared in the middle of the nineteenth century and is popular to this day. There are both monotone and embroidered tyubeteika hats. The kalyapush form was made from velvet and embroidered with silk thread, with gold or silver details, and later with pearl and beads. You can buy an expensive tyubeteika covered in delicate hand embroidering, or a more modest and inexpensive one.

Women’s traditional Tatar hat, kalfak, is worn with a special decorative clasp. It has the conical tufted crest worn to one side or behind. Large round earrings are of the most well preserved elements of Tatar women’s clothing. Girls start wearing them at the age of three or four and continue into old age.

Other popular souvenirs include:

· A piala (a handleless china teacup) with Kazan images.

· Fake ancient Bulgar coins.

· Remarkable, though not cheap, boots sewn in the city of Arsk outside Kazan. The boots are made of a mosaic of colored leather, and wearing them, you’ll feel like Ivan Tsarevitch, the hero of Russian fairy tales. The boots are in fact quite practical for equestrians.

· Commemorative coins and medallions for the millennium of Kazan.

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