Section 17: LITHUANIAN FOOD & BEVERAGES
THE VOICE OF INTERNATIONAL LITHUANIA
|
VilNews has its own Google archive! Type a word in the above search box to find any article.
You can also follow us on Facebook. We have two different pages. Click to open and join.
 Click on the buttons to open and read each of VilNews' 18 sub-sections  |
|
 Our Lithuanian moms' recipes
Many of our readers are very interested in food and recipes. Not least, there seems to be many who would like to find recipes for traditional Lithuanian dishes. VilNews will provide some highlights from time to time, but we also recommend all of you with special interest to join the Facebook group "Our Moms' Lithuanian Recipes" Click here to find this page. |
 |
Sat, 25th August, 2012 - Posted by - (0) Comment
Lithuanian food
traditions since the
Grand Dukes
Prie lietuvių stalo – at the Lithuanian table
Text: Vin Karnila, Associate Editor
vin.karnial@VilNews.com
Sveiki garbingi skaitytojai,
Lithuania is steeped in traditions. It would be difficult to think of any part of daily life, family events or holidays where age old traditions are not practiced. Included in these are the time honored traditions that are practiced at the table. Yes, even sitting at the table to enjoy your meal is something that involves traditions practiced for generations by Lithuanian people all over the world.
Category : Featured black / Food, wine and more
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Sat, 25th August, 2012 - Posted by - (7) Comment
Our moms’
Lithuanian recipes
Our moms’ Lithuanian recipes is on Facebook. Click HERE to find it!
In 2011, a few of first generation Lithuanians from the Hartford Connecticut area in USA started posting on internet that they'd like to share some recipes that they grew up with. Many of these recipes may have been stored in someone's head and not written down, and the group wanted to make these recipes and food history from their beloved homeland at the Baltic Sea available also for future generations.
The group’s vibrant Facebook Page has till now collected over 1,000 members!
Category : Food, wine and more
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Two Lithuanian dishes you simply have to try!
Sat, 25th August, 2012 - Posted by - (11) Comment
|
|
|
Šaltibarščiai – cold beet root soupSo often we hear something like this from people “I remember Sundays when I was a child. My mom would make cepelinai (potato dumplings filled with meat) and we would all gather around in the kitchen for this special meal”. Sadly what we also hear is “I have no idea how to make these traditional Lithuanian foods”.
Category : Featured black / Food, wine and more
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
A beer drinking country
Sat, 25th August, 2012 - Posted by - (12) Comment
There are a number of things that make any Lithuanian swell with pride;
Rich History, Amber, Beautiful Nature, Basketball, etc.
There is, though, one that has a special place in their hearts. This source of pride is the Lithuanian Beer. Today, Lithuanians are among the best beer producers in the world, enjoying numerous international awards for the subtle taste and high quality of their drink. But is beer a truly “Lithuanian” drink and how deep are the traditions of brewing beer in Lithuania?
…
Category : Food, wine and more
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Lithuanians were first in the world to make grain vodka. Probably…
Sat, 25th August, 2012 - Posted by - (1) Comment
A story from the page “Juozo philosophy”
http://www.hbhjuozas.lt/?en=1103006956
This is one more area Lithuania has reason to be proud of. The Russians may disagree, as they claim to have started producing vodka in the 17th century. Lithuanians, however, claim that the Russians didn’t know how to make real vodka until the Russian chemist D. Mendeleev (1834-1907) discovered the process of the rectification of the alcohol. He also was the first, who suggested mixing alcohol and water according to the weight, and not volume, something not known to the manufacturers of the poor vodkas in Western Europe up till today.
Category : Featured black / Food, wine and more
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Kugelis, the potato pudding that became a Lithuanian national dish
Sat, 25th August, 2012 - Posted by - (0) Comment
Photo by Yours For Good Fermentables
I’m very excited to share this recipe with you because
KUGELIS IS MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE
Once again I have been elected to share a traditional Lithuanian recipe with you due to the fact that I am so very “culinary challenged”. Please remember that I need to be supervised when I’m in the kitchen so that I don’t hurt myself. But the powers to be of VilNews feel that I’m the best person to share these recipes since if a person with my limited cooking skills can cook these tasty meals than it shows to every one how easy they are to prepare.
Category : Food, wine and more / Front page
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Sat, 25th August, 2012 - Posted by - (9) Comment
Time for ŠAŠLYKAI,
the Lithuanian barbeque
Dark grey days and cold nights are soon here again as autumn is making its way back to Lithuania. The summer season is coming to an end, but the early autumn sunshine will still be very much welcomed, somewhere in nature or in a garden, where the people of Lithuania still will be enjoying the typical early autumn sun with a tasty, warming šašlykai prepared over the charcols.
Category : Featured black / Food, wine and more
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Ready for a mushroom hunt?
Sat, 25th August, 2012 - Posted by - (4) Comment
Mushroom ‘outlet’ at a Varena roadside.
Mushroom picking is undoubtedly one of the favourite activities of the Lithuanian people. It starts in the spring and lasts till the first frosts, normally early November. Mushroom hunting is probably Lithuania’s second most popular sport, after basketball. When rumours start to float around that the first mushrooms of the year have been seen in the woods, people get up at 6 am on Saturday morning and go to the woods with their baskets and plastic bags. You can actually experience traffic jams at that time on a Saturday morning! Entire families go mushrooming and return with overflowing baskets.
The most abundant forests are in Dzukija, the south eastern region. Traditionally the inhabitants of this part of the country are the most prolific mushroom gatherers and this region's cooks are known for the most creative mushroom recipes. The mushroom capital of Lithuania is the town Varena, founded in 1862 as centre of the Varena District.
Category : Food, wine and more
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Lithuania also offers the finest of international cuisine!
Sat, 25th August, 2012 - Posted by - (0) Comment
Lithuania offers a modern, international cuisine
fully on par with western Europe.
Text: Aage Myhre
Did you think that this country only offers traditional food? Think again… Today’s situation is that numerous Lithuanian restaurants follow the best world traditions of offering exceptional international cuisine, as well as a number of Lithuanian masterpieces, first-class service in surroundings of refined elegance and impeccable hospitality. Modern Lithuania’s excellent cuisine together with a high class service will leave you a memorable experience.
Let me bring you to some of my favourite international cuisine restaurants, this time unfortunately only in Vilnius!
Category : Featured black / Food, wine and more / Front page
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
It’s summer! It’s time for Šaltibarščiai and beer!
Fri, 29th June, 2012 - Posted by - (2) Comment
Lithuanian summer means Šaltibarščiai – cold beet root soup –
and a refreshingly cold beer!
Lithuanian summer traditions are different from what you usually find on European café tables or outdoors on a summer patio or garden. In particular, this applies to dishes Lithuanians gorge themselves with through hot summer months.
Take for example the cold beet soup, Šaltibarščiai, that you see pictured above. Take some time to read what our associate editor, Vin Karnila, writes about this and another, at least as famous Lithuanian dish....
‘Two Lithuanian dishes you simply have to try!’
To a great summer meal also belongs a refreshing cold beer. Look what Vin has to say about this foamy, beautiful Lithuanian brew...
Category : Featured black / Food, wine and more / Front page
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Tue, 8th May, 2012 - Posted by - (6) Comment
Craving for a barbeque
on a Lithuanian lakeside
Text: Saulene Valskyte
Dark gray days and cold nights are finally over and spring/summer has made its way back to Lithuania. Just a few weeks ago you still could've found some remains of snow, but now the sun made her way back and it looks that everybody became happier over night.
After a long rainy autumn and an even longer cold dark winter, people were praying for spring to come back and when it did it looks like everyone is trying to catch up on all summer activities on the very first weekend.
Lakes take the biggest role in Lithuanian summer. Over winter everyone is just craving for barbeque on a lakeside and we do make sure that the very first summery sunshine will be welcomed somewhere in nature enjoying good weather and šašlykai*. Even when the weather is still quite chilly and only dropping clues about upcoming spring fills streets with bicycles and relaxed pedestrians, it looks like for months and months people were waiting for a chance to get out of their homes and finally they get the possibility to do that. In a matter of days parks fill up with lovely couples, young families and youth playing ball, cards or just chilling on barely sprouted grass.
Category : Food, wine and more
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Sat, 7th April, 2012 - Posted by - (3) Comment
Saulene’s
|
|
Text: Saulene Valskyte
Spring has come, the sun is shining, birds are singing, at least that's what it should be like. In Lithuania Easter weather swings from blizzard to burning sun, but regardless to that is this the most colorful celebration of the year. As all Christian celebrations Easter traditions here are intertwined with paganism, Easter in particulary were a pagan celebration of awakening nature.
The Easter celebration starts a week before Easter Day, on Palm Sunday, when people are gathering in churches with beautiful, colorful, original “palms”. In Lithuania every region have there own palm making traditions, usually palm base are the juniper twig. During the church service the palms are being blessed. Afterwards people participate in a traditional Palm Sunday ritual, beating each other with the blessed palms, wishing each other health and strength. Today this is mostly a children game, but in old days everyone were doing it, singing "It's not me, it's palm what beats you, there's Easter in a week, and you will get an Easter egg".
Category : Food, wine and more
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Kugelis recipe
Sun, 12th February, 2012 - Posted by - (26) Comment
Photo by Yours For Good Fermentables.com
I’m very excited to share this recipe with you because
KUGELIS IS MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE :o)
Once again I have been elected to share a traditional Lithuanian recipe with you due to the fact that I am so very “culinary challenged”. Please remember that I need to be supervised when I’m in the kitchen so that I don’t hurt myself. But the powers to be of VilNews feel that I’m the best person to share these recipes since if a person with my limited cooking skills can cook these tasty meals than it shows to every one how easy they are to prepare.
Kugelis is quite easy to make. The only thing a little confusing about making kugelis is what recipe to use. All recipes for traditional foods of all nationalities have their own little twists to them based on the recipe from one family to another. Recipes for traditional Lithuanian meals are the same.
Category : Food, wine and more
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
New Year’s Eve in Lithuania!
Fri, 30th December, 2011 - Posted by - (2) Comment
The New Year Eve party in the Skybar of Hotel Radisson Blu Lietuva in
Vilnius has become a classic tradition…
Info at: http://www.lithuaniantours.com
Text: Saulene Valskyte
In Lithuania Christmas Eve is a family event and the New Year’s Eve a great party with friends!
Lithuanian say "Kaip sutiksi naujus metus, taip juos ir praleisi" (the way you'll meet the new year is the way you will spend it). So everyone is trying to spend New Year’s Eve with friend and have as much fun as possible.
Category : Food, wine and more
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Sun, 18th December, 2011 - Posted by - (1) Comment
CHRISTMAS IN LITHUANIA
It‘s the most wonderful
time of the year...
Twelve different dishes are served on the table because Jesus had twelve apostles. All the dishes are strictly meatless: fish, herring, slizikai with poppy seed milk, kisielius (cranberry pudding), a dried fruit soup or compote, a salad of winter and dried vegetables, mushrooms, boiled or baked potatoes, sauerkraut (cooked, of course, without meat) and bread. Gero apetito! Skanaus!
Photo from: http://www.thebluegrassspecial.com
Text: Saulene Valskyte
Christmas is probably the most important celebration in the whole Christian world, but Lithuanian Christmas traditions are outstanding, even in this context. Lithuania has a very rich history and the many historical events have influenced our traditions – starting with hints of paganism, followed up by remains from the Soviet occupation, and finishing up with an intervention of the modern world. In this article I will tell you a little bit about our Christmas traditions – how they should be and what are still very much are also today. Gero apetito! Skanaus! Linksmu Kalėdų!
Category : Featured black / Food, wine and more
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
Tue, 22nd November, 2011 - Posted by - (0) Comment
A Lithuanian twist to
Thanksgiving this year?
Thanksgiving is a way for Lithuanian immigrants to celebrate being in America and to share that celebration with everyone in the nation—from the descendants of the people who arrived here on the Mayflower to a family that arrived here last year.
When families immigrate to the United States, they often keep to the foods of their native countries. They also tend to continue their traditional holidays. The one American event that gets incorporated into the holiday cycle of almost every new arrival is Thanksgiving. It usually includes all the traditional foods—turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes, cranberries and popcorn, but often with unusual twists that reflect our original homeland.
Any unusual twists on a Lithuanian-American Thanksgiving?
From THE LITHUANIAN RAT PACK, Arizona, USA.…
Category : Food, wine and more / Front page
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
OPINIONS
Have your say. Send to:
editor@VilNews.com
Is 'kugelis' Jewish or Lithuanian?
A few days ago our Associate Editor, Vin Karnila, wrote a well-tasting article about 'kugelis'. In addition to presenting his favourite recipe, he also claimed that this is a national Lithuanian dish. Here are a few of his phrases that got several reactions from readers over the latest days:
"Once again I have been elected to share a traditional Lithuanian recipe with you..."
"I think that 'kugelis' has more variations for recipes than any other Lithuanian dish..."
"In spite of what you may have read about "traditional Lithuanian breakfasts" in books, I can tell you that in Lithuania very often what you had for dinner last night is what you have for breakfast (and lunch) the next day."
To read more, go to our
Section 21 – FOOD, WINE AND MORE
This not a Lithuanian dish.
Sorry, but this is yet another example of the erroneous assumptions made about things that are nothing to do with Lithuania and yet, generally because a couple of letters have been on the end of a word (in this case the addition of the letters i and s at the end of the Yiddish/German word kugel), people assume that they're Lithuania. This not a Lithuanian dish.
Richard Schofield
Indeed a cherished Lithuanian dish
In response to Richard Schofield – Potato Kugelis is indeed a cherished Lithuanian dish. It is also called "Bulviu Plokstainis" (flat potato dish). It often contains pork products (like bacon) as that is what was in abundance in Lithuania and still is, although you can find Plokstainis with chicken as well.
I'll bet that there is not one Lithuanian family, regardless of their religious beliefs, that does not have a Potato Kugelis/Plokstainis recipe that is passed from generation to generation.
Rima Raulinaitis
Kugel (or Kigel) is eaten by Jews all over around
I was really interested to read that kugel (or Kigel) which is eaten by Jews all over around, may be a Lithuanian dish, I'd be interested in more information on the source of Kugel(is).
If you are already doing a research on that, could you tell me if Tshulent does sound familiar to Lithuanians?
Gershon Lehrer, Antwerp, Belgium
Kugelis is a favorite with all our family
My cousin from Stakiai grates the raw onion into the potato mixture….she said it keeps the potatoes whiter. I've tried it and it seems to keep them from turning gray. Kugelis is a favorite with all our family and I've made both bacon and vegetarian options – all are consumed pretty quickly!
Sandy Abramovich
We should not confuse the Lithuanian Kugelis with the Jewish Kugel
We should not confuse the Lithuanian Kugelis with the Jewish Kugel. I think the only similarity here is the name. The Lithuanian Kugelis is made with potatoes, while the Jewish kugelis is made mostly with noodles. The Lithuanian Kugelis requires bacon bits (and perhaps bacon fat). So try serving Lithuanian Kugelis to a religious Jew (after you tell him what's in it), and see what reaction you get.
Val Ramonis
In common sense terms, that makes it a Lithuanian dish
I am a professional translator and trained linguist and I have tried to find out the etymology (origin) of the word "kugelis" (N.B. the word, not the object). But no one seems to know for sure. One theory is that the word is of Germanic origin. This theory is around because it resembles the German word "kugel", which means "ball, sphere, globe". Well, sounds a little shaky to me, because kugelis is certainly not sphere-shaped, not even round in most cases (at least not these days). Another theory is that it may have something to do with the German word "kochen" (to cook), but the implication with that word is usually more about boiling than baking in the oven. ("Backen" is "to bake" in German.) In the end, does it matter? It's silly for Richard Schofield to proclaim "This not a Lithuanian dish." Millions of plates of kugelis are consumed by Lithuanians every year. In common sense terms, that makes it a Lithuanian dish.
Gintautas Kaminskas
RE: A beer drinking country
Great article with one noteable fact that is wrong. Lithuania only had one "king", the rest of the time it was the Grand Dukes who ruled. Wish there were something in there about the beer brewed at Avilys which happened to be my favorite when I was there.
Bernardas Tirva
Sveiki Ponas Bernardai,
Thank you for pointing that out.
Yes, I stand corrected. I should have said with the permission of the Grand Duke.
Your comment about "Avilys" beer peaked my interest so I did a little searching.
The result was that I couldn't come up with anything about a brewery or a specific beer named "Avilys.
What I did find was that there are two micro breweries/restaurants named "Avilys". One is in Vilnius and the other in Kaunas. Naturally the beer they produce is called "Avilys beer". These two establishments currently are in operation so when you said "when I was there", I don't know if this is the same company making the same beer.
So many breweries in Lithuania have come and gone. Some have merged with other breweries, some have changed their names and some have simply just closed their doors. In the article, I wrote about the breweries that are still operating in Lithuania today. I'm sure volumes could be written about the others that existed in the past. If you could give us some information about the "Avilys" beer that you remember, I for one and I'm sure our readers would find this very interesting.
In fact we invite all of our readers to share any information you have about Lithuanian breweries from the past.
Su pagarbe – Vin Karnila
VilNews e-magazine is published in Vilnius, Lithuania. Editor-in-Chief: Mr. Aage Myhre. Inquires to the editors: editor@VilNews.com.
Code of Ethics: See Section 2 – about VilNews. VilNews is not responsible for content on external links/web pages.
HOW TO ADVERTISE IN VILNEWS.
All content is copyrighted © 2011. UAB ‘VilNews’.