“The Polish Baltic Sea coast of my own childhood memories was a feast for the senses,” describes Zuza Zak. She remembers long walks through shady forests smelling of pine trees. A scent that is still her favorite. Of white, icing-soft sand, foaming waves and that one beach hut they always made a pilgrimage to. Because there was fish soup, tubes of sweet condensed milk to suck on, waffles with fluffy cream. Zak wanted to return to this coast, more of the sea, to immerse herself in the place of her childhood – and explore her own roots at the same time. Shortly before, she had found out that she not only had Polish ancestors, but also Baltic ones. The result is called “Baltikum” and is a book full of recipes and stories from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
With her cookbook, she embraces this cuisine of the Baltic States – that of the restaurant kitchens and home cooking. These are two worlds, “but their goal is the same: the preservation of heritage”. In her recipe collection, Zak combines sweet and sour pickled radishes with frozen fish and makes spicy rye bread the highlight of her trifle. In many dishes, fish is the main character on the plate, but there is also room for vegetarian and vegan recipes. Her recipes are based on regional and seasonal ingredients. This is garnished with stories about the country and its people.
With the recipes and stories in “Baltikum”, Zuza Zak wanted to capture the “unique Baltic spirit”.
© Yasin Salazar
Renaissance of Baltic cuisine
She opened these while travelling, always listening to her grandmother’s stories. She didn’t have to search to find. In a fish restaurant, the waiter turned out to be the son of a famous poetess, and at a food festival she happened to meet the very people behind the “new wave” of Baltic food culture. This “new wave” combines cosmopolitanism with tradition and regionality. The food renaissance, Zak writes in her book, goes hand-in-hand with a broader cultural revival. “Because the country has put what I like to call a ‘communist hangover’ behind.”
What does waking up after a hangover taste like? Five Recipes from the cookbook “Baltic States” we present to you in the photo gallery above.
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