Work through the list in order. Hide the notes when you know what to do.
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Eat cepelinai
Large zeppelin-shaped potato dumplings with a meat filling, served with crackling, bacon and sour cream. The dough mixes raw grated and boiled potato.
Two make a full lunch, and that is not an exaggeration. The crackling and sour cream sauce is part of the dish rather than a garnish.
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Try šaltibarščiai
A vivid pink cold soup on kefir with beetroot, cucumber, dill and egg, with hot potatoes on the side. A summer dish and the country's calling card.
The colour should be a deep pink; pale means not enough beetroot. The season is May to September, and in winter it is off the menu.
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Eat kibinai
Oblong pastries of chopped lamb and onion in flaky dough, from Karaim Trakai. Eaten hot, often with a bowl of broth.
The meat is knife-chopped rather than minced, which gives the texture. In Trakai they are baked in front of you, and that is a day trip from Vilnius.
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Try kugelis
A bake of grated potato with bacon and onion, cooked until the top darkens, served with sour cream or crackling. Dense and very filling.
The top should be dark and crisp while the middle stays moist. The name and the dish came from the region's Jewish cooking.
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Try vėdarai
Potato mixture baked inside a pork casing until browned, served with crackling. A village dish, served in traditional restaurants.
The casing should crunch while the filling stays soft. Its relative is žemaičių blynai, potato pancakes with meat inside.
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Try balandėliai
Cabbage rolls with mince and rice braised in a tomato and sour cream sauce. A home dish that appears on every day menu.
The name means little doves, after the shape. Sour cream goes straight onto the plate.
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Try skilandis and cured meats
Air-dried pork in a natural casing, dense and heavily seasoned, with an EU protected name. Sliced very thin and served with rye bread.
It is denser and drier than ordinary sausage, and thick slices are hard work. Markets sell it by weight with tasting offered.
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Try smoked cheese
A firm cheese smoked over alder, often braided or shaped into a ball, salted and springy. Sold at markets and roadside stalls.
The braid is convenient because you pull it apart in strands. Village-made cheese is denser and saltier than the factory kind.
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Try herring with curd
Salted herring with curd cheese, boiled potato and onion, a base combination of the Lithuanian and Latvian table. Plain and very northern.
The curd is dry and grainy rather than smooth. The herring comes marinated or plain-salted, and the difference shows.
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Try mushroom dishes
Ceps and chanterelles in sour cream, mushroom soup, salted and pickled mushrooms. In autumn mushrooms are a main ingredient rather than a plate decoration.
Dried ceps give a more concentrated flavour and are used all year. In season markets sell mushrooms by the bucket.
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Try šakotis Desserts and pastries
A tall cake baked on a rotating spit in layers, which gives it its spiky branches. Celebration baking, cut into rings.
The batter is poured onto the turning spit layer by layer over several hours. It is dry and crisp at the tips and softer at the core.
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Try tinginys and honey cake Desserts and pastries
Tinginys is a no-bake dessert of biscuits, cocoa and condensed milk, and there are layered honey cakes. Home sweets sold by the slice.
The name means lazybones: it is chilled rather than baked. Its neighbours in the case are poppy seed rolls and curd tarts.
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Try skruzdėlynas Desserts and pastries
An anthill of fried pastry strips bound with honey and scattered with poppy seed. A celebration dessert, pulled apart by hand.
The poppy seed is part of the flavour rather than decoration and goes on generously. Fresh it crunches; after a day it softens.
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Drink gira Non-alcoholic drinks
The Lithuanian kvass, made on rye bread: sweet-sour and lightly fizzy. Poured from barrels in summer and bottled in winter.
Barrel gira is live and slightly cloudy; the bottled kind is usually filtered. With cepelinai it is ordered more often than beer.
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Try midus and infusions Local alcohol
Midus is an old Lithuanian honey and herb drink, alongside berry and herb infusions. Drunk in small glasses with food.
Midus comes in weak and strong versions, so ask when ordering. Lithuanian craft beer is a strong scene too, especially the farmhouse styles.
