Food Trends

Moscow's ultimate comfort food: gossamer-thin dough parcels packed with minced beef, pork and onion, boiled until they bob to the surface, then crowned with melting butter, a generous spoon of sour cream and fresh black pepper. Endlessly shareable and beloved year-round.

The crimson icon of the Russian table: beetroot simmered with beef, cabbage, carrot and potato into a deep, sweet-sour broth. Served scalding with a glossy swirl of smetana, chopped dill and a clove of garlic rubbed onto warm dark rye bread.

Wafer-thin wheat pancakes folded around sweet or savoury fillings. Muscovites love them with sour cream and red salmon caviar, or stuffed with cottage cheese, mushrooms or jam. A street and cafe staple, peaking during the riotous Maslenitsa pancake week.

Invented at Moscow's Hermitage restaurant in the 1860s, this beloved salad heaps diced potato, egg, carrot, peas, pickles and chicken or bologna into a rich mayonnaise bind. The non-negotiable centrepiece of every New Year's table across the city.

Born in 19th-century St Petersburg but a Moscow restaurant fixture, tender strips of beef are seared with onions and mushrooms, then folded into a velvety sour-cream sauce sharpened with mustard and paprika. Usually served over crisp potato straws or buttered rice.

Moscow's runaway Georgian obsession: a boat of pillowy bread filled with molten suluguni and imeretian cheese, topped with a raw egg yolk and a pat of butter. You tear off the crusty edges and swirl them through the bubbling cheese.

Golden pan-fried cottage-cheese fritters, crisp at the edges and creamy within, dusted with sugar and served with sour cream, condensed milk, honey or berry jam. The defining Moscow breakfast and a comforting all-day cafe dessert across the city.

Caucasus-style skewers of marinated pork, lamb or chicken grilled over coals until smoky and charred at the edges, served with raw onion rings, fresh herbs, lavash flatbread and tangy tomato or plum sauce. The undisputed star of Moscow's summer dacha cookouts.

Plump hand-held buns, baked or fried until burnished, stuffed with cabbage, potato, minced meat, egg-and-rice or sweet apple. Sold from street kiosks and bakery counters across Moscow, they are the city's most beloved grab-and-go snack on a cold day.

Soft half-moon dumplings pleated around sweet-tart cherries, boiled until plump and served swimming in their own ruby juices with cold sour cream and a dusting of sugar. A nostalgic dessert that trending Moscow cafes are reviving with seasonal fruit.