A typical Moscow breakfast is scrambled eggs with doctor’s sausage.

However, most often city residents order cheesecakes for delivery

Syrniki or pancakes turned out to be a typical Moscow breakfast, but no one likes dishes made from eggs – of course, if you believe the statistics. In St. Petersburg, preferences are different – here most of the fans are oatmeal porridge with mango and peach. At the end of February 2024, the results of the corresponding study were shared by experts from one of the companies engaged in the delivery of ready-made food. According to their data, the most popular dish in Moscow is cheesecakes with sour cream and lingonberry sauce – they are most often ordered at 9-10 am. True, these statistics do not take into account “folk” options – for example, scrambled eggs with sausage, which restaurants have turned into a Moscow morning brand.

According to the results of a study by the nursing company, Muscovites often eat pancakes with ham and cheese for breakfast, as well as oatmeal with additives (wild berries or mango and peach). Egg dishes are not a success. There were also funny territorial patterns: for example, in the south of Moscow, in the Nagatino-Sadovniki, Nagorny and Nagatinsky Zaton districts, people prefer pancakes with cottage cheese, but in the west of the city – in Ochakovo-Matveevsky, Mitino, Mozhaisky district and Fili – they like scrambled eggs – a scone with cheese. Connoisseurs of pancakes with apples and cinnamon live in the northeast of Moscow – in Medvedkovo, Sviblovo and adjacent areas.

Of course, the choice here is limited by the range of delivery services – and this needs to be understood. Therefore, one should not rashly assert that none of the Muscovites eat sandwiches or soft-boiled eggs for breakfast – of course they do, they’re just not on the menu. Meanwhile, in the summer of 2023, one of the city media conducted its own survey, which showed that the majority of Muscovites prefer to have porridge and eggs for breakfast—33% of respondents chose this answer. Another 23% were in favor of sandwiches, 8% of respondents eat fermented milk products for breakfast, and 2% of Muscovites do not deny themselves sweets in the morning.

At the same time, Muscovites admitted that more and more often they prefer to have breakfast in a cafe or order ready-made food – there is no time to spend time on cooking in the morning. Therefore, breakfast as a special section on the menu has remained a certain criterion for the fashionability of an establishment for almost ten years. And they must be varied and original: say, if it’s rice or oatmeal, then with coconut milk, if it’s scrambled eggs, then with sun-dried tomatoes and olives, and if it’s squash pancakes, then with red caviar. For those looking for the taste of childhood, cheesecakes are a must (you can even make them with condensed milk).

True, in the last year or two, so-called designer breakfasts have been gaining popularity in Moscow catering: at a fixed price, the client is offered to choose a method of preparing eggs (fried, scrambled, poached, hard-boiled, etc.), several tasty additions like ham, bacon, red fish , a handful of greens and vegetables and a portion of bread (baguette, toast, potato pancakes or even diet bread). The principle “No one will leave offended” is recognized as universal – it gives everyone the opportunity to create their own dream breakfast and not agree to compromises.

The question remains rhetorical: what is a typical Moscow breakfast? Surprisingly, the answer seems to have been found – scrambled eggs and sausage have been declared the Moscow morning brand. To understand this, just study the range of cafes and restaurants. For example, in one of the bistros on Gogolevsky Boulevard, under the line “Moscow Breakfast” in the menu, there is a fried egg of three eggs with a runny yolk. It also comes with a few slices of fried doctor’s sausage and a few spoons of canned green peas. The combination, obviously, should play on the notes of nostalgia for Soviet times – only slightly idealized nostalgia: green peas were in short supply, and no one would eat them for breakfast without a reason.

In another establishment, a popular restaurant near the Kremlin, the breakfast menu includes “Moscow-style omelet with onions and doctor’s sausage.” About the same thing, well, with minor deviations. The same idea is actively exploited in the post-Soviet space – along with the “Parisian Breakfast” of croissants, the “English” with bacon, beans and fried tomatoes, and even the “Turkish Breakfast” with a huge plate of meze, there will definitely be a “Moscow” on the menu: that same fried egg with sausage.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29227 dated March 1, 2024

Newspaper headline:
Omelette and porridge are our food