When people think of Russian food they generally think either of opulent luxury, signified above all by caviar, or of poverty and hunger – of cabbage and potatoes and porridge. Both of these visions have a basis in reality, but both of them are incomplete. The history of food and drink in Russia includes hunger and it includes plenty, it includes scarcity and, for some, at least, abundance. It includes dishes that came out of the northern, forested regions and ones that incorporate foods from the wider Russian Empire and later from the Soviet Union. Cabbage and Caviar places Russian food and drink in the context of Russian history, and shows off the incredible (and largely unknown) variety of Russian food.
