Srazis are little rolled strips of mutton with forcemeat inside fried in butter. 3 82 Tthe Gourmets Guide to Europe In England Blinis make their appearance with caviare at dinners at all times of the year, and I fancy that most Anglo-Saxons think that they are a Russian sub- stitute for our crumpets. This is what an English- man resident in Russia writes to me on the subject: “Blinis are not only eaten at Cubat’s and the Ermitage, but they are eaten in dozens and thousands of dozens all over orthodox Russia, from the Winter Palace to the most humble house — but they are eaten only during one week of the year, Carnival week, the week preceding Lent. Blinis are not like crumpets. They are in fact nothing but American buck-wheat cakes, about the same shape and weight, if anything a little lighter. They are made of wheat and of buck-wheat, and are eaten with hot melted butter, smetana (thick sour cream) and fresh caviare. There are also fancy blinis with whitebait, onions, carrots, baked into the paste. In one shape or another they are devoured by all the millions of Russians twice a day for a week. The merchants, who are still a special 4 caste ’ in Russia, make it a point to eat as many as possible, and manage to swallow several dozen at a sitting.” As a contrast, let me give you an extract from an article by Miss Insley which appeared in the Daily Mail, , under the heading of 44 Everyday Life in Russia,” and which describes a family dinner in a Russian country house, and the menu of a dinner given by Count Lamsdorff at the St. Petersburg Foreign Office. The Count evidently kept a French chef, and the dinner is curiously cosmopolitan in its composition. Huitres d’ Ostende. Consomme au fumet de truffes. Petits pates. Homards a la “ Hohenzollern.” Russia 383 Selle d’agneau garnie. Parfait de foie gras au Champagne. Punch : melon et cassis. Faisans de Boheme a la broche flanques d’ ortolans rotis. Salade laitue et concombres frais. Asperges d’Argenteuil, Sauce Mousseline. Duchesses a la Parisienne. Bombes glacees. Fromages. Dessert. The excellent gourmet who sent me the above menu comments thus on the Parfait de foie gras au Cham- pagne : “The essence of this dish is to have an abundance of the wine jelly well iced in waves all round the foie gras.” This is the extract from Miss Insley’s article: “We do not have the ‘zakousky’ so familiar in stories of Russian life, but which I have learned only to expect at Russian dinner-parties. Here we begin with soup, having with it a tiny hot scone with chopped meat inside. The soup, instead of the usual cabbage soup, is made of beets, and there is thick sour cream for it. The Russian duck is very tender and toothsome with pickled cherries ; the potatoes bear signs of having been frost-bitten ; there is a plate of crumbled green cheese into which the Countess puts a slice of black bread and butter, butter side downwards, and passes the plate on to her brother, who serves himself in the same way ; and there is a big decanter of red kvas for all who want it. After the duck there are veal cutlets. For the sweets we have a concoction which looks like treacle, and which is made of the stewed juices of various fruits.”

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Srazis are little rolled strips of mutton with forcemeat inside fried in butter. 382 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe In England Blinis make their appearance with caviare at dinners at all times of the year, and I fancy that most Anglo-Saxons think that they are a Russian substitute for our crumpets. This is what an Englishman resident in Russia writes to me on the subject: “Blinis are not only eaten at Cubat’s and the Ermitage, but they are eaten in dozens and thousands of dozens all over orthodox Russia, from the Winter Palace to the most humble house — but they are eaten only during one week of the year, Carnival week, the week preceding Lent. Blinis are not like crumpets. They are in fact nothing but American buck-wheat cakes, about the same shape and weight, if anything a little lighter. They are made of wheat and of buck-wheat, and are eaten with hot melted butter, smetana (thick sour cream) and fresh caviare. There are also fancy blinis with whitebait, onions, carrots, baked into the paste. In one shape or another they are devoured by all the millions of Russians twice a day for a week. The merchants, who are still a special 4 caste ’ in Russia, make it a point to eat as many as possible, and manage to swallow several dozen at a sitting.” As a contrast, let me give you an extract from an article by Miss Insley which appeared in the Daily Mail, , under the heading of 44 Everyday Life in Russia,” and which describes a family dinner in a Russian country house, and the menu of a dinner given by Count Lamsdorff at the St. Petersburg Foreign Office. The Count evidently kept a French chef, and the dinner is curiously cosmopolitan in its composition. Huitres d’ Ostende. Consomme au fumet de truffes. Petits pates. Homards a la “ Hohenzollern.” Russia 383 Selle d’agneau garnie. Parfait de foie gras au Champagne. Punch : melon et cassis. Faisans de Boheme a la broche flanques d’ ortolans rotis. Salade laitue et concombres frais. Asperges d’Argenteuil, Sauce Mousseline. Duchesses a la Parisienne. Bombes glacees. Fromages. Dessert. The excellent gourmet who sent me the above menu comments thus on the Parfait de foie gras au Champagne : “The essence of this dish is to have an abundance of the wine jelly well iced in waves all round the foie gras.” This is the extract from Miss Insley’s article: “We do not have the ‘zakousky’ so familiar in stories of Russian life, but which I have learned only to expect at Russian dinner-parties. Here we begin with soup, having with it a tiny hot scone with chopped meat inside. The soup, instead of the usual cabbage soup, is made of beets, and there is thick sour cream for it. The Russian duck is very tender and toothsome with pickled cherries ; the potatoes bear signs of having been frost-bitten ; there is a plate of crumbled green cheese into which the Countess puts a slice of black bread and butter, butter side downwards, and passes the plate on to her brother, who serves himself in the same way ; and there is a big decanter of red kvas for all who want it. After the duck there are veal cutlets. For the sweets we have a concoction which looks like treacle, and which is made of the stewed juices of various fruits.”

The gourmet's guide to Europe