The national cuisine of Estonia began to take shape only in the mid-19th century. The culinary traditions of Germany and Sweden have had a huge influence on Estonian cuisine. The basis is quite simple, but aromatic and satisfying “peasant” dishes. It's all about the ingredients that are used to prepare certain dishes. For example: pork, all kinds of cereals, potatoes, fish (herring is especially popular), offal (liver and blood), bakery products (rye bread, rolls and barley flour cakes). In addition, dairy and fermented milk products are very popular. There are more than 20 milk soups alone, prepared according to a special Estonian recipe.
I would like to say something about Estonian soups separately. This is a very common dish in Estonian national cuisine; by the way, it is tasty, satisfying and healthy. In Estonia, there is soup with barley, pearl barley, dumplings, peas, and potatoes. Many will be surprised by herring soup, sweet blueberry soup, unique-tasting bread soup and even exotic beer soup.
Seasonings are used little in Estonian national cuisine, but they are treated very pedantically. Each seasoning corresponds to a specific dish. For example, celery and parsley are added to meat dishes, dill to fish, marjoram to blood sausage (verevest), and caraway seeds to cottage cheese. Almost no national dish is complete without “kastmed” - this is milk, milk-sour cream, or milk-cream gravy.
Estonians are famous fishermen. If you happen to visit this country, be sure to treat yourself to smoked trout (“suitsukala”) and grilled flounder. Lightly salted whitefish will give you pleasant taste sensations, and smoked ones will give you eel, bream, and herring.
Estonian forests are rich in berries and mushrooms. Therefore, on any holiday table you will find pickled saffron milk caps, mushroom sauce from golden yellow chanterelles, and a salad of salted mushrooms with onions and sour cream. In every housewife's house, there must be homemade jam, salted and pickled cucumbers, sauerkraut, all kinds of preparations from vegetables and fruits.
Estonia's national pride is its variety of desserts. It is worth trying local cakes, muffins, and unusual candies with milk, coffee, liqueur, nut, mint and other fillings. And Estonian chocolate with nuts is one of the most delicious and high-quality in the world.
Estonians prefer kvass, mead, and birch sap among drinks. As for alcohol, beer comes first, of course. Each region of the country brews its own unique traditional beer. Particularly popular is dark beer - “Saare”, from the famous island of Saaremaa and light beer - “Saku”. Also, a good gift, brought from Estonia, will be Vana Tallinn liqueur and local mulled wine - Hoegwein.
Estonian cuisine has always been considered nutritious, tasty and natural. However, Estonian cuisine has never been distinguished by greater variety and sophistication of dishes. The basis of national Estonian cuisine is simple hearty dishes from meat, fish, bread and vegetables. Many Estonian dishes resemble simple “peasant” treats.
National cuisines had a great influence on the formation of culinary traditions in Estonia Sweden and Germany. IN Soviet times Estonian gastronomic traditions have been influenced by Russian, Caucasian and Central Asian cuisine.
Traditions of Estonian national cuisine
A distinctive feature of Estonian cuisine is Not a large number of spices and seasonings. The most common seasonings in Estonia are salt, pepper, cumin and marjoram. When preparing most dishes, food processing methods such as cooking in broth or other liquid are used. Frying vegetables, meat and other products is used quite rarely in Estonian cuisine.
The main products used in the national cuisine are pork, fish (mainly herring), various vegetables and black bread.
The local zoo is rightfully considered one of the attractions of the Estonian capital. Thanks, you can watch animals from your home. The link is available in our article.
An overview of other interesting places in Tallinn that are worth seeing on our website.
Estonian dishes are distinguished by a combination of unusual products and a special sour taste. An example of traditional Estonian food is a variety of milk and pea dishes. One of the most popular and widespread drinks in Estonia is jelly from oatmeal with milk.
A very popular dish that Estonians eat to this day is “kama” - oatmeal made from flour. Seeds of barley, oats and rye, as well as milk and curdled milk are added to oatmeal.
Traditional Estonian dishes, still common today, are blood sausages, meatballs, herring with sour cream, deviled eggs, potato salad and liver pate.
It’s hard to imagine an Estonian table without dairy products.
The Estonian diet constantly includes milk, curdled milk, milk porridges and yoghurts.
Milk soups are especially popular in Estonian cuisine. IN cookbooks you can find more than 20 different recipes for milk soups.
In general, soups occupy a place in Estonian gastronomy. special place. Meat, vegetable, dairy and cereal soups are included in the diet of almost every Estonian. Very popular are barley soup with potatoes, bread soup, herring soup with potatoes, barley soup with peas. You can also try such exotic dishes as beer or blueberry soup.
The most common fish products on Estonian tables are herring and sprat. As for meat, locals prefer pork. Liver and blood sausages are very common. Meat is usually boiled in a special container with a thick wall or baked in the oven. Estonians are very fond of jellied pork legs and heads. The main side dish for meat and fish is potatoes.
Almost every hot national dish is accompanied by a special “kastmed” gravy. Most often, gravies are made based on milk and sour cream.
In Estonia you can also try very interesting and unusual desserts based on semolina and bread.
Features of modern national cuisine of Estonia
Despite the simplicity of most dishes, Estonian cuisine surprises many Russians unusual combination of products and the composition of the traditional menu.
A typical Estonian breakfast, in addition to a variety of porridges with milk, which usually have a salty taste, may include sandwiches with butter and herring. For breakfast, croutons fried in butter with additives - eggs, tomato sauce, beans, cheese, jam.
The most important dish in Estonia during lunch is soup.
Main courses very often resemble traditional German cuisine.
The lunch menu often includes blood sausages, stewed sauerkraut, pork knuckle and buckwheat porridge.
For dinner, Estonians prefer fish and meat dishes. And finally, the traditional dessert on the Estonian table is sweet soup.
What to try in Estonia
To get an idea of Estonian cuisine, tourists should definitely try the following national dishes:
- Mulgikapsas - the dish is a stew of pork, barley (or pearl barley) and sauerkraut;
- Mulgipuder - porridge from pearl barley and mashed potatoes;
- Kartulipors is meat baked in mashed potatoes;
- Vere pakeogid - pancakes with blood;
- Dumplings made from barley flour;
- Suitsukala - smoked trout;
- Tallinn sprats are sprat spicy salting, which is especially popular among local residents.
Cheese gourmets should definitely try the delicious homemade fatty cheeses in Estonia.
In addition, pork knuckle, potato dishes, pickles, sweet and sour cabbage, fried herring, and various rutabaga and potato porridges are popular in Estonia.
National Estonian desserts
Desserts in Estonia, as already mentioned, are distinguished by their original taste and unconventional combination of products.
In addition to the usual cinnamon rolls, shortbread cookies and berry jams, sweet soups stand out among Estonian desserts, which are offered in a wide variety of variations.
One of the most famous desserts is bread soup, which is prepared from stale bread soaked in water, with the addition of raisins and whipped cream.
No less popular among local residents and berry soup, which is brewed from a variety of berries with the addition of honey and nuts.
Tourists visiting Estonia should also try Estonians’ favorite Christmas cookies – piparkook. Its distinctive feature is a large amount of cinnamon.
The original Estonian sweets, filled with mint, nuts, coffee or liqueur, deserve special attention. In addition, lovers of sweet desserts can try whipped semolina mousse made from fruit juice, apple casseroles and jelly with whipped cream in Estonia.
You can try the national cuisine of neighboring Latvia in one of the restaurants in the chain. You will appreciate pork ribs and ears, peas with speck, and other delicacies!
When going on a gastro tour to Estonia, take care of obtaining a visa in advance. will help you understand the intricacies of this process.
Bad weather will not spoil the mood of a food lover, but you need to be prepared for anything: follow the link for an article about the weather in Tallinn.
National Estonian drinks
Among non-alcoholic drinks, Estonians give the palm to various jelly. In addition, fruit drinks, kvass and coffee are very common among drinks.
Estonian alcoholic drinks are well-deservedly popular outside the country. Estonians themselves consider it their national drink beer, which is cooked everywhere here. Each region of Estonia has its own traditional beer. The most popular are dark beer “Saare” and light beer “Saku”.
Another traditional invention of Estonian cuisine is considered honey beer. Homemade beer with juniper is a truly traditional Estonian drink.
“Höegwein” is also very common in Estonia - local mulled wine, which you can not only try in local cafes and bars, but also bring home as a souvenir.
While in Estonia, you should definitely try the famous Vana Tallinn liqueur(“Old Tallinn”), first released back in 1962. This is a dark brown liqueur with a rum flavor.
Vana Tallinn liqueur can be consumed both in pure form and with coffee or as part of various cocktails.
In Estonian stores, the drink is sold in three variations - with a strength of 40.45 and 50 degrees.
Another famous Estonian liqueur is raspberry Kannu Kukk. The strong red liqueur has a pleasant rich taste and aroma of caraway seeds.
Where to try national cuisine in Tallinn
The most famous places in Tallinn specializing in national Estonian cuisine are…
Restaurant MEKK
Included in the number best restaurants Estonia. The main “trick” of this establishment is compliance national traditions in preparing dishes using environmentally friendly products. The restaurant's menu changes depending on the time of year.
Restaurant Olematu Rüütel (“Nonexistent Knight”)
Distinguished by its special national flavor. At this establishment you can try traditional Estonian soup with smoked sausages and barley, liver paste with cognac and other national Estonian dishes.
Peppersack Restaurant
Located near the Town Hall Square, it specializes in medieval Estonian cuisine and offers its visitors unusual entertainment.
Maiasmokk
The oldest cafe in Tallinn for those with a sweet tooth (it has been operating in this very place since 1864), which is known among tourists for its delicious baked goods and desserts. Here you can try and buy Estonian chocolate, famous Estonian liqueurs Vana Tallinn Cream and Kannu Kukk.
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. Estonian cuisine is based on 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).
A typical breakfast consisted of porridge (pearl barley, barley or oatmeal), sometimes milk, honey or jam were added to the porridge, more often pork cracklings and butter. 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
Modern National cuisine 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 flour different varieties(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 a gastronomic tour 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, 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 national cuisine. Among large selection you can highlight the most interesting and popular ones.
Restaurant MEKK
Restaurant MEKK offers traditional Estonian dishes in an original 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 a medieval style. In the restaurant's basement, game meat is roasted over an open fire. The menu pleases with romantic names, for example, “The Weakness of Mrs. Margaretha,” 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. At different times, 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. smoked lard or without.
- 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 products 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 true love Estonians to vegetables. They eat them a lot and often, adding them to soups, fish and meat dishes and even desserts, for example, rhubarb grounds. Traditionally, 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 of 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 length of which here is 77 years.
Estonia is one of the few European countries, where the traditions of peasant cuisine are still alive. Estonian cuisine favors simple but satisfying home-cooked dishes, trusted grandmother's recipes, and natural products grown in one's own garden. Gastronomic sensations traditional cuisine It doesn’t promise Estonia, but there are definitely no artificial additives among the ingredients of the dishes, and the natural taste of vegetables and fruits is not overshadowed by seasonings and spices.
Lunch in Estonian: tasty, simple and healthy
At one time, the national cuisine of Estonia experienced strong influence Scandinavian, German and Russian culinary traditions. The basis of the daily diet of an Estonian family consists of products from the village table: black rye bread, cereals, potatoes, pork, liver and generous gifts of the forest - mushrooms and berries, and in the art of baking and home preservation, Estonian housewives are even more ahead of the rest - they will even make jam from onions, so much so that you will lick your fingers.
Favorite dishes in Estonia are cabbage and milk soups, porridge, jellied meat, cabbage rolls, minced meat with gravy, potato casserole, curdled milk and oatmeal jelly, as well as all kinds of sausages, frankfurters and sausages. Instead of hot dogs, blood sausage stuffed with cereal is sold on the streets of Estonian cities, and those with a sweet tooth can satisfy their souls in pastry shops, enjoying milk chocolate with nuts, marzipan, kohuka curd cheeses and handmade confectionery.
Since Soviet times, chocolates from the Kalev factory have been in demand, and recently edible souvenirs made from marzipan dough, made with your own hands under the guidance of an experienced craftsman from the Tallinn Marzipan Gallery, have come into fashion.
Not long ago, the Balbiino company opened an interactive ice cream museum in the Estonian capital. The exposition is divided into thematic halls dedicated to the history of the origin of the favorite summer dessert and the technological intricacies of making the cold delicacy, and the excursion ends with a free tasting of different varieties of Balbiino ice cream.
Some dishes of Estonian cuisine are borrowed from small nationalities and national minorities. Farmers in the southern counties learned to prepare hard cheeses with honey, poppy seeds and jam from the Seto tribe, and the popular stew mulgikapsad originated from Mulgimaa.
In lakeside villages you will be generously treated to aromatic hot-smoked fish, and at seaside resorts not a single feast is complete without lightly salted herring and herring, trout and shrimp soup. Original coastal delicacies await tasters in the stylish restaurants Noa and Villa Mary in Viismi, Wicca in Laulasmaa, Ruhe in Jõelähtim, MerMer on the Juminda peninsula and OKO in Kaberneeme. At the Kolkya Museum of Russian Old Believers there is an onion and fish restaurant that serves interesting dishes from freshwater fish caught in Lake Peipsi.
The ringing echo of the Middle Ages, wandering among the castles and forts left by the crusaders, also left its mark on other excursion cities in Estonia. As a cold appetizer, you will certainly be offered game - sliced venison or elk, and for the main course they can recommend a stew of bear meat or boar meat, stewed hare, quail with berry sauce or wild goose baked in clay.
Although Estonian restaurants are not yet listed in the Michelin digest, the skill of the chefs and the quality of the products used are no worse than in the star establishments of Italy and France, and prices have not yet managed to rise to European levels. A simple lunch in a street cafe will cost 7–10 EUR, and the average bill for dinner for two in a good restaurant is 30 EUR.
Recently, gourmet tours in Hiiumaa to the city of Kärdla for Cafe Day and Restaurant Week have become widespread, so the development restaurant business in Estonia, apparently, is following the right course.
Estonians themselves don’t really trust restaurateurs and prefer to eat at home, the old fashioned way. Since traditional cuisine, as we already know, is a phenomenon of peasant culture, the merits of national dishes are best revealed in the organic setting of a rural festival or a noisy fair.
Gourmets from around the world have already trodden a wide path in Setomaa, where guests are treated to farmer's cheeses and ancient dishes made from forest products. In the summer, festivals are held in honor of the favorite products of the village menu - herring, pickled cucumber, mushrooms and home-made preserves.
Culinary festivals allow us to form the most adequate idea of the gastronomic preferences of the Estonian people. To the accompaniment of live music, Estonian national dishes go great, and dancing, folk entertainment and comic competitions whet the appetite and deepen the sense of taste.
You can't stop drinking beautifully
Alcoholic drinks in Estonia are worthy of a poem. For many Soviet citizens, a selfless love for the Baltic states began with a sip of Old Tallinn rum liqueur (Vana Tallinn) or a strong Kännu Kukk liqueur with caraway seeds and juniper berries. In winter, it's nice to relax after a ski run, enjoying the spicy spirit of hot mulled wine or the subtle fruity aroma of glögg.
In the summer, the baton is picked up by local beers - “Saku”, “Pulse”, “Saare” and “Viru” with juniper extract. Collection varieties of the foamy drink are collected in the A le Coq Beer Museum in Tartu, and in some farms original honey beer is brewed according to medieval recipes. Pubs usually serve their own signature ale with a signature appetizer - smoked pig ears in garlic sauce.
The most praised ales are Virmalised from Põhjala, Eesti Rukki Eil from Õllenaut and Vormsi Hele Eil from Vormsi Brewery. Fans of gastronomic experiments should definitely try red beer with berry juice, and adherents healthy image life expects delicious and healthy non-alcoholic drinks - fruit drinks, compotes and Estonian kali kvass.
The best Estonian wines are collected in the collections of the Põltsamaa Castle Wine Cellar and the Museum of Drinking Culture, located on the site of the pre-war Luscher&Martin distillery in Tallinn. The tasting of noble drinks takes place in the solemn atmosphere of an old-world estate, resurrecting the novels of Turgenev and Tolstoy.
Top 10 Estonian dishes you need to try
Kartulipors - pork baked in mashed potatoes. For fun, in some cafes the portions are designed in the form of funny pigs with olive eyes and a snout of carrots.
Vereverst - blood sausage with barley and chopped bacon.
Creamy Dunkles Soup - first course with beans and smoked pork ribs in a toasted bread pot, thickly seasoned cream sauce.
Pirukad - small pies made of yeast dough filled with rice, stewed vegetables or minced meat.
Mulgicapsid is sauerkraut stewed in a cast iron with pork and barley, served with a side dish of boiled or baked potatoes.
Vere pakeogid - pancakes made from barley flour stuffed with peas, buckwheat and blood.
Mulgikorp - sweet cheesecakes served with sour cream or jam.
Kama is a mixture of dried or fried grains of rye, peas and oats, filled with sour milk, jam or honey.
Piparkook - crispy cookies with black pepper, ginger and cinnamon, painted with glazed patterns.
Marzipan is a shaped cake made from grated almonds and powdered sugar, covered with icing.
