Shchi (Russian щи) is a soup with cabbage as the primary ingredient. It is very popular in Russia and Eastern Europe.
Generally it is made with either cabbage or sauerkraut and other winter vegetables, although meat can be added.
Shchi made of sauerkraut have sour taste and are called sour shchi.
Usually smetana is added into shchi before serving.
Trivia
The two-letter word щи is transliterated into 5 letters in English. The German word for it is Schtschi, (8 letters, i.e., the word becomes 4 times longer, a feat hardly surpassable for any pair of languages). This was the gist of a joke about a certain Russian Empress of German descent: it was said that her Russian spelling was so bad that she made up to 7 errors in a 2-letter word.
See also
