Those who have visited the blog Ohlala of my wife Ingrid about restaurants and cafes in Estonia will know that we love good food. After my overview of Estonian culture, I will try to give my feeling on Estonian cuisine.

Being French, this is a sensitive subject. Most French people value a lot eating well, but also the social aspect that goes with it. And I think it’s not being presumptuous to say few countries get close to France when it comes to enjoying the pleasures of the table. So I won’t try to compare Estonia to France and it general it doesn’t make a lot of sense to do such comparisons anyway. Every place in the world has its own food traditions, and one always has a special feeling for its childhood dishes too.

Let’s make it clear, for the food lover Estonia is a very nice country. There are many restaurants, especially in Tallinn but in other cities too. All foreign cuisine can be found, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, French, Japanese, etc. but also others we might see less in France like Russian and Georgian, but which are also really good. Overall the quality of these places is very good, we had very few disappointments.

There are also many Estonian restaurants, where we generally get some simple yet good food there, at very correct prices. One shouldn’t understand them as places serving only traditional Estonian food. In fact they often are a combination of bars, cafes and restaurants. Attention is given to the ambiance and it is possible to get served at most hours of the day, the kitchen doesn’t close at 2pm. Be careful when ordering dessert and coffee, if you don’t ask you will often get the coffee before the dessert.

Scandinavian countries have invested heavily in the Estonian economy, but fortunately they haven’t exported their “food”. I have lived in Sweden and Finland, and these countries are some depressing in term of food. There are almost no restaurants anymore, only pizza-kebab fast-foods. They all serve very cheap food, in really ugly places with no ambiance at all. Really horrible when coming from France, and that Estonia is not like it is really a relief. For now the main sign of Finnish presence in this field in Estonia is the Hesburger fast-food chain, which is famous for being even worse than McDonald’s…

Here is a call to all Estonian people: Keep it so! Don’t let it go the way of Finland or Sweden.

Like life in general, restaurants are also not so expensive. Tallinn is getting more expensive, but you can still have a very proper lunch during a weekday for 5 Euros, and a nice dinner for two in Tallinn’s Old Town for 30 Euros. Not on the very cheap side anymore, but one can go to a restaurant without feeling broke after, and that adds to the pleasure.

I wrote that I have been surprised at how many books there are in Estonian language. I had the same surprise at seeing how many local products you can buy. For example the supermarkets have a lot of Estonian produced ham and sausages, but also juices, milk products, bread, etc. Most French people will miss the huge variety of cheese we have in France, but it is possible to buy French cheese, dark chocolate, coffee, etc. The only tricky thing for me is the bread. There is a lot of good bread in Estonia, many different sorts, but it is dark bread and I sometimes miss a good baguette.

Like in other Europeans countries, it is advised to go to the market to find nice vegetables and better meat. We found excellent chicken and good beef in Tallinn’s market (next to the bus station), while Stockmann’s overpriced beef was completely uneatable. Like we did at the end in France, we buy now most of our fresh stuff on the market. It doesn’t take more time, is better and cheaper. And the additional benefit is that you buy more healthy stuff and are less tempted by the ready-made food sold by supermarkets.

I lived in Germany and really learnt to appreciate beer. Estonia is cool for this. There are a huge number of local beers, tens of different sorts in each supermarket, and they are really good. Dark, blond, strong, etc. there are all kind of sorts.

Since I’m speaking about alcohols, vodka is not as popular as beer here but Estonia has some very good locally produced brands. Another drink that I love since my first day in Estonia is Vana Tallinn. It is a dark brown strong liqueur with sweet taste, made with many herbs. One cannot leave Tallinn without a bottle! Estonia is too north to produce grape wine, but there is an Estonian “wine” made with berries that is quite interesting, a bit similar to a sweet grape wine.

Estonian local specialties are interesting too. Lets be honest, it’s a bit weird, but I have seen worse in China and even in France. And things like blood sausage might frighten the American tourist, but I have eaten it in my childhood in Alsace too. The city guide In Your Pocket has a nice overview of some of the most original local specialties. I can mention among others:

• Marineeritud angerjas: Marinated eel, served cold.
• Keel hernestega: Tongue, served with horseradish
• Mulgikapsad: Sauerkraut stew with pork. Sauerkraut and blood sausage is actually a traditional Christmas meal.

That’s it for now. Don’t forget to check Ingrid’s blog where she posts reviews of all restaurants we are visiting.

estonia, cuisine, restaurant

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 14th, 2005 at 7:44 pm and is filed under Estonia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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