Five metropolitan chefs: “What is the best way to eat on the train?” (adviсe). What food to take on the train, and which one is better to refuse What food to take on the train

What are people doing on the train? Do they play cards, read, open their hearts to their neighbors, or just look out the window? Of course, all this can dispel road boredom, but one of the main entertainments is food. In the first couple of hours of the road, fried chicken, boiled eggs, and cucumbers are laid out on the folding table. The foil rustles, the soda gurgles... A traditional meal on the train. What can you add to this list? Or is it better to cross out something?

Food on the train must meet several parameters: be resistant to heat and storage without refrigeration, not get dirty or smell strongly, be convenient to eat, be tasty when cold and, of course, be nutritious, like any food.

What products can I take?

chicken. What would it be like without her? You can grill the chops or fry them with a little oil, but add more pepper - it slightly extends the life of the meat in the heat. And the chops can be placed on bread - very convenient.
boiled meat. Better veal. You can use mustard, it will also extend the shelf life by a couple of hours.
potato. It can last a day or even two. Everyone makes boiled potatoes in their jackets, but in fact, potatoes baked in their skins are stored better. Just bake it without oil, and you can add salt on the train.
boiled eggs. They, of course, have a specific smell, but almost everyone takes them - so there will be no complaints from neighbors. To preserve them longer, eggs can be boiled for more than half an hour, like at Easter.
cucumbers Both fresh and lightly salted.
bread. Yeast-free does not go stale for a long time, just wrap it in paper or foil, and not in a bag, then it will not become moldy. A good option is thin pita bread. You can wrap meat in it so as not to get dirty when eating.
smoked sausage. It can last until the second day, but only raw smoked. It is best to take the slices in vacuum packaging.
cheese. Melted lays well. - children's vegetable purees and meat pates. They last longer than regular vegetables and meat, and adults also like the taste.
nuts and dried fruits. But only dried fruits must be washed thoroughly.
if the trip is expected to be long, then you cannot do without a supply of instant cereals, various cereals and soups from a package.
water. Plain unsweetened water and fruit juices are best. Because sweet soda makes you want to drink even more.

Dishes

Of course, one-time use. Nowadays there is a large selection of paper and plastic plates and cutlery in stores. But plastic cups for trains are not very convenient - they fall off the tables when braking. So it’s better to take unbreakable mugs, metal ones, for example.

You can use a set of plastic containers in which you packed food as utensils. You can also serve food in them, and use the lids for slicing.

Do not forget!

jackknife
wet wipes
paper towels (they can be used both as napkins and tablecloths)
hand sanitizer
activated charcoal, some medications for the disorder and poisoning. Just in case.

What is better not to take?

tomatoes. They are easy to get dirty and can be crushed during transportation.
Boiled sausages and deli meats. They will only “stand” for the first few hours, and then there is a danger of poisoning.
chocolate and candies. They will melt and stain everything around. The only exception is chocolate dragees with colored glaze, those that do not melt in your hands.
You need to be careful with dairy products. They spoil very quickly on the train. Therefore, it is better to buy them in long parking lots and eat them right away.

How to preserve food longer on a train?

It's hot and there's little air - food on a train seems to spoil much faster than just in a kitchen without a refrigerator. To preserve it longer, you can take a regular thermal bag. And the cold accumulator is a plastic sealed box with a bluish liquid inside. It should be frozen in the freezer and placed in a thermal bag or cooler bag. This battery can store frozen food for about 5 hours in a tightly closed thermal bag. So you can count on 7-8 hours of cool atmosphere in a thermal package. After this time, it is better to eat perishable foods.

Use less plastic bags and more foil or wrapping paper for food packaging. Then the products will not suffocate.

The Russian Railways company takes care of its passengers and, as a rule, includes guaranteed meals in the price of a train ticket. Also, each passenger can order an additional meal service with a more varied menu. We will tell you what is included in a standard prepaid meal and how much breakfast, lunch and dinner cost on the train.

Russian Railways standard food: what is included?

Guaranteed meals on a Russian Railways long-distance train consist of standard breakfasts, business lunches and dinners. The service is paid for immediately when purchasing a train ticket.

Food is prepared for the carrier by factory kitchens that work under an outsourcing agreement. They supply ready-made meals directly to passenger trains at the request of Russian Railways. All food is packaged in special protective containers, which ensure its freshness and safety.

Lunch, dinner and breakfast can be ordered in the compartment or received in the dining car.

What the passenger will be offered - a hot breakfast or dinner - depends on the duration of the trip, as well as the time of departure and arrival of the train. If the duration of the trip exceeds 24 hours, the passenger is provided with lunch.

Breakfast and dinner are served on trains at certain times: breakfast - from 7:00 to 10:00, dinner - from 16:00 to 21:00. If the ticket price includes lunch, it is served from 11:00 to 15:00. Along with the standard guaranteed meals, passengers can receive free mineral water, cutlery, cutlery and paper napkins.

The Russian Railways guaranteed food menu is updated periodically.

Standard breakfast in the compartment

The passenger can choose one of two options for a prepaid standard breakfast:

With hot porridge

Two types of milk porridge are offered - as a rule, oatmeal or rice with dried apricots. Additionally, they will offer sliced cheese, rye and wheat bread, tea, coffee and cream.

With an omelette

This option includes a hot omelette with vegetables and cheese, as well as cold cuts and bread (wheat, rye). You will be offered a choice of black tea or coffee with cream (served separately).

The standard breakfast on a Russian Railways train is an omelette or milk porridge with fruit.

Standard lunch in a compartment

A standard lunch on a Russian Railways train also includes two options:

Used cabbage salad with herbs, chicken noodle soup, stewed pork with vegetables, boiled rice. Confectionery product, white and rye bread. For hot drinks, you can choose tea or coffee with cream.
“Vitamin” salad, cabbage soup with chicken and sour cream, fried chicken, boiled pasta. Confectionery product, white or rye bread. Hot drinks include tea or coffee with cream.

A standard business lunch consists of three courses: salad, soup and main course.

Standard dinner in a compartment

A passenger can choose one of two options for dinner on a Russian Railways train:

Carrot salad with apple and sour cream, chicken fillet stewed in cream sauce, buckwheat porridge. Confectionery, rye and wheat bread, tea or coffee.
Wild cabbage salad with cucumber, boiled sausage with mashed potatoes. Confectionery, rye and wheat bread, tea or coffee.

In business class carriages, the menu additionally includes dessert, 3 types of soft drinks, 2 types of mineral water, 6 types of alcoholic beverages, 2 types each, and 2 types of beer.

A standard dinner on a Russian Railways train consists of two courses, with a choice of tea or coffee.

Where can I find out about standard prepaid meals?

If you buy a train ticket, you immediately pay for standard meals. However, it can be changed to something else. You can select the type of menu 72 hours before the departure of the train through your personal account on the official website of Russian Railways. You can choose your meal plan for the Sapsan and Lastochka trains no later than 48 hours before the train’s departure.

How to choose a power type:

go to your personal account and click on the link “Meals: Breakfast-Standard”;
indicate the type of menu you need.

You can order food from the conductor immediately after boarding the train.

Russian Railways additional meal service: what is it?

Additional meals are ordered for the entire duration of the flight. It can be issued at ticket offices or on the Russian Railways website, as well as on the way from the conductor. You can place an order for additional meals at the railway ticket office with a previously purchased ticket, but no later than 3 days before the train’s departure. If you order additional meals from the conductor, the menu selection may be limited.

There are three power modes to choose from:

full board (breakfast, lunch, dinner);
half board (breakfast, dinner);
only breakfast or lunch or dinner, with a choice from the menu.

The menu includes a variety of dishes, including vegetarian and for children. The number of food rations required by a passenger for the entire route is calculated automatically based on the number of days of travel on the train.

When purchasing an additional meal service, the passenger determines the meal plan independently.

Cost of food on a Russian Railways train

Guaranteed meals are immediately included in the price of the train ticket. You can refuse it before paying for the travel document.

Additional meals are paid separately. The cost depends on the type of carriage and menu. You can cancel the service at the ticket office or on the Russian Railways website a maximum of 24 hours before the train’s departure. When canceling the additional meal service or ordering a new service, no commission fee is charged from the passenger.

The train is one of the most interesting inventions. And everyone at least once had to go on a long journey on it. For example on .

If you are going to travel by rail, you will definitely want to eat. But this is not so easy to do: there is no refrigerator, and sanitary standards are also not at the highest level. Who touched the table, windows or seat before you - only God knows. However, a traditional meal on a train can be delicious and not harmful to your health. We recommend that you adhere to a number of simple rules, and your lunch will be of the highest standard!

You need to prepare for the trip in advance. Make not only a list of products, but also a grocery list. A day on the road is a lot. What food should you take on the train? Everyone faces this dilemma from time to time.

Food in transport, like any other, must comply with a number of rules:

be tasty when cold;
do not quickly disappear without a refrigerator;
saturate the body with energy;
don't smell too much;
do not get your hands, clothes, etc. dirty;
be convenient to use.

Requirements increase significantly if you are traveling with a child.

So, as soon as you sit down, wipe down the table with hydrogen peroxide. It is advisable to do the same with the handle on the window, the seat and any other piece of furniture that you can reach. Excellent disinfectant! As a last resort, use antibacterial wipes, but it is better to save them - they will be useful for many things.

As scary as it sounds, try not to use the toilet often. The number of microbes that are there cannot be counted. Before eating, wipe your hands with antibacterial wipes for more benefits.

To avoid running to the toilet every half hour, do not take drinks with a diuretic effect. Herbal tea, coffee, berry compote, mineral water are strictly not recommended! The optimal solution is plain water, black tea with lemon, milk and its derivatives. But with the latter, another problem arises - how to store them so that they do not spoil on the road.

Spoiled food brings with it diarrhea, and you cannot do without it. What to take with you on the train? High temperature resistant products.

Remember the rules of etiquette

You will be traveling for a day in the company of unfamiliar people. If you have not purchased a compartment car where family members or friends will be accommodated, then it is necessary to adhere to basic etiquette standards. Otherwise, conflicts on the road cannot be avoided.

It is not recommended to take food with a strong smell on the train: sauerkraut, citrus fruits, onions and garlic, smoked meats. By the way, according to all the rules, you can take them with you on the road - they do not spoil quickly. But will your neighbors enjoy the smells emanating from these delicacies? Question.

After eating, do not forget to carefully remove the crumbs from the table, try not to litter them on the floor. Place food in bags and seal them well.

Behave culturally, and new interesting acquaintances will go flawlessly.

What kind of food should you take on the train? Specific examples

When compiling a list of foods for a snack on the train, be guided, first of all, by how long they can be stored without a refrigerator. And only then how tasty the food is cold and how much it gets your hands dirty.

What to eat on the train:

Chicken. Optimally - fillet. It can be fried with pepper, it will extend the storage time for several hours, and placed on bread or wrapped in thin Armenian lavash. It will turn out like a sandwich - very convenient. The chicken can also be boiled, then it should be wrapped in foil.
Boiled or baked meat, preferably beef or veal. It comes in handy with mustard, which increases the shelf life of the product.
Jacket potatoes can easily withstand a day on a train. Or bake it in its skin, without salt or oil.
Hard-boiled eggs, just without cracks. Through them, microbes will penetrate inside in a few minutes.
Hard cheese is digested well and slowly, and can withstand a day on the train. It is better not to cut it in advance, and put it not in a bag, but in foil or parchment paper.
Sweet pies with dried fruits. Sugar is an excellent preservative and protects the product from rapid spoilage. Just baked goods should not have a creamy, curd filling. The best option is cinnamon rolls, raisins, pies with dried apricots.
Vegetables. The best are carrots, cucumbers, cabbage, and bell peppers. They need to be thoroughly cleaned and washed before traveling.
Fruits that don't whet your appetite. The best option: bananas, apricots, apples, pears.
Sliced bread or loaf. To prevent it from molding, place it in foil and not in a bag.
Raw smoked sausage, smoked meats in vacuum packaging. Their shelf life without refrigeration is 24 hours, and they do not lose their taste.
Dried fruits. Wash well before travel. Raisins, prunes, dried apricots perfectly satisfy hunger, and eating them is very convenient.
Nuts. Peanuts and almonds are especially tasty.
Sweets: gingerbread, crackers, waffles, cookies.

It is optimal to take atypical drinks (we are not talking about water) in disposable 200 ml packages - fruit and vegetable juices, milk, kefir. By the way, regarding dairy products.

You can take them on the train for a day, but only if you drink the product within a few hours of boarding. Yogurt and fermented baked milk saturate the body well with nutrients and quench thirst, but quickly spoil without refrigeration. So, drink your favorite milk drink as soon as possible!

What not to take on the train

Tomatoes. They crush easily during transportation and stain hands and clothes. In a word, they cause more trouble than they are worth. It’s better to replace them with cucumbers, salted ones, and sweet bell peppers.
Boiled liver sausage. It can safely be stored without refrigeration for only a couple of hours, then there is a serious risk of poisoning.
Alcoholic drinks. Their use on the train is prohibited.
Chips, crackers - any products with a strong odor.
Chocolate and its derivatives. It melts quickly and stains clothes and hands. The only exception is peanuts in cocoa.
Various cakes, cream pies, cupcakes. All this quickly deteriorates and will harm the body.
Meat (fish) pates, herring, fried, boiled, baked fish.
Dishes with sour cream or mayonnaise: salads, sandwiches, baked goods.

Preserving food on the train for as long as possible

Little air, high temperature - food on the train spoils many times faster than on the kitchen table. If you want to keep your food fresh longer, take thermal bags and a cold accumulator with you. It is a plastic container with a special liquid inside. Before your trip, put the battery in the freezer for several hours, preferably for a day. Then immediately transfer it to a thermal bag. It acts like a refrigerator. Your products will safely withstand 8 hours in a frozen thermal bag, just close it tightly.

Wrap the food itself not in plastic bags, but in foil or parchment - the food will not suffocate in them.

Important additions to food on the train

In addition to tasty and healthy dishes, you need to take dishes on the road. Best disposable. You will definitely need a fork and plate. If you are traveling with someone, the number of devices increases proportionally. Place a folding knife and a small metal or plastic mug in your suitcase. Disposable cups are inconvenient to use on the go; they constantly fall off the table.

What else will be useful:

Salt. Can be put into an empty matchbox;
Paper towels;
Hand sanitizer;
Wet wipes;
Activated carbon, Smecta, Mezim - any medicine for indigestion. It is better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Porridges, soups, instant noodles

Food production technology is evolving, and today people can snack on dishes that they had never heard of before. These are, first of all, various cereals, soups, and instant noodles.

Whether to take them with you on the train or not is everyone’s personal choice. A hot, nutritious meal on the road will be a pleasant break from cold snacks. But is there much benefit in it? You decide.

If you decide that you cannot do without such food, take one that is already sold in disposable cups or containers. Pour boiling water over the dish; you can easily ask the conductor for it - a quick and warm breakfast is ready.

For children, prepare oatmeal with fruit. For lunch - soup. The body will quickly regain strength.

Sample menu on the train

Heading out in the evening or at night? An hour and a half before boarding, eat well at home, and then safely go to bed on the train. You are not in danger of hunger. We offer a sample menu for traveling by train.

Breakfast:

Sandwiches with cheese, chicken.
Fresh vegetables.
A couple of boiled eggs.
Cookies and juice for dessert.

Dinner:

Meat with bread.
Jacket potatoes.
Smoked sausage.
Vegetables.
Fruits.
Water or tea.

Snacks:

Nuts, dried fruits, fruits.
Waffles, crackers with tea.
Hard cheese.
Sweet pies with juice.

Dinner:

Instant porridge.
Sandwiches with chicken or meat.
Boiled egg.
Tea or water.

The menu is very conditional. Products may be replaced depending on their condition and your preference. Try to take only as much food on the train as you need.

Epilogue

A long train ride is not for the faint of heart. Not everyone can withstand the constant movement and the roar of voices. Try to distract yourself, take magazines, board games, and an MP3 player with you on the road.

Don't indulge in frequent snacking. Eat only when necessary . This will not only relieve heaviness in the stomach, but will improve the psychological climate among fellow travelers. And remember the main rule: if a product causes you even the slightest doubt about its freshness, do not eat it. Have a nice trip!

An interesting continuation of the topic "Food on the Train", which we discussed very lively here in the winter.
Posted on the eda.ru portal conversation with capital chefs, who recommend what is optimal for you to eat on the train. I assigned all the chefs Roman numerals to make it easier to comment on their advice.
My short review is at the end, but first a word to the chefs.

"Let me eat some railroad food."

[...] In our minds, railway food is piquant boiled eggs, fried chicken or a chop from the dining car. Several generations of fellow citizens have grown up on this road menu, and this tradition will never go anywhere, despite the fact that without a refrigerator, both eggs and chicken quickly become unusable, and the dining car turns out to be a lottery every time. We decided to rectify the situation and found out from good Moscow chefs what they like to eat on the train and what they would cook if they had to spend at least a day on the train.

I. Ivan Shishkin, chef of the Delicatessen restaurant:

“You need to take safe foods on the train that can be stored at room temperature for as long as you like. It should either be something very well cooked or completely raw, such as fruits and vegetables. And, of course, bread. It should also be a compact meal that can be handled without unnecessary tools.

The ideal option is canned food and bread. There are a lot of wonderful canned foods, from pates, which keep well thanks to preservatives and sterilization, right up to my favorite sprat in tomato. Both work great with bread. You need to spread the pate on it, and then have fun in any way you like - add fresh or pickled cucumber, for example, or put sauerkraut on top. There are pleasant and funny literary associations with sprat in a tomato (“sprat swims in a tomato, it feels good in a tomato”) - but in general it is an incredibly tasty thing. Not only is it sweet and easy to understand, but it also dangles in a sauce that you can then scoop out with bread. That is, you don’t need any equipment to eat it. Probably, except for the knife you use to cut bread, but even then - you can cut it at home. At least once a month, or even more often, I travel on express trains for 5–6 hours. And I must say that food on the train should not have a strong smell. Both pates and sprat in tomato have a very neat, compact smell, they don’t give themselves away if you sit neatly in your compartment, bending over the jar.

It is also important to take food that does not need to be heated. Stewed meat, for example, needs to be heated, so it won’t work. You need foods that can be scooped completely out of the jar or that are in a sauce that you will eat too. Roughly speaking, saury in oil or cod liver, with all their delights, is not an option for the train - you won’t eat oil! And it can also spill if you go to your place with an open can. You need something like this: they emptied it, wiped it with bread and that’s it, no traces. In addition to the above, you can take very hard cheese and lard. I highly recommend taking lard with you on trips: it is a fantastically compact energy container».

Canned food - Abakan and Ulan-Ude. And horse meat.

II. Bulat Ibragimov, chef of the Yuzhane restaurant:

« I myself try not to eat on trains. But I think that if you are expecting a serious, full meal on the road, then it’s good to prepare meat and vegetables for the road. For example, something like ajapsandali and corned beef. To make ajapsandali, you need to bake tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini and eggplants in coals. You need to bake them hard until they turn black. Then remove the charred top layer from the vegetables, wait until they cool completely, and toss them with olive oil, garlic, cilantro, red onion, salt and pepper. You should not skimp on the oil; there should be a lot of it so that the vegetables are slightly preserved in it. If the smell of red onion scares you, you can scald it first - or not add it at all. The proportions of vegetables are any, add them the way you like, but it is important to maintain a balance: you need to take 150–200 ml of oil per kilogram.

This is how corned beef should be cooked. Take a kilogram of beef - brisket, neck or rump. Place the meat in a cool brine for two days - 80 grams of salt and 10 grams of nitrite salt per liter of water (nitrite salt preserves food better, you can find it in stores that sell everything for sausages). After the meat has been in the brine, it must be carefully cooked without boiling vigorously in slightly salted water until it becomes soft and completely cooked. Then the corned beef should cool in this water, and then we will get practically canned meat. It tastes great cold and can be sliced like boiled pork and eaten with vegetables - or made into a sandwich. Chili sauce or mustard goes well with corned beef. It also goes well with sauerkraut, which can also be taken on the train without any problems and nothing will happen to it there. And then you can make yourself a super sandwich with corned beef, cabbage and mustard on rye bread.

And if you’re too lazy to prepare in advance, you can go to the Vietnamese market in Maryina Roshcha and buy some cool instant noodles there. In Asia, all noodles are good, because there they treat this product differently, there it is a whole culture. To avoid getting bored, you can add the same corned beef or stew from a can to these noodles; I love the stew from the Yoshkar-Ola meat processing plant. And the noodles also need greens - cilantro, parsley or green onions.

I also recommend celery root. We need to take a certain amount of flour, to which we will add salt, 20 percent of the volume of flour, and just a little water: we should get a very tight salt dough, in which we need to hide the celery root like in a shell. In this dough, celery needs to be baked for about an hour at a temperature of 170 degrees, and then you can make a cool snack on the train: celery root, an anchovy from a jar, some greens and olive oil.”

III. Vitaly Istomin, chef of the Tekhnikum restaurant:

« I wouldn't risk it at all and wouldn't cook for the trip. I once poisoned myself with chicken on a train; I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone. But if you still want to cook chicken, then I think the high salt content before baking will save it: keep the bird in a saline solution for several hours or inject this salt into the chicken’s body using a culinary syringe. If you really want something meaty, then I would probably buy factory-smoked ham and make sandwiches from it. Because factory meat contains a lot of preservatives, and it will not spoil in a day. But personally, now, after that incident, I don’t take anything but snacks on trips. Railway food, as for me, should have two characteristics: dry and sweet. And these are any cookies.

I love parmesan cheese cookies. Take 100 grams of flour, mix with one egg, add 100 grams of butter, 100 grams of grated Parmesan and 5 grams of thyme. Mix all this, roll into a sausage and put in the refrigerator for a while. Then take it out, cut it into pieces - and put them in the oven to bake for 10 minutes at 180 degrees.

You can also prepare kurabye: 100 grams of butter mixed with 150 grams of flour, 50 grams of sugar, one egg and 5 grams of vanilla sugar. You need to make round cookies from the dough and drip any jam on top - for such a volume of cookies you need 50 grams of jam. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 165 degrees.”

IV. Lara Katsova, chef of the Dyuk-Dyuk restaurant:

“The simplest thing you can come up with for a train is sandwiches. They should be made with foods that do not spoil within 24 hours, for example, cheese. You can do it this way: grate the cheese, add a little Dijon mustard and homemade mayonnaise to it, mix it all, put it on a piece of bread, cover it with another piece of bread and bake. It's tasty and satisfying. If you get on the train early in the morning and realize that you will soon want to eat, then you can take sandwiches with red fish or some kind of smoked meats. But this is only for the first three hours of your trip. And if it’s summer, then generally for the first hour.

You can also make my favorite grandma’s cheesecakes, which when cold are also quite tasty and behave well throughout the day. Take 400 grams of cottage cheese with a fat content of at least 9%, one yolk, one and a half tablespoons of granulated sugar, one packet of vanilla sugar, a pinch of salt and one and a half tablespoons of flour to add to the cottage cheese, and another 2-3 tablespoons of flour for molding. The cottage cheese must be rubbed through a sieve. Add granulated sugar and vanilla sugar, yolk and a pinch of salt. Mix it all, make a roll of dough, then cut it into circles, from which we will form cheesecakes. You need to fry the cheesecakes in a mixture of vegetable and butter over medium heat, and then bring them to readiness in the oven - this will take a couple more minutes.

If you travel by train for a day, then in the middle of the journey you will definitely have lunch. For this lunch, you can prepare chicken by marinating it first. By the middle of the trip, 6–10 hours after the start of the journey, it will still be adequate, but not longer. The chicken should be marinated as follows: vegetable oil, soy sauce, garlic, paprika, dry herbs that you like, and chili pepper. The bird must be immersed in this marinade for at least three hours, or even better, put it in the marinade in the morning, and take it out in the evening, then it will be very well soaked and will turn out very tasty. If it's a chicken fillet, then it needs to be grilled, and if it's a whole chicken, then it can just be stupidly baked.

You can add small potatoes to the chicken while baking. Boil the potatoes until half cooked, then pour the marinade over them and bake along with the chicken. It is important to understand: the finished chicken must first be cooled and taken with you on the road already cold, wrapped in parchment and foil.

Towards the end of the trip, you can start eating pies with potatoes and fried onions, prepared with kefir dough. They will survive the night quietly and will be good the next day. The dough is as follows: pour into a saucepan one and a half cups of 3.2% fat kefir, three cups of flour, half a cup of vegetable oil, add half a teaspoon of salt and one tablespoon of sugar. Heat and stir well, the mixture should be warm but not hot. While the mixture is preparing, sift three cups of flour and add one packet of dry yeast to it. Add the warm kefir mixture to this and mix well. The dough should become sticky. Cover the bowl with the dough with a towel and put it in a warm place for about 40 minutes. This dough is suitable for various fillings, but the most harmless for the train would be potatoes with fried onions.”

Real lunch on the Vorkuta - Labytnangi train, 2015.

V. Anatoly Kazakov, chef of the Selfie restaurant:

“The main criterion for train food is that the product is completely cooked and does not contain moisture. And also that the dish contains a minimum of mixtures of different products and there is no sauce, because sauces spoil first.

You can bake roast beef really well, you just need to make sure that it is completely cooked. First, you just need to marinate the beef in olive oil with salt, pepper and stuff it with garlic. Then fry it on all sides in a frying pan, then cover it with thyme, unpeeled garlic and put it in the oven, wrapped in foil or parchment paper. Keep in the oven until the meat is completely cooked; this is easy to determine: there should be no red ichor or juice in it. To ensure that the roast beef is not dry, you need to make the temperature lower than usual, say 150 degrees, and increase the baking time to 40 minutes.

I would bake beets to go with the roast beef. The beets should be coated with olive oil and thyme and placed on a baking sheet, the bottom of which is covered with coarse sea salt. Salt is needed to draw out all the moisture from the root crop. Beets should be baked at 140 degrees for an hour. You can also come up with a sauce that is equally suitable for beets and roast beef, for example, this is pesto sauce, but you need to make it without cheese on the road. Take 30 grams of cilantro, 20 grams of pine nuts lightly fried in a frying pan and 100 ml of olive oil. All this needs to be blended in a blender and packed in some container to take with you. You can’t add pesto directly to the beets or roast beef - all the components of the dinner must come together directly on the table of your compartment.”

* * *
Now for my brief summary of the “nutritional” tips.

I. In general, competent advice, but some strongly smack of “metropolitanism”. It can be seen that the respected culinary specialist hardly traveled by real long-distance Trans-Siberian trains. For example, stew is an excellent product on the road, but provided that it meat and jelly. Those. good, not typical post-Soviet shit. It goes great just like that, without warming up, if there are no other options.

II. This one, apparently, did not travel on long-distance trains at all, except perhaps to the South. It's complicated and confusing. And the advice about the noodles is absolutely rubbish, creating a strong smell in the compartment is yes, very Chinese :) He probably flies.

III. This one, too, clearly travels to Europe and doesn’t use long-distance trains. Judging by the sad one-time experience. However, the cheese cookie recipe is a good one. This will go well on the train.

IV. It's complicated and confusing. The sandwiches dry out quickly and become tasteless. And the advice to leave the pies for last is even more dubious.

V. This one thinks much more adequately, although he gives relatively complex advice. Perhaps a good recommendation.

In general, of course, to really clarify this issue, it was necessary to interview the chefs of small provincial establishments: they would have given much more realistic and adequate advice. And not metropolitan and steep ones - far from trains and trips on them. They usually fly.

PS. Real assortment at large shopping stations (Ilanskaya station, Krasnoyarsk railway, 2013):

Assortment-1. Salzo, chicken, cutlets, lightly salted cucumbers, boiled potatoes, sausage, chicken...

Assortment-2. Dried fish, pancakes, pies...

HOORAY! Summer is just around the corner - it's time to get ready for the road! Warm beaches, new cities, forests, lakes, mountains and rivers await us. All winter we have been carefully and lovingly making plans for the summer, and very soon we will begin to implement them!

To make your trip as comfortable and easy as possible, when getting ready to travel, think through everything down to the smallest detail. Make a list of things - clothes, shoes, medicines. And if you have a long train ride ahead, be sure to decide in advance what kind of food you will take with you for the trip.

Let's get ready to go!

General principles

Add to this the traditional female fears of the “husband and child will remain hungry” series, and you get a complete mess. Still, it’s better to travel light, and excess food in this case equals extra pounds in the literal and not figurative sense.

Therefore, the first rule is - it is better to take less than more. As a last resort, you can always buy food on the train or at stops. You won’t go hungry, and you won’t have to carry extra bags.

So, let's first define the general principles, and then make a specific list of products.

What food do we take on the road?

– which can be stored for a long time without refrigeration;
– does not melt in the sun;
– does not get dirty, does not crumble;
– not heavy in weight;
– has no pungent odor;
– does not leave a lot of cleaning and other debris;
– easy to prepare (ideally, does not require additional preparation);
– does not require cutting.

Grocery list:

Instant porridge. It is better to take the one that is already sold in disposable cups. In this case, you don't even have to wash the cup.
Processed cheese. In individually packaged portioned triangles or plates. Ordinary cheese in the heat quite quickly loses, if not its taste, then its appearance.
Pate in small portions tin cans. Opened it, ate it, threw it away. Almost like “I came, I saw, I conquered”!
Cucumbers, peeled carrot slices(We do not recommend taking tomatoes and other juicy vegetables - tomato juice looks very impressive in a glass and is much less appetizing on clothes).
It is better not to take fruits at all - they are heavy, and you will have to carry them on yourself. Instead you can take several packets of baby fruit puree.
Muffins or cupcakes, pies with jam and other sweet fillings.
Sliced bread or small buns, thin pita bread. (To be lazy is the full program! We won’t even cut bread on the road).
Instant noodles and mashed potatoes(also in glasses, not bags). It may not be the healthiest food in the world, but you can afford it 1-2 times a year.
You should not take jacket potatoes and boiled eggs on the road - your hands will inevitably get dirty, and a potential source of waste will appear - cleaning. In addition, the smell of boiled eggs is quite specific.
We also do not recommend chocolate - it can melt in the heat. If the journey is not a joy without chocolate, take the one that (as they say in the advertisement you know by heart) melts in your mouth, not in your hands.
You can take it for snacks nuts and dried fruits, marshmallows, marshmallows. Don't take cookies and crackers. No matter how carefully you try to eat, crumbs are inevitable.
Yogurts. When purchasing, carefully study the storage conditions - we need those that are stored at temperatures up to +25 degrees.
Still water(soda will quickly dry out) or juice in plastic bottles with a screw cap.
Jam in small portion packages.
Darling tea bags, sugar in portion packs, instant coffee.
We also make sure to take it with us on the train. disposable tableware, wet and regular wipes, paper towels, bags.

Sample menu

Board games

How long have you played “throwing the fool”? What about chess? It's time to dust them off. In addition, now you can find a huge number of interesting board games on sale, many of which are quite compact.

Gadgets

Books and audiobooks, music, movies, games - almost any modern gadget will offer a sea of possibilities for entertainment.

Creation

Take a small notebook and pen with you and start writing travel notes right on the train. Describe your thoughts, plans, dreams and memories. Write a short essay on the topic “What do I know about the place I’m going to?” or “10 joys that await me.” Traveling by train is a respite lasting a day or more. It's time to listen to your thoughts and write some of them down. If you can draw, try creating a comic based on your trip.

Games with children

"To the cities"

Improve the well-known city game. To do this, name words from a specific narrow category. For example, remember the names of cartoons, the names of fairy tale characters, etc.

"Guess"

The host thinks of a famous character, and the players must guess his name by asking leading questions. The presenter can only answer “yes” or “no”. After you go through several rounds of the game and everyone is already a little bored, make a wish for the person who is currently playing. Let him try to guess himself!

Counting crows

Better, of course, not ravens, but cows. Or horses. Or at home. Depending on what you're passing by at the moment.

Alphabetically

And one last piece of advice :-)
Don't forget to warm up. Especially if you are traveling with children. Get off at all stations where possible. Move a little away from smokers and do a couple of squats, bends, and leg swings. Of course, you shouldn't run. But jumping on the spot is a must!

Have a nice trip!

P.S. Let's share our secrets of successful travels. What's your favorite travel food? How do you have fun? Where are you going?