Rye bread has always been one of the most important and distinctive parts of Latvia's culinary heritage and now visitors to the country have a chance to pursue a stomach-filling tour during which they can find out about this incomparable comestible in its most authentic and tasty forms.
Food & drink
Expert cooks from across the five cultural regions of Latvia gathered last weekend at the Hanzas perons cultural space to show off their goods all in one place, as part of the Novadu garša (regional flavors) initiative.
Listed shipper AS Tallink Grupp has acquired exclusive development rights for global fast food chain Burger King in the Baltic states, the first Burger King restaurants are planned to be opened in Tallinn this winter and the first restaurants in Latvia and Lithuania in the first half of 2020.
This year's season in Latvian beekeeping has been fairly good, with an average of 25-30 kilograms of honey being collected from one bee colony, estimates the Latvian Beekeeping Society (LBB), according to LSM's Latvian language service.
This recipe is taken from "Īsakūd Latgolā", a program on Latvian Television exploring the culinary delights of the Latgale region in Latvia. Today's recipe comes under the peculiar name of "guļbešņīki", which derives from "guļbi", Latgalian for "potatoes".
This recipe is taken from "Īsakūd Latgolā", a program on Latvian Television exploring the culinary delights of the Latgale region in Latvia. Today's recipe is "grūslis", the name of which comes from the verb "sagrūstīt" or "to crush" due to the seemingly crushed texture of the dish.
This recipe is taken from "Īsakūd Latgolā", a program on Latvian Television exploring the culinary delights of the Latgale region in Latvia. Today's recipe is "sirņiki", an Eastern Slavic traditional dish which long ago crossed the border from Belarus into Latgale to become part of the local cuisine.
This recipe is taken from "Īsakūd Latgolā", a program on Latvian Television exploring the culinary delights of the Latgale region in Latvia. Today's recipe is sauerkraut soup. Whereas in other parts of Latvia sauerkraut soup is made with potatoes, carrots and groats, the Latgalian version consists of "bare" sauerkraut with a hearty portion of bacon - just the thing for a cold winter day.
This recipe is taken from "Īsakūd Latgolā", a program on Latvian Television exploring the culinary delights of the Latgale region in Latvia. Today's recipe is "kļockas", the crowning dish of any festive feast in Latgale.
This recipe is taken from "Īsakūd Latgolā", a program on Latvian Television exploring the culinary delights of the Latgale region in Latvia. With several rivers and hundreds of lakes, Latgale is particularly strong when it comes to the use of freshwater fish in its cuisine. This one has the benefit of not requiring any specific species - whatever you catch can go into the pot.
This recipe is taken from "Īsakūd Latgolā", a program on Latvian Television exploring the culinary delights of the Latgale region in Latvia. Today's recipe is festive black bread, which occupies the center of the Latgalian table on both special and everyday occasions. It's not the quickest or easiest recipe but anything approaching success will win you credit throughout Latgale!
This recipe is taken from "Īsakūd Latgolā", a program on Latvian Television exploring the culinary delights of the Latgale region in Latvia. Today's recipe has northern pike as its main ingredient, the most widespread fish in Latvian lakes and rivers, which can grow up to 150 cm in length and 35 kg in weight. Despite its fearsome appearance and reputation for being a bit bony, its flesh is delicious and it thrives in the blue lakes of Latgale - at least until it finds its way onto the end of a fisherman's rod and winds up stuffed in the manner below.
Foreign students studying in Rēzekne are getting to grips with the Latvian language via a novel teaching tool: food.
Major supermarket chain Maxima has confirmed what everyone could probably have guessed: that the potato is the most popular vegetable in Latvia.
This recipe is taken from "Īsakūd Latgolā", a program on Latvian Television exploring the culinary delights of the Latgale region in Latvia. Today's recipe is Latgalian blood sausage (asinsdesa), which is sometimes called groat sausage (putraimdesa) because of the added barley groats.