In our opinion: how to lay the New Year's table

New Year for all Russian speakers in the USA remains the main holiday of the year, although for Americans it is traditionally Christmas. When setting the New Year's table, we remember our favorite recipes from childhood and invite our closest people to visit - after all, everything should be like at home. “Forum” has prepared tips on how to set a festive table, and has compiled a list of dishes without which the New Year would not be the New Year.

Olivie

Traditionally, the main character of the New Year's table is everyone's favorite Olivier salad. The author of this festive dish is the Frenchman Lucien Olivier, who in the 60s of the XNUMXth century ran the Hermitage restaurant of Parisian cuisine in Moscow. True, not much remained of Monsieur Olivier’s original recipe in the salad - the obligatory ingredients for the French chef were hazel grouse, crayfish tails and capers. In Soviet times, the salad recipe changed a lot - boiled sausage replaced hazel grouse, and pickles replaced capers. But it was the Soviet version of this dish that became the people's symbol of the New Year.

In 2009, the Russian newspaper Trud introduced the so-called “Olivier index”, which, by analogy with the well-known and accepted in economic theory “Big Mac index”, determines the level of inflation in consumer prices for food products. The publication's journalists claim that the Olivier index reflects the inflation rate much more plausibly than Rosstat data.

Katerina Boyko, a Ukrainian who has lived in New York for more than ten years, every year gathers a full house of guests on New Year's Eve. A festive table is never complete without your favorite Olivier salad. Katerina believes that the secret to the perfect Olivier salad is good sausage and the right green peas. “The sausage must be fresh and of excellent quality. “I always ask to try the sausage in the store and choose the best,” says Katerina. “It’s best to buy “our” peas, they are not as sweet as American ones. And if boiled sausage can, for example, be replaced with Italian bologna or boiled chicken, then I always go to a Russian store for peas.”

See also: Рratings of Russian stores New York и Miami.

Herring under the fur coat

According to a sociological survey conducted by the Russian BBC news service, herring under a fur coat is one of the top three in the ranking of symbols of the New Year, after Olivier salad and tangerines. Herring under a fur coat is a very Russian salad; for representatives of other nations it is an extremely unusual dish. In American rankings of the strangest Russian food, it is herring under a fur coat that always confidently takes the leading position.

Here, for example, is a video that shows how Americans try this salad for the first time.

This salad most likely came to us from Jewish cuisine. However, there is also a legend about its revolutionary origin: they say that herring in a salad symbolizes the proletariat, and vegetables symbolize the peasantry.

The main ingredient of the salad, of course, is herring. How to choose the herring, says Fedor Pinchukov, the owner of the popular in the US online store of Russian products Russian Food Direct: “Herring can be bought by weight or packaged by the manufacturer. If you take loose herring, you can evaluate its appearance, smell, and sometimes taste. The herring carcass should be elastic and firm, and there should be no damage or stains on the skin. If you choose packaged herring, it is better to take the one in a glass or plastic jar - thanks to the transparent packaging you can appreciate its appearance. Pay attention to the scales - they should be free of red spots caused by fat oxidation. And this is not only a surface defect - if there are rusty spots on the skin, then the fish inside is also damaged. I advise you to pay attention to such herring producers as TM "Mathias" and "Kaija" “Their products have proven themselves to be high quality and tasty.”

sprat

Sprats were an invariable attribute of any Soviet holiday table, including New Year's. We all remember sandwiches made from crispy toasted bread with delicious fish. These canned foods were and remain so popular that in the city of Mamonovo, Kaliningrad region, where a large fish canning plant is located, a monument to sprats was unveiled - in the form of a bronze tin can with sprats jumping out of it.

Interestingly, there is a winter and summer version of sprats in the jar. In summer, when the fish lives in warm water, moves less and accumulates more fat, they put it in a tin can with a beautiful belly up. In winter, when the fish has to move more and it loses weight, it is put back up in a jar.

Sprat can, of course, be found in American stores. But if you intend to set the traditional Russian New Year's table according to all the rules, you cannot do without the canonical Latvian sprats, which you will have to go to the Russian shop for. Even if there is no such store in your city, online stores deliver throughout the United States.

See also: Rating of Russian online stores in the USA.

Caviar

Perhaps the most expensive and sophisticated attribute of the New Year's table can be called red caviar. Of course, very few could allow themselves to spawn in Soviet times. But even today, when caviar is commercially available, it remains an expensive delicacy product.

Topics However, a crunchy white bread sandwich with delicious butter and eggs, which, as the heroine of the film “Man Overboard” said, burst in the language at the same time and precisely at the right moment, has already become a New Year's tradition.

Fyodor Pinchukov advises when choosing red caviar to carefully read the information on the packaging: “First of all, you should check the dates of production and sale of the product. Fish of the salmon family go to spawn from July to September, therefore, high-quality caviar should be prepared no later than October. You should never buy caviar if the jar is damaged or deformed; this may affect the preservation of the quality of the caviar in the jar. When turning the package over, the caviar should not “gurgle” - air bubbles indicate that the consistency of the product is too liquid. It is also worth paying attention to the list of ingredients. In good caviar there will be no more than three or four of them: the caviar itself (the exact fish must be indicated), salt and one (maximum two) preservative.”

Tangerines

Tangerines are another symbol of the New Year. They were almost the only delicacy available to Soviet people in winter - tangerines ripened in Abkhazia in December and were delivered across the vast expanses of their homeland. It is with the smell of tangerines that many generations of our people associate the New Year.

Mandarins do an excellent job with the function of decorating a festive table. Photo: pixabay.com

Mandarins are a symbol of the New Year not only with us. In China, this fruit symbolizes gold, wealth and wealth. It was with the tangerines that the guests came to the New Year's celebration, as if wishing the wealth of the owners of the house in the new year. By the way, and Feng Shui Mandarin must be on the New Year's table.

Beverages

No holiday table is complete without alcoholic beverages. The main drinks of the New Year's feast are considered champagne and vodka.

Champagne is a faithful companion to the chiming clock, the countdown to the New Year and the presidential speech. Once upon a time, the choice was not particularly large - “Soviet champagne” was on every New Year’s table. Today the choice is huge - you can buy anything: from brut to red champagne.

Champagne has become a necessary attribute of such a New Year's ritual as making a wish. People want to believe in a miracle and that the most cherished wish of this magical New Year's Eve must come true in the new year. There are a great many ways to make a wish. But the most popular one is associated with champagne - you need to write down a wish on a piece of paper, burn it as the chimes strike, throw the remaining ashes into a glass of champagne and drink it exactly at midnight.

Vodka is a traditionally masculine drink. A moderate amount of high-quality vodka on New Year's Eve will not turn the first day of the new year into a complete headache. If our parents, most likely, were not puzzled by the choice of vodka for the New Year's table, then we are faced with a really difficult choice. In the USA you can find vodka of any brand - for example, the giant of the Ukrainian alcohol industry, which ranks third in the world vodka market, recently entered the American vodka market, the trademark “Khortytsya”. The company not only sells, but also produces alcohol in the USA - in 2013, the first batch of vodka was released at one of the Michigan factories. The products of TM “Khortytsya” (Khortytsya DeLuxe, Khortytsya Ice and Khortytsya Platinum vodkas) have occupied the highest positions in international and American tasting competitions for many years in a row. This year "Khortytsia” was awarded the highest awards by experts at the international tasting competition Ultimate Spirits Challenge 2015, held in New York (they have received this award for the third year in a row). Previously, the products of this brand received the highest awards of the International Tasting Competition in San Francisco, was recognized as the “best purchase in terms of price-quality ratio” by the Chicago Testing Institute.

While men prefer pure vodka with a good snack, women can enjoy it in cocktails. Vodka will be an excellent basis for many cocktails due to its strength, transparency and good taste compatibility with other drinks. The most famous cocktails based on vodka are the classic “Bloody Mary” and the banal “Screwdriver”, but with this drink you can make more sophisticated options. It is with vodka that they make a tender cocktail “White Russian”, coffee “Black Russian”, famous “Cosmopolitan”. Vodka goes well with juices, so the choice of fruit and berry cocktails based on it is truly limitless.

Professional bartender at work. Photo: from the personal archive of Igor Zukovets

Igor Zukovets, bartender of the Khortitsa TM, says that vodka is the best alcoholic drink for creating cocktails, since the flavor range of the resulting drinks is very wide - from light aperitif cocktails to richer and brighter flavor options. Vodka goes with almost everything - it goes great with tonic water, fruit juices and even egg whites. But be careful when mixing vodka with other alcoholic drinks - there is no point in combining it, for example, with whiskey, rum or tequila. On the other hand, vodka goes well with gin. There is even a classic cocktail based on this combination - The Vesper cocktail from the James Bond film Casino Royale. The Moscow Mule cocktail is now the most popular among Igor’s clients, and the bartender himself loves this combination. But the fashion for cocktails is short-lived - until recently, the Cosmopolitan was the public’s favorite.

The recipes of these and other cocktails can be viewed at Khortitsa website.

Decor

Once you've taken care of the food and drinks, don't forget about the festive table decorations. You can make a table beautiful yourself using improvised means. An elegant tablecloth and beautiful napkins, exquisite dishes and festive candles will create a unique atmosphere for your holiday. Add exactly the New Year's mood to the festive table - put tangerines on the table, with twigs and leaves or wrapped in multi-colored foil; Instead of flowers for decoration, you can use spruce branches decorated with pine cones or small Christmas tree decorations.

A great idea for parents is to have your kids make personalized cards for guests. They will clearly enjoy such special attention from the youngest members of the family, and it will be much easier for you to set the festive table and prepare for the arrival of guests if the children are busy with important and interesting things at this time.

If you believe in the eastern horoscope, then do not forget that the coming 2016 will be the year of the monkey. Monkeys love juicy fresh fruits and vegetables - please your monkey with fresh salads and his favorite bananas, and he will definitely bring you good luck in the new year.