Here’s how it works: You pick the meals you’d like to receive and how often you’d like to receive them on a service’s website. A company rep will then contact you to confirm the delivery time. Most companies take credit cards.
The food arrives in packages, some frozen and some chilled, and detailed instructions with pictures. The services stipulate that all you need at home is salt, pepper and basic culinary equipment.
Then comes the fun part. You put your chef’s hat on and turn a selection of pre-cut food into a duck sous vide with figs and pear in red wine in under 40 minutes. If your date is not impressed just dump them.
Russians oftentimes like what they consider exotic food – especially if they’re using a somewhat “exotic” delivery method – so expect to see a serious emphasis on dishes from around the world. For lent and other holidays, however, most services will offer their culinary take on the festive menus.
“Korzina na dom” offers a vegetarian menu, and you can also order breakfast, soup, salads, deserts and 5-10 kg fruit baskets.
“Partiya Edi” offers 4 different menus, one of them is vegetarian and the others have either meat or fish and each differs in price and sophistication of ingredients. You can also order breakfast, smoothies, deserts and soup.
“Chefmarket” also has a very diverse menu, you can find anything that satisfies your needs, if you’re on a budget, or on a diet, or play sports, or on Lent, you’ll find something for you. You can also order fruit, breakfasts, soup, dairy products, deserts, healthy snacks and smoothies.
Discounts are usually provided for regular customers. “Chef Market” and “Partiya Edi” give 10% discounts to regular customers when they make a subscription. “Korzina na dom” gives a credit of 10% off for each purchase in a bonus account which can be used for the next order.
Often you can change meals, so for example if you don’t eat fish, ask them to change it for something without fish.
You don’t always have to order from the same service, if the menu for next week doesn’t tickle your fancies, order from one of their competitors.
You need to order in advance because the deadline for orders can be limiting. Some services stop receiving orders for the next week already on Thursday, and others on Friday. You need to take this into account so you don’t end up hungry!
“Partiya Edi”, “Korzina na dom” and “Chef-market” have English-speaking operators who are ready to give tips, help and provide assistance with communicating with the delivery man.
So is food delivery a decadent treat or a way of life? It could certainly be a way to explore new flavors and add gastronomical variety to your day. While in terms of grams, you are most likely paying more, you’re saving time which you would’ve spent shopping and someone else had done all the planning and prepping. Besides, when was the last time you whipped up a caramel cheesecake?
International Editorial Office
