Lithuania gastronomy, beers and wines

According to the website “Studycountry” In Lithuania, there is inherited saying from the ancestors “He who eats well, works well.” 

Lithuanian, is small country by the Baltic sea, it has only 91 km. of sea shore. Besides it is small, the country is divided into five ethnic regions, and each region is well represented in the food and drinks that they serve, look to the 1.1.1. picture. That is why I decided to talk about Lithuania as one big region, with five small parts.

The Highlanders or people from the northeast region are famous for their pancakes and cottage cheese dishes. The Samogitians, from the northwest have sour butter, porridges and gruels. From the Southeast where it is filled with woodlands are the Dzukai growing buckwheat, mushrooms and potatoes. In the southwest region, they have smoked meats and sausages. Lithuanians living near the seacoast have a regular diet of fish. Lithuanian food is mostly influenced by neighbouring countries. Kugels, a potato cake is said to have originated from neighbour, Germany. 

In the country traditional seating at the table during feasts is always like this – the father sits at the head of the table, the mother sits across him, the oldest son to the father’s right, and the rest of the children beside him. If a visitor arrives he greets the family “skanaus’’ which means ‘‘bom apetite”. The father may say “prašom” which means “you’re welcome”. This means the visitor may join the dinner. The father may also say “ačiū” which means “Obrigada or obrigado” and the visitor is not invited to join the meal.

National specialties dishes in Lithuania is: 

Baltas sūris – White curd cheese (It is really tasty eaten with the honey).

Bulviniai blynai – potato pancakes.

Šalti barščiai – cold red soup (Usually being eaten with hot boiled potatoes)

Vėdarai – potato sausage.

Skilandis – smoked meat or smoked eel.

There are plenty local brands of beer available, there is more than 80 brewers across the country and every region of Lithuania make deferent beer. Compared to Portugal, the beer in Lithuania is like a wine. There is also a lot of deferent kinds of beer and because of this, there appeared a lot of “Beer tourism”, the tourism based on beer and it differences between the regions.

Moreover, in Lithuania there is famous spirit “midus“ which is made from honey, and long process of fermentation, it is best described as light and sweet. Often Lithuanians in the centre of woods boil another spirit drink it is like vodka, but it has more degrees, about 60% and the base ingredients is wheat, water and time of the fermentation. Why in the middle of the woods, you will ask. Because it is forbidden by the law, sadly, even so it is huge heritage of our ancestors.