A national referendum on granting Russian the status of the second official language in Latvia by amending the Latvian Constitution (Satversme) will take place on February, 18, 2012.

                   All Latvian citizens residing around the world are encouraged to vote NO! as it is of an utmost importance to the existence of the Latvian nation and state.

List of locations around the world where you can cast your vote

Latvians love to eat, but even more then that – Latvians love to feed their guests. Every time you go to someones house (even if you just dropped by), as soon as you walk in the door – you will be offered to sit down, have a cup of coffee or tea and miraculously some other goodies will appear on the table along with it.

We were so lucky to go to Latvia in the middle of vegetable and berry season. Not a day went by without freshly picked tomatoes and cucumbers. A carrot could be pulled straight out of the carrot-bed. Rinse it off and crunch it away just like Bugs Bunny – green stems in your hand.

One of the favorite Latvian summer side-dishes is a cucumber/tomato salad with sour cream. Cut it up in small chunks, add fresh dill, some onion, coarse salt and pepper. Mix it up and add as a side dish to almost anything. In my opinion, this salad tastes best if paired with boiled potatoes.

Cucumber & tomato salad. Add sour cream or oil/vinegar.

And, of course, there is BBQ. There is nothing better than the grilled or smoked taste of a pre-marinated meat and veggies. We ate garden-smoked chicken and a whole lot of pre-marinated, paprika spiced chicken wings.

Smoked whole chicken, pre-marinated in garlic and vinegar

Paprika spiced chicken wings

Finger-licking goodness

Of course, it’s always nice to cook your own food and fix your own plate, but sometimes it’s even nicer to relax on an outside terrace at one of the local restaurants, do people watching and enjoy a glass of locally brewed beer. Shish-kebabs or “šašļiks” is very popular.

Grilled chicken kebab, rice and fresh veggies

Lightly battered pork fillet over fresh fries and fresh veggie salads

Crepes filled with cottage cheese, raisins and cinnamon. Sprinkled with chocolate and raspberry sauce.

We could not leave Latvia without visiting a bookstore and picking up a beautiful, 200 page book called “Latvian Cuisine” by Lolita Šelvaha. Besides the fact that each dish comes with a photo, each recipe is written in Latvian and English. The author has managed to show Latvian cuisine all through four seasons of the year, holidays and daily Latvian dinner table. Having this book will give you an opportunity to try Latvian dishes and learn “food vocabulary” as well !!!

"Cuisine in Latvia" by Lolita Šelvaha. ISBN 978-9934-0-0722-4

I hope to get time to cook a few dishes together with you and post it right here in my blog! For now…thanks for reading…. go cook something!