Over at Liquor.com, Dushan Zaric tells you how to drink vodka. He suggests the types of vodkas to use in different scenarios. The Yugoslavian-born writer does make another interesting point:

However, the liquor was never created for mixing—it was intended to be a food spirit. Just as wine in southern Europe was developed to be enjoyed with meals, so were the vodkas of northern Europe, where grapes didn’t grow easily.

In the US, it’s far from a trend to drink vodka with food, but I have found that some of the best chasers for vodka are food. Maybe not traditional food, but food nonetheless.