Road trips, mountain walks and holidays

If we talk about national dishes, Lithuanian cepelinai and sakotis are obvious representatives of Lithuanian cuisine. I wrote about the Lithuanian dessert sakotis before, so in this post more about their main dish – Lithuanian dumplings cepelinai. Every time I have a chance to stay in Lithuania for a few days, I try to include Lithuanian dumplings cepelinai in one of my meals at least once. So what are Lithuanian dumplings cepelinai? They are large-sized dumplings made from potato dough, which have a shape similar to an airship or zeppelin. The honour of the inventor of the airship goes to the inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Zeppelins (cepelinai) as a food were already known before the invention of the airship, and before that they were called didžkukuliai (something like grand dumplings) in Lithuanian. It is said that this dish originated in Germany, but was originally made without filling. Potato dough is made by mixing fresh grated potatoes with mashed boiled potatoes. The ...

This was one of our corporate trips and before departure, we spent a lot of time making it happen successfully. During two days accompanied by friendly colleagues, we decided to visit several exciting sites in Lithuania and spent time together in the eastern part of Lithuania. About one month we spent for preparation of this trip looking for interesting sites, convenient prices and adjusting the schedule of our visits. Lithuanian icon Cross Hill And finally, here we are – at the beginning of June at 7 AM we meet each other to start the trip. Just some morning coffee before departure and short waiting for colleagues who are a bit late. Our first destination – one of the most famous and exciting sites in Lithuania Cross Hill (Križiu kalnas) near the town Siauliai . Cross Hill is a small hummock covered with more than one hundred thousand various religious things like crosses, figures and pictures. However, it is a very important even iconic historical place for Lithuanians. In this place...

Bakery near Ignalina This is another part of our trip around Lithuania. On the morning of the second day of our trip, after a coffee and light breakfast, we went to Ignalina. Our destination was bakery Romnesa, where Lithuanian desert sakotis (šakotis, šakočiai or raguolis), what is a national delicacy, is produced.   Sakotis is a special muffin in the shape of a tree with a hollow in the middle prepared by monks since the 15th century. A similar kind of muffin is also popular in Germany, Poland, Sweden, Hungary and Japan. However, every country has its own specific traditions of preparing them. Variants of preparation may vary but just for an example here is one sakotis recipe (keep in mind that the same importance as ingredients also is a technology of sakotis preparation). In this case, sakotis was made on open fire. We were also told about the history of sakotis (there is a small museum inside the factory’s premises) as well as made our own. The size of sakotis depends on the a...