Soviet Foodies

One of the stranger things Soviet people like to eat was plain pasta that would be boiled within an inch of its life, washed under a tap, and sprinkled with sugar to make a combined main course and dessert. My family was never as poor as all that so I didn’t get to eat this particular dish but it sounds disgusting, especially knowing the quality of Soviet pasta and the pasta-washing practices that were used.

4 thoughts on “Soviet Foodies

  1. I have been poor in the former USSR (Kyrgyzstan) and eaten a lot of makaron. My wife never put sugar on it and it was always fried. Usually she served it with ketchup. So actually not too distant from what you describe. It is perfectly edible. But, it isn’t going to win any Hipster food awards.

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  2. My mother remembered how, as a child living here in America after being in a Japanese prison camp in China, how a treat would be bacon fat on regular bread. She also never ate anything she didn’t like, no matter what, after she and her family were released from the camp after the Japanese surrendered to the Allies.

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  3. ” Soviet people like to eat was plain pasta ”

    I asked a friend if something like this existed in Poland and they said sort of. That is people might add butter and/or cream (or cottage cheese) with sugar to pasta but not plain sugar to washed pasta (it does sound gross).

    Once in the countryside I had a Friday main course that was fresh made egg noodles with a simple sauce that was butter and sweetcream slowly cooked together in a frying pan for about twenty minutes (it’s tiresome to make because you have to stir the whole time). It was amazing.

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