We had a pig’s ear in Lithuania and it was chewy!

A squishy pigs ear in Vilnius, Lithuania.
A squishy pigs ear in Vilnius, Lithuania.

So last week, I started writing about our adventures in Lithuania and what an excellent beginning we had.

As much as I love the “other” Eastern Europe, I had never been to that part of the region before.

Oops! Did I say Eastern Europe.

Oh dear!

Friends tell me that saying the forbidden word “East” is likened to putting a noose around your own neck and pulling it.

Tightly.

Ah well!

Home-made blueberry jam and cream.
Home-made blueberry jam and cream.

Being that Vilnius, and therefore, Lithuania is in an unknown part of the world, it stands to reason that it’s food and drink culture would be similar so.

I love writing about food although I’m not that much of an eater, I talk far too much to actually eat anything and as for drinking, I’m such a light-weight, it’s a British disgrace!

However.

I do like to try things out and taste things for myself.

Here’s some food posts of the past.

GERMANY:

Christmas food in Germany comprising of home-made potato dumplings, red cabbage, succulent roast goose, and gravy made from goose dripping!

  • As you recall, I’ve written about German food in-depth and the results were pretty surprising.
  •  I have also been on a food walking tour in Berlin. The first time I’ve ever done so and again what a day of delicious moreness!

THE CZECH REPUBLIC:

HOLLAND:

Dutch chips and Mayo. Umm. They're alright. I coped!
Dutch chips and Mayo. Umm. They’re alright. I coped!

FRANCE:

THAILAND:

Delicious, yummy, spicy Tom Yum Goong soup in Bangkok, Thailand.
Delicious, yummy, spicy Tom Yum Goong soup in Bangkok, Thailand.

POLAND:

BRITAIN:

Afternoon Tea at Llangoed Hall.
Afternoon Tea at Llangoed Hall.

So now that you know how exciting I find food posts, here comes the food table of Lithuania!

A LITHUANIAN BREAKFAST:

Fresh oranges and kiwi slices.
Fresh oranges and kiwi slices.

As you know, we were in a B&B so we had a home-made breakfast on a daily basis of pancakes with home-made blueberry, strawberry, and apple jam with cream, yogurt and slices of fruit, And you could have as much as tea and coffee as you wanted.

Cost – Nothing at all. It came with the bed!

A LITHUANIAN STARTER:

Beer "food" in Lithuania.
Beer “food” in Lithuania.

We were told that in Lithuania, and in pretty much all the Baltic States, a plate of “beer food” is pretty standard when ordering or waiting for your meal to arrive. In Europe, not ordering an alcoholic drink is considered quite weird and let me tell you, when I lived in Prague in the 90’s, beer was cheaper than water!

You heard me.

Beer was cheaper than water!

They’ve changed that now and made it.

Drum roll please……..

The same price!!!

Remember how I told you that we had lunch at the Independent Republic of Užupis – a bohemian community of artists – located on “the other side of the river.” Well, they have a really nice and enormously cheap restaurant called Užupio kavinė.

Yes please!

So the beer food above was a plate of fried bread with cheese and mayonnaise sauce.

The bread was pretty oily but honestly, it really did the job of wetting one’s appetite as it was quite crunchy too, and the mayo was kind of sweet! I think we even ordered a second plate!

Cost – €2.00.

Lithuanian soup.
Lithuanian soup.

We also had soup.

Oooooh! You know how much I like soup. This was home-made garlic soup with a dollop of cream in the middle of it, and sprinkled with dill!

Cost – €1.30

Lithuanian dumplings.
Lithuanian dumplings.

Just look at those traditional zeppelini’s with a meat filling.

A zeppelini is a type of dumpling and a traditional Lithuanian dish. This particular zeppelini came with a small bowl of bacon pieces and sour cream. How juicy and succulent they must be!

I’m not a fan of dumplings as they tend to be made out of potato…! Anyway, we found this dish in a really nice place that quite a lot of people had said not to go to because, and I quote, “It’s full of tourists!” I’m afraid that these dishes were so attractive that I quite forgot the restaurant name, but if I find it, I’ll let you know!

Hardly anybody tends to see the irony of places “full” of tourists and the fact that we tend to add to that number. Even worse, when visitors are lucky enough to find the more “authentic” places, they’re upset when the service staff either cannot, or refuse to speak English.

I mean, why should they?

More zeppelini dumplings!
More zeppelini dumplings!

Do you really expect a plastic table, plastic chair, food place in the middle of say, China, that is “authentic” to speak English, German or Russian?

Let’s be honest. Do you?

Back to the food.

Those dumplings according to “The Tall Young Gentleman” were divine.

And the cost at such a “tourist” place – €3.95!

I’m so sorry about the lighting but I just had to show you this platter of traditional assorted Lithuanian snacks served with home-made Lithuanian bread. It was a huge platter of Lithuanian aromatic cheeses surrounding a pot of strong local honey, slices of cured meats, slices of pear, oranges, and lemons, bite-sized vegetables, pickled onions, Feltsalad, and chives, scattered over with local cranberry seeds. It was really delicious and made for two people. I would have loved to link the restaurant but somehow, the food was so alluring that I can’t find the buisness card of the restaurant. If I do, I’ll let you know later!

Cost – €11.00.

LITHUANIAN MAIN DISHES:

The Lithuanian speciality of a pig's ear!
The Lithuanian speciality of a pig’s ear!

We went on a free walking tour organised by Vilnius With Locals, and even though It was snowing and freezing cold, we stayed on right until the end! We were very much rewarded as our tour guide introduced us to a local place for lunch, where we had our very first original, authentic Lithuanian food. The place was called Būsi trečias and what a place it was.

We were all so excited to try out food from the region and so “The Tall Young Gentleman” ordered pigs ear.

And he so wished he hadn’t!

It came in a frying pan and was served with potato pancake and a sort of bacon and spring onion white sauce.

I don’t need to tell you much as you can already see how chewy it looks. It tasted chewy too but “The Tall Young Gentleman” was a true gentleman and tried his best to man up and eat it!

Cost – €5.50.

Lithuanian pancakes!
Lithuanian pancakes!

The Music Producer being German decided to go for a dish called “The Bremen Town Musicians.” It was a pile of pork, beef and chicken, layered by potato pancakes, some white sauce, and a side salad accompanied by a tomato and an olive!

Cost – €7.50.

Stuffed potatoes in Lithuania.
Stuffed potatoes in Lithuania.

I admit that my meal does look yucky but it tasted delicious! It was a serving of baked potatoes stuffed with herring, mushrooms, onions, mayonnaise and sour cream, sprinkled with dill.

Cost – €1.74. Yep! you heard me.

€1.74!

Lithuanian pork steak.
Lithuanian pork steak.

In the previous wonderful “tourist” place I mentioned to you earlier, I had a plate of Lithuanian crispy pork steak that was served with a curly swirl of yummy mashed potatoes, red cabbage, coleslaw, cucumber, and covered with mushroom sauce. It was delicious and so utterly filling I was only able to “manage” a cocktail or two in the evening LOL!

Cost – €5.35.

LITHUANIAN AFTERS:

a-glass-of-kvass

We weren’t able to manage having dessert but the local drinks more than made up for our “third” course!

For those of you who prefer not to drink the usual and quite boring “soft” drink, you could go for a local drink filled with honey or kvass which is a fermented beverage usually made out of black or rye bread!

Be careful though as I constantly had to check that “non-alcoholic” drinks actually contained no alcohol.

Europe is quite liberal over that type of thing as beer is not considered alcohol in the real sense of things and moreover, our son looks much older than he actually is. I mean, the last time we went to Italy, we went to a fancy pâtisserie and he was served a slice of lemon cake. Filled with rum!

I was so angry, and they really couldn’t see why.

Our son was 10 years old at the time!

Don’t say that I didn’t warn you!

Cost – €1.75.

Dark Lithuanian beer.

I don’t drink dark beers but my husband does and the dark god is pretty awesome in this part of the world. He said!

There was always a large variety of different Lithuanian beer.

Cost – €2.00.

Lithuanian liquor shots!
Lithuanian liquor shots!

I do of course drink lagers, champagne and very good vodka. I’m so sorry about the quality of the picture. Again, I have put it in because the way it was served was really interesting.

We were fairly stuffed after champagne and wine and to round the evening up, the waiter suggested a shot of Lithuanian liquor served in blocks of ice!

That’s right. Ice.

And you had to be quick about it too as the ice tended to melt as soon as it had some contact with warmth.

It wasn’t a problem LOL!

Cost – €3.50.

Well, that’s it. I told you Vilnius in Lithuania was cheap. So what are you waiting for?

Lithuanian vodka!
Lithuanian vodka!

This article is part-sponsored by Lux Express and Vilnius Home Bed and Breakfast.

We received a part-complimentary-part-discounted stay on our B&B but all opinions and the lovely Lithuanian vodka and shots that I totally consumed, are my very own!

I have so much to share with you.

Stay tuned!

Next week, I’ll be writing about the old town of Riga in Latvia. Get reeeeeeeeady!

After that, there will be a food post about Latvia too and our experience in Tallinn in Estonia with the help of the Tallinn Card, what the view was like on the ferry crossing from Estonia to Finland with TALLINK SLJA LINE and what we thought about Helsinki in Finland!

International Games Week Berlin 2015 is a leading cross-industry communication and networking platform for games businesss, development and culture, and will be taking place between April 21-26, 2015.

I’ll be going to TBEX Europe (Travel Bloggers Exchange) an International Networking Conference, for the first time! It’ll be taking place in Costa Brava, Catalunya, Spain from 30.04.15 – 02.05.15.

Strictly Stand Up English Comedy Night will be taking place at the Quatsch Comedy Club on 29.04.15.

Eddie Izzard will be back in Germany and will be front-lining a killer international night of comedy at the Admirals Palast on 08.05.15.

The Berlin Music Video Awards will be taking place from May 27.05.15 – 30.05.15. Anybody can apply!

The Berlin Fashion Film Festival will be taking place on 05.06.15.

I’ll be there. Will you?

As usual, you can also follow me via daily tweets and pictures on Twitter & FB!

If you’re not in Berlin in April, you’re going to miss the delight of Spring!

April is going to be bright and warm.

Watch this space!

What came first - The chicken or the egg?
What came first – The chicken or the egg?

Have you ever had a potato pancake? Would you eat a pig’s ear?

If you like this post or if you have any questions send me a tweet, talk to me on Facebook, find me on Linkedin, make a comment below, or send me an Email: victoria@thebritishberliner.com

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46 Comments on “We had a pig’s ear in Lithuania and it was chewy!

  1. Some of these foods look interesting and delicious, especially the one you had with the swirly potato, and the dumplings. I would probably like the pigs ear, but not when its presented like that. Little pieces mixed with something and fried, not boiled or steamed like it seems to be. On the whole, looks like you ate well..so good. Prices can’t be beat for the most part, “touristy” place or not.. 🙂

    • Thank you kemkem! The pork steak was quite delicious as were the potatoes. I love potatoes you see but not when they are pulped into pancakes, dumplings, or anything else. Plain potatoes are perfectly fine LOL! As for the pigs’ ear. Eat your heart out young lady!

      We did eat well. I was utterly surprised at how easy it was to eat without having the feeling you were being ripped off ‘cos if €3.00 was the “tourist” price, what would the “local” price be? And moreover, at least 50% of the punters in the restaurant were actually Lithuanian. 🙂

  2. It all looks delicious! Including the pig’s ear..would love to take a bite of it! Thanks for sharing..my mouth is watering at everything..:-))

    • Thank you africanagirl! Lithuanian food was delicious but not so much the pig’s ear. We wanted to try it again at another restaurant, but we couldn’t go through with it LOL!

  3. Oh wow Victoria, I didn’t quite appreciate how much you’ve written about food, good on you. You have a lot of culinary diversity here which is fabulous and highlights a big benefit of travel.

    For me, the afternoon tea is always going to appeal, worth the trip to London alone for an authentic experience. I am also with your husband on the appreciate of real beer, not this gassy lager nonsense that you see so many drink in pubs.

    Sorry to hear that “East” is upsetting some nowadays. I understand the appreciation of the past history so how should we refer to it now to reflect it geographically. The new Middle West maybe?

    • Thank you so much The Guy. That’s honour indeed. 🙂 Yep! That’s one of the great things about travelling, getting to experience the food culture, and haven’t I just? LOL!

      I totally understand, Afternoon Tea is so just the epitome of civilisation. We can only get it at 5-star hotels in Berlin, but they do it really well. And so cheap. I went to the Ritz Carlton last year and Afternoon Tea with a very nice glass of champagne came to just €37.00 per person. Only €37.00. In fact, Berlin’s Adlon Hotel of Michael Jackson fame, was even cheaper LOL!

      Yes, unfortunately, the shadow of the Cold War still lingers and as a result, the countries in that region prefer to be known as The Baltics or Nordic, but there’s still a lot of controverisal discussion about that LOL!

      • Absolutely! It’s gone up to €42.00 now but who am I kidding. It’s a bargain! We even got a second glass on the house as it was my husbands’ birthday and Afternoon Tea was our “first course” before we went to see a one-night-only British Live National Theatre Premier. Everyone was dressed up and it was a real British theatre affair with people brandishing bottles of wine about.
        We can take wine and glasses in with us you see! 🙂

  4. Sounds a lot like Latvian food – they do like their dill in that part of the world 😉 I have never and would never eat a pig’s ear – your son is far braver than I! Looking forward to next week’s post! 🙂

  5. OMGGGGG I love food posts. I never tried pig’s ear – chewy sounds pretty expected tho. That oily black bread with some kind of cheesy-garlicy spread is a go-to beer accouterment in Russia as well. I cant wait to read where you ate in Tallinn!

    • Me toooooo! I’m so glad that you like it. I didn’t want to try pigs ear either Anna! And do you really have the fried bread concotion in Russia too? That is so cool. Sort of, LOL!
      I know I took business cards of most of the places but I can’t seem to find them as we went to four different places. I even took photos of the menu so that I would remember exactly what we ate but sadly, I failed to take in the name of the establishments. I managed to get two in the post though! 🙂

  6. Wow! Kudos to the Tall Young Gentleman for doing his best to get that pig’s ear down… I bet the flavor was pretty good, but the texture must have been hard to swallow. I think I know why they tend to just be used for dog treats in our neck of the woods! 😉

    Also, I can’t believe how cheap the food in Lithuania is! It looks like the portions were very generous and the food very rich and filling, so as far as value goes, it seems to be an incredible deal!
    
    • Thanks guys! Such a pleasure. 🙂 Yes, I think, it actually tasted quite alright and “The Tall Young Gentleman” did say that had he not known that it was a pig’s ear, he would have quite enjoyed his meal.
      I couldn’t believe how cheap the food was either. A rather pleasant surprise. 🙂

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    • Thanks guys! We went to Tallinn too but I found Estonian food of a finer quality and more akin to Russia and their Nordic neigbours LOL! I’ll be writing about Estonian food in May so keep an eye out. 🙂

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