The integration of Russian cuisine to the Czech culture

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How Russian food found its niche in Prague

Mumiy Troll’s ‘Dolphins’ was playing on the radio when a young lady with blond hair called out the next order. “Siberian pelmeni on the counter!” She put a white bowl filled with steamy Russian dumplings on the counter when a man approached to take the tasty dish to his seat.

This is Pelmeňárna bistro, with a menu consisting of Russian dumplings or pelmeni, Russian vareniki (dough filled with either mashed potatoes, mushrooms, sweet cottage cheese or cherries), and other dishes with a Russian background.

The owners are a married couple, who came up with an idea in 2015. “Both me and my husband loved and ate pelmeni since we can remember,” says the co-owner of the bistro Olga. “And now our kids are willing to eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” she says with a smile, “it’s the Russian spirit in them, I guess.”

Located in the center of New Town of Prague, Pelmeňárna is one of many restaurants in Prague where Russian food is served to both locals and Russian expats.

The so-called ‘Russian Invasion’ started at the beginning of the 20th century when first workers and students moved to the Czech Republic from than the Russian Empire. With time Russian immigrants were followed by those from other USSR countries: Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and others.

And with people came their culture, and traditions, and, most importantly, food.

Now, after the first immigrants have integrated into the Czech society, they still carry the knowledge of their traditional cuisine with them and pass it through generations.

Saskia Litvinova, a 22-year-old business woman says, “My father is Russian, but was born in Osh city on the south of Kyrgyzstan. He moved here as a student and met my mother, who also has Russian roots. Ever since I can remember myself, they were cooking Russian food like borsch, pelmeni, holodets.”

Litvinova is the owner of a pastry bar in Prague. Two of the branches are located in Zličín and Černý Most shopping malls and became popular shortly after opening at the beginning of 2018. “We sell waffles, Russian pancakes, hot beverages, and many other things. The waffles are based on my grandma’s recipe. They remind me of childhood,” says Saskia. “We have a lot of Russian speaking tourists who come over to get a waffle or a pancake, they say it is great they can eat familiar food while traveling,” she adds.

Russian culture has integrated into the Czech society long before communism, but with the beginning of the totalitarian regime, certain cultural aspects like food took a secure place in the everyday life of Prague.

Today Russians are the fourth foreign minority in the Czech Republic, after Vietnamese, Slovaks, and Ukrainians. From the 2000s their number rose from 22,000 to 38,000.

“The contingent consists of predominantly Russian speakers, not only Russians but everyone from post-USSR countries.,” says Olga, owner of the Pelmeňárna bistro. “So far, people from Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Uzbekistan are our usual customers. We talk a lot about our countries and can easily spend our just talking about the differences between our and Czech food.” Olga adds, “Every day we create our little society of pelmeni lovers here. I guess we all just miss our food.”

One of the first grocery stores with predominantly Russian food was opened in the mid-‘90s, and was located not far from the National Museum, yet was closed due to the rising competition.

Another big food market was opened in Libeň in 2016, but operated for a little more than six months, before closing due to the lack of customers.

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Anna Slamarenko, a cashier in ‘Lastochka’ grocery shop at Mustek metro station says, “That huge market in Libeň even had self-checkout desks, and the prices there were cheaper than in any Russian store in Prague. They actually were retailers and supplied most of the stores with products.”

Apparently, the store was not popular not only because of its location, but because customers never had a chance to talk about their life with the cashiers. “Since we are at the metro station, we have customers every day. They go to or off work and come in, sometimes just for a chat, ” adds Anna.

“The competition has been strong in recent years,” says Olesya Rudneva, the manager of one of the most popular Russian grocery stores in Prague. “We have opened here at Bubenečská six years ago. Back then we only knew about a few Russian restaurants here at Hradčanská, now, not only restaurants but more shops were opened on Dejvická, not far from us.”

Rudneva adds that they are not afraid of quitting the market, “Every store usually specializes in something specific. Some stores have a bigger selection of alcohol, some have more semi-cooked food, some have sweets. We are relatively small, so we have a little of everything.”

“So many Russian speakers live at Hradčanská or in nearby areas, we know our customers and often talk about this and that,” she adds while unpacking a honey cake.

At that moment a man enters the store, and immediately starts a basic conversation with Olesya, like if they have known each other for long. He says that his dog is finally feeling better and that he actually came to buy her a liver sausage, after all, Tina (the dog) has been a good girl.

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