Estonian Food

Elk at Rataskaevu.

Estonian food is so different than Italian food. But in a way, very familiar. I went a well known restaurant, Rataskaevu, in old town Tallin and ate in a picturesque tavern.

Rye bread at Rataskaevu.
Rye and poppy seed bread from Moon.

Of course, I tried the elk. But I did not like it as much as the salmon soup and the rye bread.

Salmon soup at Rataskaevu.
Salmon soup at Moon.

Near me was an international group of friends who had travel over from Stockholm, Sweden, for lunch, emphasizing how small the distances can be up here in the Nordic-Baltic region where the transportation and WIFI are fast.

Rataskaevu.

In Tallin, all the restaurant staff spoke excellent English. It make visiting quite easy.

Blinis at Moon.

Tallin is a favorite city for many people and I asked one where he thought I should eat. He recommended Moon, and it was delicious.

Pickled appetizers at Moon.

When I admitted to the waitress that I did not like the pickled appetizer platter, she admitted that generally one needed to be drinking vodka with it.

Chicken Kiev at Moon.

The “Chicken Kiev” was the best I have had. It was light, moist, juicy, buttery, crunchy, and delicate.

A hand pie, dumpling, at Moon.

Jarring Silvers

IMG_0561Of all the places I’ve been in the last year, I’d say that visiting small town Alaska was the most exotic place by far. Even the language was foreign to me. Take for example, the phrase, “We will jar silvers.” I rarely ever hear jar used as a verb and even more rarely hear silver used in the plural. IMG_0577

It turned out to be simple. The semi-dried silver-bellied salmon needed to be pickled for the long Alaskan winter. And they were. My contribution was to photograph the process. Seven hours later, I had the opportunity to taste the pickled salmon. Pickling takes much longer than I expected. A pressure cooker has never been so closely watched!

IMG_0603As I said, one of the most unusual experiences of the last year.

Cucumber Kimchi – It Is Really Easy!

Thanks to Paloquemao market, I’m able to find “Asian vegetables” to make Asian food. This includes kimchi.

Cucumber kimchi in pride of place on the table.
Cucumber kimchi in pride of place on the table.

In Dhaka, I organized Korean cooking lessons and it was possible to buy Korean goods at the Korean mart in Dhaka (and I had my special Korean place in Dhaka to supply me). In Bogota there is no Korean supermarket with ready-to-eat small dishes (other than Maki Roll restaurant which has a few items for sale). Also, I haven’t found my kimchi source (Casa de Coreana‘s is the best in Bogota, in my opinion), so I decided that I would have to make it myself.

Hand made cucumber kimchi.
Hand made cucumber kimchi.

The recipe is easy to find on the Internet (Maangchi is one of favorite) and I used her easy recipe involving fish sauce. I made it and it was delicious!

Cucumber kimchi made by me.
Cucumber kimchi at six hours old.