Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
self, was dedicated to her 10 children, to the Orthodox Church, and to her inex-
perienced 'female compatriots' who might need assistance keeping their homes
running smoothly.
This topic was reprinted 28 times between 1861 and 1914, and Molokhovets
added new recipes and helpful hints to each new edition. The last edition in-
cluded literally thousands of recipes, as well as pointers on how to organise an
efficient kitchen, how to set a proper table and how to clean a cast-iron pot.
Molokhovets received an enormously positive response from readers who
credited her with no less than preserving their family life. The popular perception
of the time was that a wife's primary responsibility was to keep her family togeth-
er, and keeping her husband well fed seemed to be the key. As one reader
wrote, 'a good kitchen is…not an object of luxury. It is a token of the health and
well-being of the family, upon which all the remaining conditions of life depend'.
Molokhovets included some of these letters in later editions as testimony to her
work.
The classic cookbook was never reprinted during the Soviet period. The de-
tails of sumptuous dishes and fine table settings - let alone questions of
etiquette and style - would certainly have been considered bourgeois by the
Soviet regime. Yet still, copies of this ancient tome survived, passed down from
mother to daughter like a family heirloom. Today, the topic reads not only as a
cookbook, but also as a lesson in history and sociology.
INTERNA
INTERNATIONAL
TIONAL
KOMPOT CAFÉ €€
R200-600; Ploshchad Vosstaniya; )
This stylish new restaurant has three dif-
ferent rooms decked out in thoroughly different stylish decors (though it remains un-
mistakably Russian, as evidenced by the giant TV in the main room). There's a great
menu, which stretches from breakfasts served all day long to soups, sandwiches, pies
