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Russian Host Cities to Issue Food Guides For World Cup Fans

FamilySweetery / Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Booklets on local food specialties and restaurant recommendations will appear in the 2018 World Cup host cities before the tournament kicks off, the state-run TASS news agency has reported.

The guides, which are part of the broader “Gastronomic Map of Russia” project, are meant to steer football fans in their gastronomic forays and identify spots where they can get football-themed delicacies.

For example, the breadmaking factory in Samara has proposed producing special pastries in the shape of footballs, which would be sold along the path to the local stadium when it hosts World Cup matches next summer.

Restaurants in Sochi, on the other hand, will be featured in the booklets through their dishes that reflect regional tastes. 

The Krasnodar region, which Sochi is a part of, presented its gastronomic map on Friday at the Sochi International Forum for Tourism. Its menu includes Kuban wines, cheeses, shashlik and a local variation of borsch.

The booklets will be published for World Cup host cities as well as cities with links to the international tournament, such as Vladimir, which is being promoted as a cultural tourism hotspot for visiting football fans.

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