Fine dining/boozing in Vilnius

Myself and my boyfriend have just returned after a spending a food (well... šaltibarščiai, mainly), beer and family-filled week in his home city, Vilnius (Lithuania's capital city). Yet again, my obsession with the traditional cold beet soup returned in full force; two portions of the glorious pink stuff every day was the norm for me, much to my boyfriend's amusement!

A late discovery of our previous holiday there, our go-to for fast, delicious and fresh meals (plus the odd gigantic-sized cocktail or beer) was the trendy Carré bar and restaurant, positioned fairly centrally along the main street in town. Though I only ate šaltibarščiai there, my boyfriend went for a dish of grilled chicken with sweet potato and sundried tomatoes. I can confirm that it was top-notch (nosh?), and something akin to what we'd expect in a top-rated brasserie at home (doubtlessly at quadruple the price - this dish cost less than a fiver!).

For anyone who considers themselves a bit of a 'foodie', Vilnius should be considered at the top of your destinations list for the simple reason that its food is consistently brilliant - high quality ingredients, plates offering perfect combinations and an expansive selection all coming in at a fraction of the price you'd expect to pay in England (read: šaltibarščiai soup with a side plate full of sautéed potatoes generally ranges from £1 to £2. A freshly stone-baked 30cm pizza from Charlie's isn't a lot more than that, either.

So to say I enjoy the cuisine of Vilnius is an understatement! Tipples of choice ranged from freshly-squeezed carrot juice (sold in even the most obscure places, such as the indoor Aqua park we spent a day at) which cost from £1 each, to beer (Svyturys Baltas is just amazing, and less than £2 for a pint), or the whopping 800ml cocktails (as mentioned before) served in Carré. Most cocktails, including my mint mojito and 'jack in the beans' (ingredients of which remain a mystery) was around £4.25, whilst my boyfriend's hangover-inducing long island iced tea was 27 litas (around £6.75).

But enough of the details for now, moving swiftly on to the photographic evidence of our various gastronomic delights. And, on a side-note, I know for certain that If I lived in Vilnius, it would be seriously difficult for me to avoid eating (and drinking) out every day. Not to mention the potential damage to my waistline - following a healthy diet would be almost soul destroying due to the ease of eating out for the equivalent cost of purchasing your food from the supermarkets - and definitely not helped by the fact that pub snacks of deep-fried brown bread with melted cheese/mayo combo are available everywhere, complimenting a beer to perfection. Oh, Vilnius; how I miss thee already!


The soup of all soups, šaltibarščiai

A plateful of Lithuanian 'sashlik' (their equivalent to our BBQ food, bought from a street market stall)

Me avec icecream - kiwi and mango (spot the Sashlik!)

A typical pizza from Charlie's

JUICE!

My boyfriend, posing like the pro he is! (he practices)

Me with an alcoholic-style grin, and my Jack in the beans cocktail. Yum.

Babushka's Cottage Cheese Pancakes

As promised, here is the recipe for my boyfriend's grandma's cottage cheese pancakes. These were baked by the dozen, so we always had a plentiful amount for breakfast! My god, these are truly delightful - trust me. Spasiba, Babushka!

Ingredients

2 eggs
500g cottage cheese
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon self-raising flour
2 tablespoons sugar
Virgin Olive Oil
Raisins or filling of choice (optional)

Empty the cottage cheese into a large bowl and beat in the eggs. Sift the flour into the mixture and blend until the mix begins to harden. Add raisins or whatever else you'd prefer; raisins work well to sweeten the taste a bit. Heat the oil in a large pan whilst making small patties with the mixture; coat each with a bit of flour so they don't stick to the pan, and then add to the pan. Flip every couple of minutes until they appear golden brown. Best served whilst warm (otherwise I recommend microwaving!). This makes around 12 cottage cheese pancakes.

Please note: a language barrier has prevented me from retrieving the original recipe so this is a bit of a guess-and-make-do style recipe. Results weren't as great as Babushka's, but still tasty. A bit of trial and error is needed with the amounts of flour necessary as mine were too floury and not quite 'wet' enough! Even so, give it a go and I hope you enjoy as much as I do. :)

Pass me the Cheese, Please

Anyone who knows me should be aware of my love for cheese - every single kind of cheese, no matter how stinky it is, it's all so very wonderful to me. And that applies to cottage cheese as well, probably the healthiest you're going to get when it comes to this generally high-fat dairy product.

For many dieters, athletes and bodybuilders alike, it's considered an excellent source of protein (around 17g per 100g), meaning that it's a very filling product without the excessive amounts of calories, fat or carbohydrates.

Personally I like Twarog Lowicki half-fat soft cheese, which can be bought from the Polish section in Tesco. I mash this up with a dollop of fat-free probiotic yoghurt and add sultanas for a sweeter taste, and it practically tastes like dessert! I have to admit, when I first saw my boyfriend make up this strange combination as a late-night snack I thought it was more than a little bit weird, but it honestly tastes great (for cheese fiends, even more so) and is extremely good as a kind of meal-replacement dish.

As previously mentioned, cottage cheese is a product that is used a lot in Lithuania. In the supermarkets there were as many (if not more) cottage cheese-based desserts and snacks than yoghurts; needless to say, I fell in love with the chocolate-covered, kid-friendly kind of cottage cheese; Surelis.

These. Are. Amazing.



English supermarkets should sort themselves out and stock more Eastern European products. Either that, or better; English brands should take a tip from their overseas-equivalents and produce something that could actually fix the child obesity rate in the UK, rather than fuel it further with the high-fat/sugar based products that are currently aimed towards children.

Ranty Katie has finished now! And, calm...

P.S. 'Russian Grandma's Cottage Cheese Pancake' review and recipe to follow shortly!

Teletubby Custard

Aloya!

I've just returned from an amazing two-week holiday with my boyfriend in Vilnius, Lithuania. The trip consisted of a lot of city walking and touring/sightseeing, meeting my boyfriend's family and friends (a nervy experience!), and getting to grips with traditional Lithuanian food and drink. Naturally, I'm dedicating this blog post to the latter!

I'd say that my diet in Lithuania consisted of the country's staple ingredients/dishes, including a lot of cottage cheese, saltibarsciai, and potatoes.

The food scene is very much alive in LT, especially in the capital city - for this reason alone Vilnius is worthy of a visit, especially for the food lovers among us. Alongside the great GB->LT conversion rate, eating out is practically the same price as eating in, so you can expect a whole lot of food for a fraction of the price you'd usually expect to pay.

In fact, if you manage to grab a flyer for restaurant discount coupons (these can be found fairly easily with a bit of know-how, and in abundance at the entrance to some shopping malls) and you can dine like a King for less than a fiver - honest!

My absolute favourite dish was no doubt saltibarsciai - a traditional cold beetroot soup served with hot roast potatoes on the side, which I unashamedly devoured with joy at least once per day while I was there! With coupons it was priced around 4LT, which is just 90 pence approximately.

The main ingredients of saltibarsciai include kefir, a scoop of sour cream, sliced beetroot (which turns the mixture into what I like to call a Teletubby-custard shade of pink), chopped cucumber/spring onions and half a boiled egg. Overall these contents make for an extremely healthy lunch (pre-lunch/snack for my boyfriend - naturally), and an incredible taste that left me craving for more.

Kefir can be found by the bucketload (but not quite literally) in the supermarkets of Lithuania, yet unfortunately it is somewhat MIA here in England. Out of the entire stock of Tesco, it is minimalized to just one product in the tiny Polish food section (I haven't yet rooted around in other English supermarkets or checked out any specialist Eastern European shops/health food shops, however).

Let's get straight to the point. Kefir is an amazing product because it is full with probiotic bacteria, amino acids, vitamins and minerals, which altogether help to cleanse the body and promote a healthy digestive system (this is important for me particularly as I have a slow-working digestive system).

Meanwhile, beetroots provide an excellent source of iron, energizing carbohydrates, folic acids, vitamins, and - like kefir - contain natural body-cleansing properties (for the blood and colon specifically).

A match made in health heaven? Most likely. I've yet to make my own saltibarsciai but my cravings are kicking in and my fridge is conveniently full of all the necessary ingreds (bar kefir). So, as they say - watch this space.

(A lot more updates to come on life - and food - in Lithuania!).