Work through the list in order. Hide the notes when you know what to do.
-
Eat grey peas with speck
Large grey peas boiled and served with fried bacon and onion. The national dish, eaten with a spoon and washed down with kefir.
Kefir with the peas is a classic pairing rather than an oddity, and it cuts the fat. It is eaten especially in winter and at Christmas.
-
Try rye bread
A dark sweet-sour sourdough with caraway, dense and almost moist. It keeps for weeks without staling and travels home well.
In the market's bread hall you can taste every kind in a row. The sweeter saldskābmaize and the sour rye are two different genres.
-
Buy smoked fish
Baltic herring, mackerel, eel and salmon hot-smoked on the coast and sold warm straight from the smokehouse. Eaten with your hands and rye bread.
Smoked eel is the priciest and the most local option. At the market ask what was smoked today; the difference is noticeable.
-
Try aukstā zupa
A vivid pink cold soup on kefir with beetroot, cucumber, herbs and boiled egg, served with hot potatoes on the side. A summer staple from May to September.
Hot potato with a cold soup is a required part of the serving. The colour should be a deep pink rather than pale.
-
Get pīrādziņi
Small crescent-shaped yeast pastries filled with bacon and onion, baked until golden. Sold in bakeries and served at celebrations.
The classic filling is speck and onion only, without potato. They are eaten warm and several at a time; they are small.
-
Eat karbonāde
A breaded or battered pork chop with potatoes and sauerkraut. The main course of any café day menu and of home cooking.
A weekday café day menu is noticeably cheaper and runs until about three. The sauerkraut here is braised rather than raw.
-
Try braised cabbage and putra
Sauerkraut braised with pearl barley and smoked meat, and putra, a thick grain porridge with meat or milk. The winter village base.
Barley in the cabbage is a local trait rather than a filler. Putra comes both savoury with meat and sweet with milk.
-
Try lamprey in autumn
River lamprey grilled over a rack and served in jelly or hot with potatoes. A Kurzeme delicacy, in season from August to January.
The flavour is dense and fatty, closer to eel than to ordinary fish. Jellied lamprey is sold in jars at the market; hot ones appear in seaside restaurants.
-
Try herring and curd cheese
Salted herring with curd cheese and boiled potatoes, a basic Latvian combination. The curd here is dry and grainy rather than smooth.
Curd is sold loose at the market in different fat and moisture levels, and tasting is expected. Herring comes marinated or plain-salted.
-
Try rasols
A potato salad with boiled vegetables, salted cucumbers, egg and sour cream or mayonnaise. Festive and everyday at once.
The Latvian version often uses sour cream rather than only mayonnaise, which makes it lighter. The salted cucumber is essential for the acidity.
-
Try sklandrausis Desserts and pastries
An open tart of rye pastry with two layers of purée, potato below and carrot above, lightly sweetened and dusted with caraway.
A Kurzeme speciality with an EU protected name. It is served cold and only mildly sweet; this is not a dessert in the usual sense.
-
Try rye bread dessert Desserts and pastries
Rye bread soaked with dried fruit, cinnamon and sugar, served cold with whipped cream. A dessert made entirely of bread.
The texture is thick, closer to a pudding than a soup despite the name. The cream is unsweetened and works as a contrast.
-
Try layered rye dessert and rhubarb cake Desserts and pastries
A layered dessert of rye crumbs, cream and lingonberry jam, plus rhubarb cake in early summer. Both are lightly sweet with a sour edge.
Lingonberry and rhubarb supply the acidity without which the dessert would cloy. Rhubarb is seasonal, May and June.
-
Drink kefir and birch sap Non-alcoholic drinks
Kefir, drunk with the peas and with fatty meat, and birch sap in spring. Both are sold in any shop and at the market.
Kefir with grey peas is a fixed pairing rather than a coincidence. Birch sap is collected in March and April; after that only the preserved version exists.
-
Try Riga Black Balsam Local alcohol
A dark bitter liqueur built on two dozen herbs and roots at over forty per cent. Taken in small measures, added to coffee or mixed with blackcurrant.
Neat it is very bitter; start with the blackcurrant version or a cocktail. The classic winter serve is balsam in hot tea.
