Estonian cuisine is famous for its simplicity and naturalness. Historically, Estonians prepared their main dishes from pork or fish, cabbage, peas and dairy products; practically no spices were used.

Estonian cuisine does not differ in great variety and sophistication, which is due to the limited range of products historically available to residents of Estonia. The basis Estonian cuisine a variety of soups and porridges made from pork and fish (herring) with the addition of barley and pearl barley and vegetables (cabbage, peas, and later potatoes) were served.

A typical breakfast consisted of porridge (barley, barley or oatmeal), sometimes milk, honey or jam were added to the porridge, and more often pork cracklings and butter were added. Each meal was accompanied by rye bread; salted herring was also a frequent guest on the table. For lunch and dinner, cabbage, pea or bean soup was prepared in pork broth.

The festive table was decorated with blood sausage with the addition of cereals, jellied meat and pancakes made from barley flour. The obligatory dishes on the table were dishes made from milk - cottage cheese, cheese and butter. With the advent of potatoes, the list of Estonian dishes has expanded significantly.

Modern national cuisine of Estonia

The modern national cuisine of Estonia is diverse, many dishes are borrowed from other national cuisines - German (sausages), Hungarian (goulash) and Polish (bigos). Estonians still serve:

• Aspic.
• Blood sausage.
• Roast pork and sauerkraut.

For Maslenitsa, Estonians fry pancakes from different types of flour (wheat, buckwheat, oatmeal) with a variety of fillings (lingonberries, caviar, fish, caviar, cottage cheese). Estonian cuisine has expanded with desserts and salads, for example, scones with whipped cream and potato salad are extremely popular.

Various pickles are widespread in Estonian cuisine:

• Pickled tomatoes and pumpkin.
• Salted cucumbers.
• Lecho and tomato paste.

Typical products for Estonian cuisine are milk, cheese, butter and cottage cheese. IN Lately Yogurt has been added to this list. Dairy products are consumed by Estonians in large quantities.

What to try in Estonia

Most of the dishes worth trying in Estonia contain pork. The first place deservedly goes to the stew of pork, pearl barley and sauerkraut (mulgikapsas) - a fatty, very filling dish that must be eaten with rye bread. The next dish could be pork baked in mashed potatoes (kartulipors) - in many restaurants it is served in portions in the form of small pigs. For fish lovers, Estonian cuisine offers tender smoked trout (suitsukala).

A popular dish among tourists is kama - a mixture of boiled cereals with jam, honey and milk. An excellent dessert would be a bun with marzipan or a marzipan figurine, which can be bought in shops in the center of Tallinn.

Before gastronomic tour To travel to Estonia, you must take care of obtaining a visa in advance. Read how to do it yourself.

National Estonian desserts and drinks

There are two main desserts in Estonia – onion jam and pepper cookies (piparkook).

Jam was traditionally made from onions with the addition of honey, but now honey is replaced with sugar. Pepper cookies are prepared with the addition of black pepper, cinnamon and ginger, and covered with glaze patterns. These cookies are still popular among Estonians at Christmas.

National drinks include red beer and oatmeal jelly. Red beer is served in almost all traditional Estonian taverns, and the red color is achieved by adding berries. Oatmeal jelly is traditionally prepared from oats by long boiling. Added to oatmeal jelly:

• Berries.
• Milk.

Where to try

Tallinn is famous for its restaurants serving dishes national cuisine. Among large selection you can highlight the most interesting and popular ones.

Restaurant MEKK

Restaurant MEKK offers traditional Estonian dishes in the author's presentation. In accordance with the history of the country, the menu depends on the time of year - summer and autumn provide a variety of vegetables and fruits, autumn - berries and pickles, winter - meat and preserves.

The menu includes specialties - pork in lingonberry sauce, cake with sea buckthorn and cheese. Home-baked bread and only natural dairy products give the restaurant the status of a cozy and almost homely place.

Address: Suur-Karja 17/19, 10140 Tallinn.

Peppersack Restaurant

Peppersack Restaurant provides the opportunity to try classic Estonian cuisine at its best:

• Pork stewed with sauerkraut.
• Kamu (a mixture of cereals with jam or milk).
• Blood sausage.
• Potato salad.

Dishes are prepared from natural Estonian products without special spices - only salt and herbs are added to the dishes. The deliberately simple interior allows you to focus entirely on the food.

Address: Viru 2 / Vana turg 6, Tallinn.

Restaurant Olematu Rüütel

The Olematu Rüütel restaurant is designed in medieval style. In the restaurant's basement, game meat is roasted over an open fire. The menu delights with romantic names, for example, “Mistress Margaretha’s Weakness,” which hides chicken fillet with cheese, fruit salad and rice. The combination of products in restaurant dishes is unexpected and unusual.

The restaurant also serves traditional dishes - salted herring, pumpkin cream soup and ice cream.

Address: Kiriku Poik 4a, Tallinn.

Cafe Maiasmokk

Cafe Maiasmokk is the oldest not only in Tallinn, but throughout Estonia. The cafe offers a wide selection of desserts and sweets:

• Tender buns with cream.
• Handmade sweets made from natural chocolate.
• A variety of pies and pastries.
• Desserts with marzipan.

In the cafe you can also visit the marzipan room, where the whole history of marzipan is shown. The cafe has preserved its historical interior.

Address: Pikk tänav 16, Kesklinna linnaosa, Tallinn.

National Estonian cuisine may not be distinguished by its sophistication and variety of products, but everyone will find a dish to their liking.

Natural products and familiar cooking methods make Estonian cuisine attractive to Russian tourists.

They say that Estonian cuisine can be described with just two epithets: simple and hearty. That’s how it is, only there are special dishes in it, the secret of which for the most part lies in unusual combinations of ingredients. For their sake, as well as for the sake of naturalness and originality, which is reflected in every delicacy of local chefs, connoisseurs of delicacies from all over the world come to Estonia.

Story

There is very little information about the development of Estonian cuisine. It is known that it finally took shape in the second half of the 19th century, and before that it was not particularly diverse. The reason for this is the harsh climate of this country and the poor rocky soil. And the way of life of the locals was simple to the point of impossibility: during the day, peasants worked in the fields from sunrise to sunset. Therefore, their main meal was in the evening.

For dinner, the whole family gathered at the table, where the hostess treated everyone to pea or bean soup, porridge made from cereals or flour. The main food products throughout the day remained rye bread, salted herring, yogurt, kvass, and beer for the holidays. And so it was until the abolition of serfdom, when the fields began to be located near the house and it became possible to eat hot food during the day. That’s when the main meal of the day was lunch, and Estonian cuisine itself became more diverse.

Somewhere in the middle of the 19th century, Estonians began to grow potatoes and, subsequently, this product replaced cereal dishes, effectively becoming the second bread. Later, as the economy and trade developed, Estonian cuisine also developed, borrowing new ingredients and cooking technologies from its neighbors. IN different time The process of its formation was influenced by German, Swedish, Polish and Russian cuisines. But, despite this, she still managed to preserve her originality and distinctive features, which today are recognizable in almost every Estonian dish.

Peculiarities

It is not so difficult to characterize modern Estonian cuisine, because Estonians are quite conservative when it comes to cooking. For centuries they have not changed their habits:

• to prepare dishes they use mainly the ingredients that the earth gives them;
• are not fond of spices - they are present only in some national dishes in small quantities;
• they are not sophisticated in their cooking methods - Estonian cuisine is rightfully considered “boiled” simply because local housewives rarely resort to other cooking methods. True, they borrowed frying from their neighbors, but in practice they rarely fry food and not in oil, but in milk with sour cream or milk with flour. Needless to say, after such processing it does not acquire the characteristic hard crust.

Analyzing it in more detail, it can be noted that:

• The cold table occupies a special place in it, however, like all the Balts. In other words, bread, black or gray, smoked herring, herring with sour cream and potatoes, bacon or boiled ham, potato salads, hard-boiled eggs, milk, curdled milk, rolls, etc.
• As for the hot Estonian table, it is represented mainly by milk soups on a fresh basis with cereals, mushrooms, vegetables, eggs, fish, dough and even beer. Why, they even have milk soups with dairy products! Among non-dairy soups, the most popular are potato, meat, pea or cabbage soups with or without smoked lard.
• It is impossible to imagine Estonian cuisine without fish. They love it very much here and prepare soups, main courses, appetizers and casseroles from it. In addition, it is dried, dried, smoked, and salted. It is interesting that in coastal regions they prefer flounder, sprat, herring, and eel, and in eastern regions they prefer pike and vendace.
• As for meat, it seems they don’t really like it here, since Estonian meat dishes are not particularly original. For their preparation, lean pork, veal or lamb is most often used. Beef, chicken and even game are rare on the local table. Most often, the meat is boiled or baked in a charcoal oven and served with vegetables and milk gravy.
• One cannot fail to mention the true love of Estonians for vegetables. They eat them a lot and often, adding them to soups, fish and meat dishes and even desserts like rhubarb grounds. According to tradition, vegetables are boiled, sometimes additionally ground into a puree and served with milk or butter.
• Desserts include jelly with milk or cottage cheese, thick fruit or berries, bubert, cakes, pancakes with jam, curd cream with jam, and apple casserole. In addition, Estonians hold sweet porridge with whipped cream in high esteem.
• Among the drinks in Estonia, coffee and cocoa are held in high esteem, and tea is less common. Alcohol - beer, mulled wine, liqueurs.

Basic cooking methods:

People who have studied the peculiarities of Estonian cuisine involuntarily get the feeling that each of its dishes is original in its own way. In part, yes, and this is best illustrated by a selection of photos of national delicacies.

Potato pigs are unique balls of fried pork slices, which are rolled in a mixture of milk and mashed potatoes, baked and served with sour cream gravy.

Estonian jellied meat differs from Russian jellied meat in the ingredients used for its preparation. It is made from heads, tails and tongue without legs.

Oven meat is a dish that is boiled in a cast iron pot in a charcoal oven and served with vegetables.

Herring in sour cream is a dish made from lightly salted herring, cut into slices and soaked in milk. Served with herbs and sour cream.

Fish casserole in dough is an open pie filled with fish fillet and smoked lard.

Rutabaga porridge - mashed rutabaga with onions and milk.

Bubert - semolina pudding with egg.

Rhubarb compote - rhubarb compote thickened with starch. It resembles jelly, but is prepared differently.

Blood sausages and blood dumplings.

Syyr is a dish made from cottage cheese.

Suitsukala – smoked trout.

Useful properties of Estonian cuisine

Despite the simplicity and richness of local dishes, Estonian cuisine is considered healthy. Simply because it gives due place to vegetables and fruits, as well as fish and cereals. In addition, housewives in Estonia are not fond of cooking, which undoubtedly affects their life, the average duration of which here is 77 years.

Having arrived in a foreign country, having decided on a place to live, remembering a preliminary plan for getting to know its attractions, you will definitely want to eat. Of course, the choice of place to eat always depends on the financial capabilities of the tourist. But getting to know the country’s food traditions and national dishes is a must. Moreover, it is impossible to walk around Tallinn and not find a place where you can eat deliciously.

Peculiarities of Estonian national cuisine

Usually, when talking about national cuisine, one remembers peasant dishes used in a particular area for a long time. Due to population migration, development of trade, tourism relations, etc. historical events The type of national cuisine is changing. National traditions Germany, Sweden, Russia and other countries have added their own elements to Estonian cuisine. Now in the city's restaurants you can order any dish prepared according to recipes from any country. Try delicacies of international cuisine, for example, fried bear meat and wild boar meat. Modern vegetarian restaurants are available for lovers of plant-based food.

The main difference between traditional Estonian cuisine is considered to be simple, hearty dishes prepared from natural products using a small amount of spices. They contain a mixture of interesting local herbs. “Superfoods” are delivered to the kitchen directly from forests and fields. The skillful hands of the chef turn them into nutritious, healthy, beautiful dishes. In this case, steaming and baking in the oven are used. The processing of products is gentle, preserving their natural taste. The combination of unusual ingredients, the sour taste, the unexpectedness of many recipes can be tried in inexpensive eating places, appreciating dishes prepared from fish, vegetables, meat, milk, and cereal products. At the same time, do not forget that lunch without bread is not complete. Moreover, the three types of Estonian bread are delicacies in themselves. You can try it at any food place. Rye black bread with a special crispy crust is offered to buy as a souvenir for loved ones. It is so tasty and healthy. A sandwich with the famous Estonian salted butter is comparable to the best pastries. To choose a place to eat on a budget, you can use the following offer.

Restaurant-bistro LIDO

The Solaris shopping center on Puiestee 9 is considered one of the most visited places among tourists. Relax, have lunch between trips through its halls, comfortably in a restaurant recognized as the leader in budget catering in Estonia. The average value of the payment per person consists of prices for soup - about 2, meat dishes up to 5, sausages from 1.5 to 3, pancakes 1.5 euros. Here you can order tuna salad, pork with pineapple, Estonian blood sausage, dessert, for example, trot with egg liqueur, cherry yogurt. And, of course, one of the famous soups, for example, with mushrooms. The list of dishes that I want to try is amazing. Their order is processed quickly and politely. Communication on any issue takes place in Russian. The volume of dishes is large. At lunchtime on weekdays, you can take advantage of the business lunch service, which will cost less. A standard lunch is indistinguishable from a delicious home-cooked meal. By the way, there are two Lido fast food restaurants in Tallinn today: one, as we wrote above, in the Solaris shopping center (Estonia puiestee 9, Tallinn), and the other in the Ülemiste shopping center (Suur-Sõjamäe tänav 4, Tallinn).

Tavern III DRAAKON

The queue to the restaurant, located on Town Hall Square 1, is visible from a distance. An enchanted place, decorated in a medieval style, is ready to treat many delicious dishes served in an old tavern. Soup from elk meat, mysterious linen bags filled with dried meat of a hare, wild boar, and bear. Ruddy meat pies, the aroma of which alone causes a “wolfish appetite.” Their cost is around 3 euros. Lovers of beer, cider, wine, coffee should prepare about 2 euros. Forgetting to order black bread with garlic and butter will not work. It is offered first. Opening hours from 9 to 24 hours.

That these donuts cannot be tastier, and Estonian chefs know the special secret of their preparation, is known to everyone who comes to Tallinn. You can buy donuts in the establishment located at Kentmani 21 by weight. From 8 to 20 o'clock. The cost of one kg is 6.7 euros. For a family, friendly company, one kg is not enough. When purchasing donuts at large quantities, 10% discount applies. You can soothe your desire to eat here with pancakes, costing up to 2.7 euros, and a delicious meat dish of turkey and chicken. You can order buckwheat porridge as a side dish. Dozens of varieties of buckwheat dishes are prepared in Estonia. This is one of the most useful cereal products. Initially, buckwheat was considered a foreign guest, but the love of Estonians for their own environmentally friendly products has long made it a local crop.

PEETRI PIZZA

In this pizzeria, located at Kadaka tee 66b and in 22 other places in Tallinn, you can eat deliciously and inexpensively. Pizza, born in Italy, has long known no boundaries. The food product has become a simple favorite dish everywhere on earth. We have mastered modern technologies for preparing delicious flatbreads for future use, storing them, and delivering them to individual orders. The price of a small pizza with a thin layer of dough is about 3.5 euros, a large one is estimated at 4.9 euros. By the way, the main ingredients of a beautiful culinary work are cheese and tomatoes. Now there are many types of the most popular dish in the world, which came from the times ancient Rome, Greece. Recipes for the first pizzas are described in the works of the 1st century BC, written by Marcus Alicius. There are many types of pizza. Nowadays, the most famous of them is considered to be the “Four Seasons” pizza, invented in 1660 in Naples. The pizza base in the form of a flatbread can be soft crumbly or thin crispy. Of course, you have to try everything.

Cafe Grenka

Genuinely simple and healthy food - just like home. The Grenka cafe menu includes energizing breakfasts, nutritious lunches and dinners and, of course, delicious pies and croutons. You can find cafe Grenka in Tallinn at: Pärnu mnt 76, Tallinn

TRATTORIA DEL GALLO NERO

A romantic meeting can be organized in an inexpensive restaurant along with an introduction to delicious dishes borrowed from Italy. The atmosphere of the Old Town, where the establishment is located at Lai tn 32, 10133 Tallinn, will complement the delight of the cozy atmosphere and choice of dishes. You can try famous Estonian soups here for 5 euros; prices for meat dishes start at 9 euros. A place in the restaurant must be reserved in advance.

Tavern KARJA KELDER

A medieval atmosphere fills the cozy basement pub. Located Väike-Karja 1. Here you can drink coffee, beer, cider. Take advantage of the buffet offers for 12.5 euros. Order a full lunch of original Estonian cuisine. Try the famous liqueur " Old Tallinn" The dark brown liquid, which tastes like rum, first appeared in the city in 1962. It is offered with coffee and as part of cocktails. Another pleasant drink is the raspberry liqueur with cumin flavor Kannu Kukk.

Pancake Kompressor

Here you can try not the cheapest pancakes. But their taste and size do not allow you to eat a lot. For one pancake in the cafe of Old Tallinn, located at Rataskaevu 3, you need to pay 3 euros. Slender girls should not come here. It will be difficult to resist the pancakes called “elephant ears”, served with fantastic fillings.

Hell Hunt

The inexpensive beer hall is located on Pikk Street 39. The establishment serves locally produced beer along with inexpensive food. The cozy interior is in harmony with colorful national dishes. Many call this place a divine corner of gastronomic pleasure.

Restaurant "F-hoone"

Perhaps the F-hoone restaurant in Tallinn is one of the few catering places that can boast low prices: the cost of dishes on the menu starts from a couple of euros. The restaurant is located in a 100-year-old factory building in the city center, near the station. There are always a lot of students and young people here, budget design, unobtrusive service, inexpensive drinks. The restaurant's cuisine is absolutely international and is also suitable for vegetarians and vegans. You can find the F-hoone restaurant in Tallinn at Telliskivi 60a.

For lovers street food You will love the Hot Dog Cafe Hotokas, which is located at Toompuiestee 16. The main ingredients of the dishes are freshly baked buns and sausages, made to order especially for the Hotokas Cafe. Supplements are prepared on site and, whenever possible, only Estonian products are used. In addition to hot dogs, Hotokas also offers hand-cut fries, nachos and salads.

Street food can be a real gastronomic discovery! Come and see for yourself!

Estonian cuisine is famous for its simplicity. But that doesn't make it primitive. The cuisine of the small European country is different from others, so tourists will find it a little unusual. Estonian national dishes can please you with their taste and at the same time disappoint you with their lack of sophistication and meager variety. But nevertheless, the food here is very satisfying and, most importantly, natural.

Culinary traditions

The cuisine menu is based on soups, cereals, pork, fish and vegetables. A typical breakfast necessarily consists of porridge (oatmeal, barley or pearl barley). Sometimes it is prepared with milk with the addition of jam or honey. But more often they are served with cracklings and butter. Each meal is accompanied by salted herring and rye bread. For lunch and dinner, bean, pea or cabbage soup is always prepared with pork broth.

A festive table is not complete without blood sausage with the addition of cereals. Also frequent guests during the feast are pancakes and jellied meat. Serving is not complete without milk, cottage cheese, butter and cheese. But with the advent of potatoes in the country, the list of Estonian national dishes has expanded significantly.

Modern kitchen

Today it has become more diverse, because Estonians borrowed many dishes from their neighbors - sausages from the Germans, goulash from the Hungarians, bigos from the Poles. The only thing that has remained unchanged: for any holiday, roast sauerkraut and pork, jellied meat and blood sausage are always served.

On Maslenitsa, as in Russia, pancakes are fried from several types of flour and with a variety of fillings.

Pickles are widespread:

• tomato paste;
• lecho;
• pickled pumpkin and tomatoes;
• cucumbers

Estonian cuisine has been replenished with salads and pastries. For example, buns with whipped cream are now extremely popular in the country.

Estonian national dishes: features of soups

Local residents love them very much, so there are a lot of them in traditional cooking. There are about 20 dairy products alone: ​​with mushrooms, fish, pork and even beer. Or you can try something completely unusual - bread or dessert blueberry, which Estonians borrowed from the Swedes.

Soups made from herring fish, pearl barley with peas or barley with potatoes are very popular among the population. But among tourists, cabbage soup with brisket and peas with knuckle are especially popular.

Sweets and drinks

Now you will be surprised, but in Estonia there are two main desserts - pepper cookies and onion jam. The latter was traditionally prepared with the addition of honey, but now it has been replaced with sugar. As for the cookies, the main ingredients are: a mixture of cinnamon and ginger, as well as pepper.

Among the national drinks, it is perhaps worth highlighting oatmeal jelly and red beer. The latter is served in almost every tavern, and this shade is achieved by adding berries.

Kissel is prepared from oats by long boiling. In addition to cereals, milk, berries and honey are also added to it.

Cooking Pirukad

This pastry made from dough can hardly be called a pie, although locals prefer to call it that way. They are essentially fillings wrapped in a thick layer of dough and baked into large loaves. Today it has been modernized and is prepared like regular pies.

The recipe for pyrukada is quite simple: knead any type of dough (shortbread, puff pastry or yeast). Put the semi-finished flour product aside and start filling. Chop the carrots, cabbage and onion. Place the vegetables in a frying pan or saucepan, add oil and simmer for 8-10 minutes. At the end, pepper and salt to taste. Add pre-boiled chopped meat. Stir and cool. Form pies from the dough and filling and bake at a temperature of 190 degrees. 20-25 minutes.

Piparkook cookie recipe

Every year before Christmas, Estonians prepare this sweet for their guests. To prepare, you will need to melt sugar (300 g) in a thick-bottomed saucepan and wait until it acquires a beautiful rich brown hue. Remove the dish from the heat, cool slightly and pour boiling water (130 ml), stirring vigorously to dissolve the sweet ingredient. Add oil (150 g), one teaspoon each of cloves and cinnamon, as well as 0.5 cardamom and ginger powder to the syrup. Place back on the stove. Cook for another 2-3 minutes and then cool to room temperature.

Beat the egg. Pour in a teaspoon of vinegar, add sour cream (1 tablespoon) and stir until smooth. Combine with warm syrup. Add flour mixed with soda and knead the dough. Place the finished semi-finished product in the refrigerator for a day.

Roll out the layer 3 mm thick and cut into portions or use New Year's cookie cutters. Bake the piparkook for 6-7 minutes at 200 degrees. Before serving, be sure to decorate the baked goods with icing.

The most delicious recipe for cooking duck meat

Wash 8 pieces of duck breast, remove the veins and cut into portions. In a separate bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of mustard, 70 ml olive oil, juice of one lemon, 2 tbsp. l. soy sauce. Season with salt, pepper and other favorite spices if desired. You can also add a few chopped cloves of garlic to enhance the taste.

Place the meat in the marinade and leave for at least 3 hours. Grill for 25 minutes. During this time, do not forget to turn the duck kebab at least 4 times.

4 must-try dishes

1. Marinated eel. Serve cold. We agree, it sounds pretty simple, but it's a favorite food. local residents. Be careful when tasting, because you may come across some bones that must be eaten. Also be prepared for an overly fishy aftertaste, there's a lot more of it than you'd expect.

2. Suite. Some foreigners are afraid to taste this popular Estonian national dish. We are talking about meat jelly, which is made from pork bones. However, sometimes a head with hooves is thrown at them. As a rule, it is customary to cook suite in large pots so that people can put it in a jar and take it with them. We warn you that the smell will make an unprepared person cringe, but take our advice into account: get out of your comfort zone and enjoy the taste, as the Estonians do.

3. Blood sausage. The British called it “black pudding” because of its characteristic color, and for the locals it is one of the types of meat products. As the name suggests, the “filling” in the minced meat is blood, which is allowed to cool during the cooking process. It is usually eaten in winter as it is a Christmas dish. As a rule, blood sausage is prepared with barley and served with sour cream, butter and even cranberry jam. Sounds awful? Try it!

4. Mulgicapsad. Pork, cabbage and potatoes are what you need to prepare this dish. The ingredients are simple at first glance, but believe me, the result is so satisfying that you can hardly handle one serving. Judging by the fact that locals eat it during the cold season, mulgicapsad is very healthy. By the way, to taste the dish, you don’t have to pull yourself together or cover your nose. Isn't it a great start to get acquainted with local cuisine?

Travel notes: where to try national cuisine in Estonia

Among the huge selection of establishments, some of the most popular and interesting ones can be identified:

The establishment invites guests to get acquainted with the classic cuisine of the country. When visiting the restaurant, be sure to order an Estonian-style sprat sandwich, potato salad, stewed pork with sauerkraut, blood sausage (it’s simply excellent here) and kama - a mixture of several cereals with milk or jam). Dishes are prepared from natural products with a minimal set of spices. Salt and herbs are mainly used as seasonings. Address: Viru 2/Vana Turg 6.

The oldest cafe not only in Tallinn, but in all of Estonia. Tourists recommend starting your meal not with soups and salads, as is usually customary, but immediately starting to taste the following sweets:

• handmade sweets;
• marzipan desserts;
• tender buns with cream;
• a variety of cakes and pies.

In the establishment you can also visit a special room where the history of marzipan is shown. Address: Pikk tanav 16, Kesklinna linnaosa.

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Estonian cuisine: features and traditions

Estonian cuisine is noticeably different from the cuisine of other nations, and its national dishes will be unusual for anyone visiting for the first time. These are tasty and nutritious natural dishes, not particularly refined or varied. The basis of Estonian cuisine is simple, hearty meat dishes, as well as fish, vegetables and bread. Of all the known cooking methods, boiling is the most common here. Vegetables, meat and other products are fried extremely rarely.

The formation of Estonian cuisine was significantly influenced by the culinary traditions of the Scandinavian countries, as well as German and Russian cuisine, but despite this it has retained its originality.

National cuisine and its traditions

Estonian dishes are distinguished by an unusual combination of products. Experts note that the main part of the dishes has a slightly sour taste and the aftertaste of milk, to which a variety of, sometimes unexpected, ingredients are added, for example, peas or fish, most often herring or sprat. Common dairy products on the table of local residents include cottage cheese, whipped cream, yogurt, and homemade cheese, which Estonians have a special name for – cheese.

Cereals are widely used for cooking - pearl barley, barley, but Estonians practically do not use buckwheat. Like mushrooms, you almost never see them on the Estonian table. But they eat a lot of potatoes, and they use them not only on their own, but also in the form of porridges with various cereals.