A simple guide to Estonian food and Russian beer!

So last week was such an amazing week for me and my blog.

Being a British person living in Berlin is just so wonderful.

I helped a talented girlfriend of mine by participating in her independent movie for her film school. It was low-budget. Make that no budget, but we were just all happy to help out. It’s a silent movie with Charlie Chaplin-like wordings at the bottom of the screen. It’s called – Wer will noch mal, wer hat noch nicht.

I play the role of “sexy lady!”

I attended the Berlin Music Video Awards as a press delegate over the weekend and last week, I met someone from the rbb TV station! They saw my blog and a small film interview that I did with Travel Massive, liked it and wanted to meet me. I’m going to be involved in a short documentary as a British expat blogger about town, and filming starts next week!

I’ll also be participating in a few radio interviews about Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Germany.

Yes, the Queen.

OMG. I’m a little nervous but very, very excited!

It’s all happened so quickly so to calm my beating heart, let’s go back to Estonia.

As you recall, I went to Tallinn and this year, I have been refreshingly delighted by all the food I was lucky enough to taste and indulge in, not only from Estonia, but Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, Holland, Germany, the Czech Republic and Finland!

Bearing that in mind, let me now introduce you to:

 BREAKFAST

By god we had some delicious stuff. As you recall, our first trip out to Tallinn was at the Hotel St. Petersbourg and the breakfast we were exposed to there.

For breakfast, we had marvellous cold cuts, paté, a variety of sea-food, vegetables, sauces, pickles and cream. As well as a wide variety of cereal, fruit, bread, cake, pastries, pots of tea, coffee and juices. You could also choose from the à la carte menu where you could order farm eggs in any style, omelette with ham, cheese, with mushrooms or tomatoes, freshly made oatmeal or semolina porridge and pancakes with maple syrup!

I love seafood and there was all manner of fish like herrings and salmon, with fresh horse-radish. Mmmm. Yum, yum.

At the My City Hotel, we also had a buffet which consisted of bacon, sausages, baked beans and grilled potatoes. They also had a wonderful array of Finnish bread and a variety of pickles! Yum!

Cost – €0.00.

BREAD

An assortment of warm bread filled with prunes, nuts and dollops of fresh butter. I had the plain bread with no nuts LOL!

Cost – €0.00.

Just because you’re in Estonia, doesn’t mean that you can’t have a simple croissant and a pot of English tea!

Cost – €0.00.

 RUSTIC ESTONIAN DISHES

Estonia is a little more glam than Latvia, and Lithuania but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get down to earth good old Estonian peasant food because, you can! We went to The Estonian Open Air Museum and found a traditional tavern called the Kolu Inn. The inn is a relocated place built in 1840 with a single stable and which serves national Estonian dishes. “The Tall Young Gentleman” had the Mulgipuder which you can see above. Mulgipuder is a traditional dish made from potatoes and barley mashed together. Inside the mash are bacon bits and onions served with parsley, sour cream and slices of brown Estonian rustic bread.

Cost – €4.50.

I had the meal above. It’s a dish of Keedumana, fish sprats and sauce. Keedumana is a sort of soft broiled egg and it was served with pickles, sprats, red peppers, parsley and a type of prawn and cocktail-seafood sauce accompanied by slices of brown Estonian rustic bread. Quite delicious!

Cost – €3.20.

The Hotel St. Petersbourg has two (2) restaurants on its premises and the food was so good that we didn’t go anywhere else!

One of their restaurants is called Kuldse Notsu Korts or The Golden Piglet Inn, and it serves typical Estonian food. I had the meal above for lunch and it was wild boar cooked in creamy juniper berry sauce, served with chunky slices of baked potato, and vegetables dipped in honey. I mean, it was so deliciously yum!

Cost – €19.90.

Now you can’t go the Baltics without accosting yourself of a plate of sausages of which there is plenty LOL! The dish above is part of the Estonian Sausage Feast for Two (2). You get a tray-load of various Estonian sausages, chunky baked potatoes, vegetables, a variety of sauces and the habitual sour white cabbage, also known as sauerkraut!

The next time you’re in the region, try it for yourself.

Cost – €25.90.

IN TALLINN ONCE AGAIN!

As part of our Baltic trip, we also went to Finland and so on our return, we spent one (1) more day at the 4-star charming My City Hotel.

My City Hotel (formerly the Domina Inn City Hotel) is a charming little hotel with 68 rooms situated in the heart of Tallinn’s Old Town, and decorated with Italian modern art. We stayed in one of the Superior Twin Rooms.

They’re undergoing renovations at the moment, but once they’re  done, you’ll be well set up.

My City Hotel is a nice hotel filled with glossy wood, a huge wardrobe, a tea and coffee set, a marble-like bathroom with a cute rubber-ducky! For a comfortable break, they are well situated as they are in a historical central location, is spacious, has free WiFi, a full buffet breakfast, and fluffy slippers! Most importantly, they had a basket of fruit waiting for us which I felt was a nice touch, and complimentary sauna.

We weren’t able to use the sauna this time around as we ran out of time, but I’m slowly getting used to them.

Oh, but again, you know how I feel about European saunas.

Double gulp!

And screaming down the street!

FANCY FOOD

The on-site restaurant at My City Hotel couldn’t be surpassed. The hotel might not have been to the high luxury standards of Hotel St. Petersbourg, but their dinner set was exquisite and one of the best meals we had, on our Baltic Region trip!

The restaurant is called MIX and the restaurant’s chef  – Vladimir Iljin – really did a fantastic job. The restaurant is so highly valued that it was packed with not only hotel guests, but external guests too. In fact, I had wavered into eating elsewhere but I’m so glad that I was swayed to try the hotel restaurant instead.

It was a really good choice and reservations are highly recommended LOL!

An Estonian starter of homemade duck liver paté on Estonian crisp bread on lettuce, covered with a secret ingredient (does anyone know what that is) and served with orange sliced dried plums!

Cost – à la carte €5.00.

Yes, this starter isn’t traditionally Estonian, but MIX at My City Hotel combine their menus with a blend of Italian, French and Estonian cuisine. The hotel also had a special three-coursed (3) special offer of just €19.00 per person and being that Estonia isn’t one of your cheap locations, I thought it was reasonably priced!

The dish above was carpaccio of beef with rocket salad, sun-dried tomatoes, parmesan cheese, and pine nuts sprinkled with balsamic vinegar. Mine came without the nuts!

Cost – à la carte €8.00.

Seafood is just my fave type of food.

I had the blanched salmon stuffed with marscapone cheese and mussels, served with lemon-flavoured risotto and a side salad, and sprinkled with Béarnaise sauce and caviar. Oh yeah!

Cost – à la carte €15.00.

“The Tall Young Gentleman” had the Saaremaa style baked wild boar fillet with sumiso sauce, horse radish-mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, grilled vegetables, a side salad, Estonian mustard and juniper berry sauce.

Cost – à la carte €14.00.

Horse radish-mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, and grilled vegetables. Delicious!

DESSERT

Just look at that presentation and the lovely strawberry sorbet with crumbled short-bread pastry and vanilla ice-cream!

Cost – à la carte €4.50.

Oooooo! Tangy lemon tart topped with burnt custard served with exotic fruit, and rolls of ice-cream!

Cost – à la carte €4.50.

Make your own individual choices or go for the chef’s 3-course menu for hotel guests only.

Cost – €19.00.

DRINKS

We received a complimentary bottle of water and a Tallinn rum-flavoured wafer candy at Hotel St. Petersbourg, practically every day.

Saku Hele is Estonian beer brewed using clean spring water, malt, hops and Saku’s own yeast and is a light quality beer with a strong taste of hops and a pleasant aroma. A glass of Saku wasn’t too bad for the end of an evening in Tallinn!

Cost – €1.70.

Estonian food & drink was pretty impressive.

Russian beer.

Cost – €1.80.

Enough said!

For more information about rustic Estonian fare, please contact the Kolu Inn at The Estonian Open Air Museum.

For more information about typical Estonian food, please contact Kuldse Notsu Korts or The Golden Piglet Inn.

For more information about quality Estonian food at MIX , please contact My City Hotel.

This article isn’t sponsored and even though I received a complimentary lunch, all opinions and the delicious meals that I happily tasted and consumed, are my very own!

Expat Expo: A Showcase of Wahlberliner: a curated selection of performances by multiple artists, will be taking place at The English Theatre in Berlin from 01.06.15 – 07.06.15.

Have you ever had Estonian food? Do you think you could handle Mulgipuder or would you go all out and scoff down the Keedumana, fish sprats and all!?

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