Try Lithuania to taste: 7 hits of Lithuanian cuisine

Rest in Lithuania is impossible to imagine without delicious Lithuanian cuisine. Hiking to local restaurants – Mandatory part of the program of any respectful tourist. Moreover, the kitchen in Lithuania is very original. She has only one minus – it is too calorie.

Lithuanian kitchen hits are potato dishes. Lithuanians love and respese potatoes and prepare it with all sorts of ways. Therefore, I will start this gastronomic overview with dishes No. 1 in Lithuania – Zeppelin.

1. Topelins / Cepelinai

If you have never been to Lithuania and are not familiar with her culinary traditions, then hearing the name of the "zeppelin", you are unlikely to think that we are talking about something edible.

Zeppelin – the so-called the main Lithuanian dish. This is a big potato zraz with meat filling, in shape really resembling airship.

Prepare zeppelins from a mixture of boiled and raw, grated on a shallow grater, potatoes. Stuffing in the classic meat. Although the menu of modern Lithuanian restaurants can be found a variety of fillings – from chicken, cottage cheese, vegetarian options.

Here, for example, what kind of chapelins are present in the menu of the famous restaurant HBH (in Palanga and Vilnius):

• Classic zeppelins with sour cream and cracker;
• yesterday’s zeppelin – cutting on halves and roasted;
• Boiled zeppelins with cottage cheese or meat – dietary option.

Website restaurant HBH: HBH.Lt

Zeppelins – very satisfying and calorie dish. They are served 2 pieces. I never managed to eat at once at once 2 clospeline. It’s just a murder task. I could not cope with one. And he was always surprised at the slender and even slender Lithuanian ladies, which at all possible cases ordered their chapels. They quickly straightened with them, not forgetting to order another dessert in addition. And all this did not reflect anything on their figure. Well, I did not meet in Lithuania thick women. And the amateurs of zeppelin – how much.

I found the richest selection of chapels in the National Restaurant menu Etno Dvaras On Pyles Street in Vilnius.

If you are interested not only what to eat, but what to see in Lithuania, read the top 9 sights of Vilnius.

2. Shaftibarshi / Šaltibarščiai

In our opinion, it is a cold borsch or cold. Lithuanian Shaltibarsha has its own unique taste, and the recipe is still somewhat different from our cold. It is prepared on the basis of fatty kefir and sour cream 30% fatty with the addition of boiled beets, cucumber and fresh greenery. Also in the soup add boiled egg (cut in half or chopped finely). Served shaftibarsy not with bread, but with boiled potatoes. So, with a potato in principle and is accepted.

3. Smoked fish

Lithuania is famous for its beer traditions. And the best snack for foamy and refreshing Lithuanian beer – Smoked Baltic Fish. If you do not consider yourself to fans of this drink, it is good in itself. Of course, smoked fish is not only Lithuanian delicacy. It is sold in other Baltic countries.

I tried to buy such a fish in Latvia, including a praised mine, which I was not particularly impressed. The most delicious smoked fish – anyway in Lithuania. Especially catchy and cooked in homemade smokehouses.

It is best to buy smoked fish in a small fishing village of Jodkrante that in the Curonian Spit. There is a lot of homemade smoking. Fish sell still warm, straight with smoking. About the Central Riga Market and other sights of Riga read here

4. Roasted bread with cheese / Kepinta duonelė

Another brilliant snack under beer, which can be used and just so, without black beverages. This is a black bread, chopped into pieces, roasted and generously seasoned with cheese, garlic, maybe somewhere and mayonnaise. Just before disgrace, but incredibly tasty and terribly calorie.

I tried this dish in different regions of Lithuania. In Vilnius, Trakai, Druskininka is not a very tasty thing, similar to ordinary crackers, and portions are very small. But in the north of Lithuania and the Baltic coast, for example, in Palanga, another thing.

5. Potato Pancakes / Tarkiniai Blynai

As I wrote above, the potatoes love in Lithuania. From it do not only zeppelin. Very often she replaces flour.

There are many in the traditional peemage cuisine, it would seem familiar to us dishes (pancakes, pies), in which potatoes use instead of flour.

For example, Lithuanian potato pancakes Tarkiniai bllynai – Analogue of Belarusian Dianks, but with filling. In Belarus, the Draisians with meat filling are called sorcerers. Tarkiniai Blynai are with different fillings – meat, cottage cheese and garlic. This is a very tasty and saturated dish that is served with sour cream.

Curonian Spit, where it is better to rest: Lithuania vs Russia

6. Kininai

These are so small pies with meat stuffing (traditionally – with lamb). Bake them in the furnace.

Actually, this dish refers to Karai. In Lithuania, Karai live in Traka. Therefore, kinibay pies (or kibina, as they are sometimes called them) you can buy there at every step. In other corners of Lithuania, you are unlikely to try this dish.

Now the mobs make with different fillings (not only with meat) – with chicken, potatoes, spinach and cottage cheese, mushrooms and cheese. There are sweet options, with an apple, for example. In the traca, many restaurants and cafes of Karaaya cuisine, where you can try not only these pies, but also other national Karai dishes.

I tried them in different places. The most delicious kibins in the traca, in my opinion, do in Senoji Kibininė (Address: Karaimu G. 65, Site: Kibinas.lt). In them, thin dough and a lot of filling.

7. Shakotis

For dessert I left the famous Lithuanian pie Shakotis. He is the most popular sweet souvenir, which tourists are brought from Lithuania. Lithuanians call him Raguolis or "Babushkin Horned Pie".

Shakotis is included in Lithuanian National Culinary Heritage Foundation.

Recipe for cooking this cake is unique. It is almost impossible to repeat at home. First, because the right chactis is preparing in a real wood stove. His bake on a spit over open fire, periodically turning and watering the test from above that flows and forms an intricate "horned" cake shape. Secondly, the recipe use egg dough. A huge amount of eggs consumes the preparation of one pie – about 30-40 pieces per 1 kg of flour.

Traditionally, Shakotis baked on large family celebrations. For example, at weddings. Therefore, it is often called "wedding cake". In the next Poland with Lithuania there is a similar cake recipe.