When seeing her husband off to work in the morning, a Soviet wife was likely to say: "When do I expect you to come home for dinner tonight?" In a middle-class family in the United States, the question might rather sound like: "Where are we having dinner tonight, honey?"

As for lunch, Soviet workers would either take something to eat from home (sandwiches, cutlets, boiled eggs, etc.) or go to a stolovaya (cafeteria) at work. Soviet-era stolovye deserve special mention, as they miraculously managed to combine long lines, a suffocating atmosphere, rude staff and a risk of poisoning or, if you were lucky, a mild case of indigestion. A lunch at such an eatery was affordable at 60 kopeks, or 0.4 percent of the average monthly wage of 150 Soviet rubles.

The practice of having dinner out was almost nonexistent in the Soviet Union. Restau-rants and cafes were viewed not as places for family dinners or tasting delicacies, but as places for partying on special occasions such as weddings or birthdays. The food was mostly uninventive, except in a few top-end restaurants located in the biggest hotels, such as the Rossiya, the National and the Metropol, but it was filling and its quality was acceptable. A dinner at a medium-range restaurant cost 25 rubles (17 percent of the average monthly wage).

Back in the Soviet days, most people were content with what they were fed and not very upset about having not tasted such things as oysters, lobsters, frog's legs, sushi, tagliatelli, tiramisu, etc. Most Soviet citizens did not even know about their existence, and those who did dismissed them as attributes of "pernicious capitalist society."

Contrary to what is commonly believed, Soviet people were not swimming in caviar and sturgeon – and certainly not in vodka. The former were almost impossible to find in stores, and the latter was too expensive for the majority of the population at 5 rubles per bottle (3 percent of the average monthly wage). As for caviar, one could obtain it in holiday gift baskets that were distributed among exemplary workers at enterprises and organizations. Of course, the Communist Party and bureaucratic elite enjoyed all these delicacies without limitation.

It's funny that, what everywhere else in the world is called "buffet," in Russia is called a "Swedish table." I was extremely surprised to learn that Western people can make neither head nor tail of the term "Swedish table." My guess is that it was brought in by a Soviet diplomat who visited Sweden and saw a smorgasbord there for the first time in his life.

Nowadays, the situation is entirely different. Moscow is experiencing a real boom of restaurants, fast-food eateries, coffeehouses, etc. It is easy to find a place to have a filling and high-quality business lunch, a cup of cappuccino or a dinner. All kinds of cuisine are represented, from Russian to Mexican to Chinese. Russians have learned such terms as "business lunch," "Sunday brunch" and "linner" (a newcomer that means a combined lunch and dinner).

With the official average wage currently at $147 per month, most Russians cannot afford to go to quality restaurants frequently, but fast-food chains, low-end restaurants (such as the Yolki-Palki chain) and coffeehouses are becoming increasingly popular among Muscovites.