Russia's cold winters give little chance for a year-round bounty of plant food, and the culture's signature dishes, from borshch in winter, to summer shashliks, feature meat more often than garnish with it. But, in the motherland of campaigning vegetarian Lev Tolstoy, a country in which mushroom-hunting could almost be called a sport, vegetarians survive in the cosmopolitan capital in their own way.
"About five to ten percent of Muscovites are vegetarians, a rather large number," said Daman, art director for Moscow's all-vegetarian, pro-health restaurant and store Jagganath, which maintains the websites www.vegetarian.ru and www.vegan.ru. He told The Moscow News that vegetarianism is currently widespread among Moscow's intellectual young adults.
Indeed, speaking to Moscow vegetarians, it can sometimes seem that the entire city is ready to keep meat off their plates. Muscovites react "well!" to vegetarianism, said Tatiana on behalf of vegetarian café Avocado. Only about 30 percent of her clients are vegetarians, she told The Moscow News, while those who don't mind some fowl in their feed eat at the café because "they are curious."
But aside from at Moscow's vegetarian restaurants Jagganath, Avocado and Café Ganga, a vegetarian in the capital can sometimes feel not so welcome. While restaurant menus usually include meatless salads or side dishes, not ordering a meaty main dish can earn looks of dissatisfaction from the waitstaff. Moscow currently lacks a strong, unified vegetarian society to promote recognition of the diet on this level. "The government does not at all financially support vegetarian societies or restaurants," Daman explained. "There is no structure that could help, so consequently it is very difficult. Most of the money a restaurant takes in is from alcohol, and vegetarian restaurants, which promote health and well-being, usually do not serve alcohol. Also, in Moscow fruits and vegetables are expensive."
Georgian restaurants, with their wealth of beans, nuts and vegetables, continue to be Moscow's vegetarian magnets that will please meat-eating partners, too, and the Russian Orthodox Lenten period in the spring remains a vegetarian's time to go restaurant-hopping, although be aware that Lenten dishes often include fish.
Cooking for yourself is a safe bet for any diet, although some may be disappointed at Moscow's availability of the West's so-called vegetarian staples, such as soy foods. Only the capital's elite and specialty stores stock these groceries regularly, and usually, at a biting price. "Many of the protein substitutes that I would resort to in the U.S. are not as common in Moscow," Paige, a vegetarian from the US, told The Moscow News. For vegans basing their diets around a significant quantity of nuts and legumes, cost and limited selection of these foods present real challenges.
Moscow's grocery selection does not, however, seem to bother those vegetarians who have long been accustomed to it. Igor, a Moscow vegetarian of 16 years, said: "A vegetarian does not have any trouble getting quality food to eat here. Supermarkets are filled with everything we need: cheese, milk, etc."
While vegetarians in the West often have particular concepts of the health of their diet, and thus may less easily adapt to the food selection in Moscow, Daman commented that health is not one of the prime motivating factors for Muscovites to choose vegetarianism. He sees that most choose it for spiritual and ethical reasons, and fashion is also a motivation, although the trend has fallen off.
In general, vegetarianism will generally make you a cheap date here: in the average restaurant, veggie-based dishes are not garnished with soy, nuts or rarer fruits and vegetables, so they almost always cost less than meat-based ones. That said, at the limited selection in many street kiosks, your omnivorous partner might get to fill up, while you find yourself without. ■
By Alisa Ballard
