Around the world in 80 dishes

We are entering the Baltics… the lands of potatoes and cabbage! Lithuanian cuisine shares similarities with its Baltic neighbours, but it’s food has also been influenced by Germany (with pork based dishes like kugelis - potato stuffed with pork) and France (due to aristocracy hiring french chefs). While Lithuanians were growing rye and other wheat from prehistoric time, potatoes only came to the country in 17th century. Having said that, it still gave enough time to create lots of incredible potato dishes prepared in many different ways. Just one example is cepelinai. A national dish for over 150 years, although before 1900s it was called didzkukuliai or dumb-bells (which actually explain their shape). They are dumplings with potato dough stuffed with pork and served with sour cream. Foraging for mushrooms and berries is a pride and joy of the Baltics. According to our Latvian frie...

President Kennedy once said, “Ich bin ein Berliner” - calling himself a donut rather than a resident of Berlin. Donuts or not, we sure love German food! Germany: the land of the schnitzels, all kinds of wursts and beer. Or at least that’s what it seems like from the outside. German cuisine sometimes has a reputation for being bland. That may have been the case in prehistoric times, given that people mostly had access to wheat, rye and livestock. But since the Romans, the food grew in variety and sophistication. Today, you can go from place to place sampling delicious food. German food has a wonderful mix of sweet and savoury. From freshly baked bread, locally sourced meats, and, of course, delicious desserts. Don’t get us started on desserts, from the Black Forest cakes, to Baumkuchen (tree cake), to all the spiced cookies. German cuisine varies with the regions; the mountains, the coastal villages, and plai...

We are off to the land of the Vikings! And before you go any further, a quick disclaimer; we did NOT go to IKEA for Swedish meatballs (in hindsight, maybe poor choices were made). The Vikings not only discovered the world and set roots in the places we know and love, but also influenced the food that we eat today. Vikings were known for their food preservation, including salting, smoking, fermenting, drying and pickling. These traditions remain a big part of the Nordic cuisine. As the Nordics are are surrounded by seas, it is not surprising that fishing is a big part of the culture, including whaling. However, it is not only fish which Scandinavian countries are known for; pork is also done in all forms you can imagine, cured, smoked, grilled or dried. What do we mean by the Nordic cuisine, we hear you ask. We don’t want to generalise, as usually the food we have only represents a small region of the country, so to say all...