BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Estonian chef to introduce Estonian cuisine at Los Angeles 2012 Taste Awards

Los Angeles – By special invitation, Estonia’s beloved chef Marika Blossfeldt , author of the best-selling, Essential Nourishment, Recipes from My Estonian Farm (Gourmand World Cookbook Awards nominee, 2011), will be participating & preparing food for the 3rd Annual Taste Awards & VIP Reception, introducing Estonian cooking to the global culinary stage.

The Taste Awards , also known as the TASTY Awards, is the premier broadcast awards show to celebrate and recognize the year's best achievements in food, fashion, and home lifestyle programs on television, in film, online, and on radio.

Chef Marika will be preparing two items for the reception: a cranberry pecan barley bread, inspired by the traditional Estonian “karask,” and a quinoa beet salad, featuring boiled beets as the “Estonian” ingredient – in traditional Estonian cooking there are several versions of beet salads – Chef Marika gives it a new twist that pairs beets with a cooked grain.

Joining her will be Estonian cocktail masters, Heinar Oispuu and Kristo Toomingas, of Tallinn’s Butterfly Lounge , the biggest and most popular cocktail bar in Estonia.

Delighted to be introducing Estonian cuisine at the Taste Awards, she says, “My culinary philosophy is a perfect fit for what the Taste Awards seek to encourage and for what California cuisine is known for. What I have added is an emphasis on the local and the natural.”

Chef Marika is also the proprietor of an old, renovated Estonian herb and vegetable farm near the western coast of Estonia, Polli Talu. The farm has evolved into an international art and wellness center. Chef Marika has focused her life on practicing and teaching a holistic lifestyle where body, mind and spirit are integrated and deeply cared for.

Gingerbread Mania 2012: Unique Estonian Flavors

Gingerbread lovers will be able to feast their eyes upon all manner of delicious and delectable treats this Christmas, when they pay a visit one of Tallinn’s quirkier art and design events – the Gingerbread Mania Exhibition (PiparkoogiMaania 2011).

An annual exhibition, sponsored by a Tallinn-based cake manufacturer, nothing is quite what it seems at Gingerbread Mania. Over the next three weeks, visitors will be descending on Tallinn’s Design and Architecture Gallery to taste the work of more than 100 local artists and designers, who have created the ultimate fragrant dream world for anyone who loves the traditional Christmas treats.

In a collision of folk traditions, modern art and gastronomy, more than 300 kilos of dough has been transformed into all manner of mouth-watering objects. Exhibits range from life-size cash registers and angel wings, to brand name handbags and bakeries run by teddy bears (complete with intricately-designed miniature pretzels and loaves of bread!).

The exhibition pays homage to numerous different cultures – Nordic, European, even African influences are all apparent in the designs – as the artists prove that just about anything can be made from gingerbread. Visitors can also catch a glimpse of how the exhibits are made, as artists demonstrate their age-old gingerbread baking and decorating techniques, heating up treacle the old-fashioned way over a naked flame, then gently pouring the sweet-smelling mix over various tasty treats.

Estonia's capital of history, culture and pork products

When news of its vastly cheap alcohol began spreading through Europe a handful of years ago, the formerly Soviet-occupied country of Estonia succumbed to being known for one thing: stag parties.

These days, however, this Baltic Sea-encircled state, whose landscape is dominated by thick forestry, lifeless Eastern Bloc infrastructure and medieval-looking thatched-roof villages, boasts far more than idiosyncratic nightlife. After all, it was the forward-thinking Estonians who invented Skype.

And in Tallinn, the country’s picturesque capital (which has also been one of the European Capitals of Culture for 2011), it is the culinary scene which is thriving.

What's the deal?

The central Raekoja Plats is lined with a host of vivacious restaurants come sunshine or snowfall – while it seems as if nearly every nationality (Brazilian, Greek, Argentinian, a host of African styles) has its food represented on the streets of the city’s most densely-populated parts.

New Year’s Eve gala dinner in Tchaikovsky

New Year’s Eve at Tchaikovsky has become a tradition for many, and this year we’re offering a six-course festive menu.

Enjoy scallops tar-tar with horseradish sabayon, jelly of Lobster consommé, salmon Ballantine Sautéed monkfish with tapenade… we could continue, of course. The entire six-course event includes live classical music throughout the evening. 130 euros per guest (or 200 euros to include accompanying wines and beverages).

For reservations call +372 6000 610 or write tchaikovsky@telegraafhotel.com

Price of beer on Town Hall Square reaches 5 euros

What was meant to happen has happened!

Open-air cafes on Town Hall Square in Tallinn that are popular with foreign tourists serve some of the country’s most expensive beer with half litres costing 5 euros, writes Postimees.

In most other open-air cafes in the Old Town beer costs between 2.5 and 4 euros a glass.

According to a representative of the central city district, there are about 100 potential open-air catering places in the Old Town, half of which are covered with applications.

Renting one square metre of Town Hall Square costs about 31 euros a month which is as much as last year.

Rents on other old town streets depend on the popularity of the site.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Barons Hotel - Tallinn

A characterful, great value hotel right in the heart of the Tallinn Old Town.

We stayed at the restored 4 star Barons Hotel in Tallinn Old Town for five nights in March 2011.  Karen found the best rate through the HotelsCombined price comparison site on the Thomas Cook site for £67.40 per night for a twin room for 2 guests (as Thomas Cook had a £30 off bookings over £300 at that time). The price included buffet breakfast, afternoon coffee with pastries, buffet dinner and free wifi.

It was easy to reach the hotel from the airport (5 kns distance) by bus followed by a five minute walk.The lobby and public areas were beautifully presented and the staff courteous and helpful. There are several interesting spaces in the hotel, like a cigar and cognac room reached by spiral staircase. The hotel and rooms were immaculately clean, beautifully and tastefully lit and decorated. There was free wireless internet in the lobby.

Our room was clean and nice and warm, considering the -2C temperature outside. There was adequate storage space, two desks and a mini-bar fridge. Ample hangers, soap and shampoo were provided, some nice touches (eg slippers and bathrobes) were present and the room’s own wireless access internet point was great. No password was needed, so traffic might have not been encrypted. The room was small (but high ceilinged), just adequate for 2 adults. The twin bed mattresses were somewhat on the soft side. There was a little outside noise and you could also hear some noise from the rooms next door as well as water running. The curtains did shut most of the outside light away.

Estonian cuisine

Most of the Estonians prefer pure domestic products and it is therefore no wonder that new shops and restaurants offering organic food are opening and the existing ones are expanding.

Farming has always been part of the land and local culture but especially during the Soviet years, people had to find ways of diversifying their menu. People grew their own fruits and vegetables and made their own jams and compotes, pickled and salted.

Our mothers never talked about organic food because they knew of no other. Even today gardens in our summer houses are fertilized with manure, cabbageworms are hand picked and shame on you if you sprinkle your apple trees with chemical pesticides. The organic food issue was brought up only when the rest of the world started to demand healthy and organically produced products. It is true, however, that after the borders opened, for a short while Estonians worshipped the waxed imported pears, sponge cakes with an indefinite storage life and syrups packed with artificial colours.

As a result, we now have to deal with the consequences - as more and more children have developed allergies. But, nevertheless, we are better off than most Europeans. According to recent studies 47 per cent of Estonians prefer domestic products while the average figure for the EU is 21 per cent. Today pasteurised yoghurts and instant soups full of sodium glutamate are hard to sell, as Estonian milk products, rye bread, meat, vegetables and even candies are pure and of high quality.

If you want to test the local prowess of an Estonian waiter or a cook ask him what is Estonian food. It is everything that grows in Estonia, in its waters, woods and farms. Generally speaking Estonians have similar taste to Nordic people. We like crisp, unprocessed, fresh, ecologically clean and homely food, i.e. food where the most is made of the natural taste of the raw materials.

Working with pride in the kitchen

TALLINN - The restaurants in Tallinn are working hard in order to find the best ways to achieve better results for 2011. There are both objective and personal issues in how to measure the quality of a good restaurant in Tallinn.

One of the main organizations involved in the restaurant business in Estonia is the Estonian Hotel and Restaurant Association, established in 1992. Standards of quality are under its control, as well as news and statistical reports showing the industry in numbers.

Antra Feldmane

Dishes from Alexander Restaurant - Muhu Island

There’s no doubt Scandinavia and the surrounding Baltic countries are where fashion forward foodies are heading this year. Recently, Copenhagen’s Noma restaurant was named best in the world in San Pellegrino’s influential 50 Best Restaurant’s list. At Alexander Restaurant on Muhu Island, Estonia, smoked moose carpaccio with asparagus and roasted onions is the must-try dish.

Special to The Globe and Mail

Going wild in the Baltics

Though any reference to Estonian cooking generally draws a blank stare from even well-traveled gourmets, Alexander, one of the best and most interesting new restaurants in Europe right now, is found on the tiny and stunningly beautiful Estonian island of Muhu, a two-hour drive south from Tallinn, the country’s capital. It’s still rather confidential, but a gastronomic awakening is occurring in the countries that surround Europe’s other great sea, the Baltic, which has long been dismissed as a region of marginal culinary interest by a world besotted with everything Mediterranean

Alexander, which occupies part of the imposing, late-19th-century manor house that once belonged to Baron Axel von Buxhoeveden (the imperial hunting master at the court of Czar Nicholas II and a member of a distinguished German-Baltic noble family that arrived on Muhu in the 14th century), opened a year ago, following the renovation of this building into an additional 14 hotel rooms at the charming Padaste Manor hotel. The restaurant’s intriguing and delicious “Nordic Islands cuisine,” which was conceived by Peeter Pihel, a young Estonian chef, and Martin Breuer, the manor’s Dutch proprietor, has turned it into a red-hot destination table for gastronomes from Stockholm, Copenhagen, Riga, Berlin and cities much farther afield.

The Nordic Islands cooking concept was born during the culinary research expeditions that Breuer and Pihel made in April to other islands in the Baltic Sea, including Zealand and Bornholm in Denmark, Aland in Finland and Oland in Sweden. “For most of its past, Muhu Island has been influenced by the other seafaring communities in the Nordic Islands region, which can still be noted in the food and cultural traditions of Muhu families to this day,” Pihel says. “We decided to rediscover these traditions,” Breuer adds. “On each island, we met with the chefs and restaurateurs that aim to cook at the highest-quality level and also have a dedicated interest in — and respect and passion for — terroir.”

Chocolaterie Pierre

Of all the places that I visited in Tallinn on my recent trip to Estonia, Chocolaterie Pierre (just off Vene), has stolen my heart and it’ll probably remain with them until I can make hot chocolate as perfect as it was here. I would WALK across Europe for another one. Actually, I’d rather they gave me the recipe at the end, that’s a heck of a walk. But it’s honestly the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted. And it just so happens that the rest of the cafe it pretty wonderful too.

If this cafe existed in London, it would be a horrible victim of it’s own success. It would be packed, queues would be out the door, and you’d never get any hot chocolate. Here, it’s easy. Quite enough to nab a table (albeit one with a broken chair bottom) but busy enough to catch snippets of conversation. You see, it’s very dark, and dark makes people whisper, and whispering makes you think everyone is having much more interesting conversations than you. Everything is red, extravagant, velvet, falling apart, vintage, old, fancy. Beautiful. All those things, and more. Like somewhere that has grown for years and years and more pretty things have been added over time.

If the pretty cafe wasn’t enough, there’s the courtyard. The downside with this is if it’s warm enough to sit outside, you’re not going to want hot chocolate. And if you don’t have hot chocolate you’re really doing it wrong. But, they have a quartet playing under a tiny little bandstand so that’s a really nice touch.

Austria tops EU drinking study

Austria tops a study researching drinking habits of people in the European Union (EU).

Fifteen per cent of Austrians said they would drink alcohol four to five times a week. This is a higher percentage than in any other EU member state, according to the European Commission’s (EC) Eurobarometer poll.

Bulgarian came second with 14 per cent ahead of Italy and Romania with 13 per cent each. Estonia and Latvia have the smallest percentage of residents drinking four to five times a week with three per cent each, according to the study.

Eurobarometer also found that more than one in three Austrians have consumed five or more alcoholic beverages at one instance at least once last year.

Ireland came first with a share of 44 per cent, followed by Romania (39 per cent). Germany and Austria shared third place with 36 per cent each, while Latvia came last with just 11 per cent.

Other international studies presented earlier this year revealed Austria has the most teenage smokers and ranks high when it comes to young people who have taken part in binge-drinking sessions.

Estonian cuisine sticks to its roots

TALLINN - Cuisines reflect the cultural variety of a country’s regions and the diverse history affected by the evolving civilization. Each country has its own cuisine, which differs from other countries, and represents the country’s customs, traditions and the kinds of foods that its people adore.

Traditional Estonian food has its roots firmly in the countryside, relying heavily on pork, potatoes and garden variety vegetables.
The different historical rulers of the region - Danes, Swedes, Germans and Russians – have influenced Estonian traditional cuisine over the centuries. Estonian cuisine is very unique and actually is a cuisine of peasant origin, whose more typical ingredients are black bread (which accompanies almost every kind of food), pork, fish, cabbage soup, potatoes, vegetables and dairy products. The eating habits of the Estonian population are significantly related to the season, which severely affects the availability of fresh food. The spring and summer are the seasons of fresh food, in this period vegetables, berries and herbs are used, and with the warmer climate the Estonians also like to cook grilled meat outdoors. During the winter Estonians mostly use mushrooms, jams and preserved foods. Among the typical Estonian dishes are: the “Silgusoust” (Baltic fish in acidic sauce), “Mulgikapsad” (pork with sauerkraut and boiled potatoes), “Verivorst” (blood sausage and barley), “Marineeritud angerjas” (marinade anguilla), “Sult” (boiled pork in jelly), Keel Hernestega (tongue), “Suitsukala” (smoked fish) and “Karask” (a kind of dry cake-like barley bread).

Running after a star : The 3 Sisters

The restaurant of the luxury Three Sisters hotel in Tallinn Old Town is going after its first Michelin star, writes Äripäev.

Hotel owner Johannes Wientjes has set his heart on the thing, says Tõnis Siigur who took over as the chef of the hotel restaurant in January.

"It has always been also my dream," he said, adding that this can be achieved only if all staff works for it, starting from the owner and ending with the cleaning ladies. "Everybody must want this and work for this," he said.

Siigur says that he remains in the kitchen until the last customer has left the restaurant. "This is the only way to get the star."

Hotel manager Sebastian Kraemer said that the restaurant will be refurbished in January. "We will modernize our kitchen, renovate the restaurant and change its concept. The new menu will be ready in February and we will then announce the name for the restaurant."

Before joining Three Sisters, Siigur won three times the Estonian Silver Spoon Award for the best restaurant and in 2007 won the Best Chef Award.

A supermarket in Estonia

The best sort of eastward expansion

FOOD in Europe’s ex-communist countries has an undeservedly bad reputation: stodgy peasant fare ruined by the culinary commissars of the planned economy. Your columnist has long disagreed, but proof is needed. So, on a recent visit to a supermarket in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, he set out to construct a winter picnic entirely from local ingredients.

The basis was easy: black bread, pungent and tasty. It makes loaves from the west and south of Europe seem bland and boring. So into the shopping basket went four or five different varieties, with different features: seeds, rye, crunchy and chewy by turns.

The mainstay of the picnic was pricey at €15 ($22), but succulent—a smoked salami from Lithuania. Accompanying it in the shopping basket were a gourmet smoked cheese from Estonia, a tin of smoked sprats (Latvia), Polish pickled mushrooms, plus Czech horseradish and Hungarian hot peppers. Who says eastern Europe is a vitamin-free zone? For dessert, Polish “chocolate plums” from the Solidarność confectionery works are a fine offering. So were crispy, crunchy gingerbread biscuits (Estonian) and a packet of dried apple rings (Polish).

Tallinn : a girl's guide to the best bars, hotels and restaurants

This pinch-yourself perfect walled capital is the most intact medieval city in Europe. In November and December its snow-covered streets are crammed with Christmas stalls.

Stay

The smartest address in town is the Schlössle Hotel, a super-luxe retreat where everyone from Sting to Soros has stayed over the years. If your budget doesn't stretch to a stay, splash out on the best dinner in the city at the sublime Stenhaus restaurant.

• From €169 (schlossle-hotels.com/schlossle)

The chic Three Sisters hotel, in three adjacent town houses, is not for the shy and retiring. Think modern décor, hip music and a clientele to match.

• From €159 (threesistershotel.com)

Eat

Estonian chefs have embraced the cuisines of the world with a vengeance, but their take on Italian is particularly inspiring. Try it at Controvento (controvento.ee) and Bocca (bocca.ee)

For an incredible authentic Russian menu – including the best-ever blinis – visit the old-world Restaurant Nevskij (nevskij.ee)

Drink

Find the best cocktail list in town, and a cool jazz-loving clientele, at Basso (basso.ee)

Estonia has lost her most famous toque

Imre Kose´s Bellavista company is bankrupt ... At the present time, it is not known who will pay for the EEK 3 million arrears of taxes.
So, wave "good-bye" to the Vertigo, to Mercado and other "Boulangerie" + "Bestseller" ...

The current economic situation has also put a halt to the top chief´s ascension as it has done to the day to hundreds of small or smaller businesses. But either one pays a minimum salary to one´s employees, else one doesn´t! But do not wait for support from the state.

See Vello´s article of last Saturday only : Chefs We Dig: Imre Kose

Given the all-consuming quiet caused by the recession, I thought I'd stumbled into a speakeasy in prohibition-era America. Vertigo is not a small restaurant, and conversation and laughter emanated from both of its large dining rooms.

And the chef was in the house. Imre Kose was dashing back and forth from kitchen to dining room, speaking with guests, holding hurried court as chefs do. And his English. Oh, his English. It's hard to pin down an Estonian accent. To me, it seems less an accent and more a brief pause on the way to having no accent whatsoever. But Kose's accent isn't even that. He's somehow made English his own. Perhaps due to a blend of natural charisma and having to be heard over chattering diners, something unique has emerged. Were I Estonia's dictator, I'd send language teachers and academics to study it.

Over a Jack on the rocks I watched a parade of violin-case-packing middle-aged women enter the restaurant. They were either visiting orchestra members with instruments too expensive to check, or they were about to shoot up the place. Later, halfway into a rack of lamb and Imre approached our table: "There's a Filipino woman, part of some orchestra, and I half-jokingly asked her if she wouldn't want to play a song..." And then there she was, violin unsheathed and under her chin, playing for our table. Playing for the restaurant. Playing for Imre.

Estonia lacks a coherent alcohol policy

The head of the Estonian Association of Food Industries Sirje Potisepp stated that Estonia lacks alcohol policy, writes the National Broadcasting/LETA. In the past two years, excise taxes on alcohol have been raised by four times; if one were to include the surge by 10% that will enter into force in January, it could be stated that the excise tax rate on alcohol has grown by a total of 43%.

Potisepp noted that raising excise taxes is not the correct form of alcohol policy. “If the policy is restricted to raising excise taxes, I am of the opinion that this is not a correct way of forming a policy. The alcohol policy should require prevention, improving the culture of alcohol consumption and also taking into account the financial side so as not to grant opportunities to the illegal market,” she explained.

Producers of alcohol state that sales of beer has been falling in the part few years and the increase in the excise taxes contributes to this trend.

Kalev Chocolate Museum calls me back to Estonia

Amanda Kendle

The beautiful Estonian capital of Tallinn has long been one of my favourite cities, and I’ve just come across a reason to return for my third visit: the Kalev Chocolate Museum.

Open in the inner city since 2003, the museum documents the history of the Kalev sweets manufacturers since 1806, and since that time includes the Soviet era, there is much of interest to see. For example, the museum includes different labels and packaging from throughout this era, a lot of it politically motivated. It’s also interesting to note that the USSR only authorised the Kalev company to produce chewing gum – a most controversial product throughout Soviet times.

I can only assume that, like any good chocolate museum, there are a few samples around for visitors to try. If not, there is definitely a shop attached where you can buy chocolates and candies produced by Kalev, and that’s enough to get me there. Visiting the museum is free and it is open daily from 10am to 5.30pm, but closing at 4pm on Sundays.

Italy complains about Estonian "mafia" dumplings

Tallinn - The Italian embassy in the Estonian capital, Tallinn has filed a complaint with the Estonian Foreign Ministry over the sale of meat dumplings bearing the 'Mafia' moniker, the Baltic News Service reported Thursday.

The embassy contacted the Estonian Foreign Ministry after it became aware that food company Alissa Pluss was marketing 'Mafia Pelmeenid,' with packaging featuring a map of Sicily and a gun.

Pelmeni are traditional Russian dumplings that are a popular food throughout Eastern Europe.

Valeri Platonov, a board member of Alissa Pluss, told Estonian television channel ETV: 'It makes you smile. It is a marketing trick - the idea of the package is to be funny.'

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kersti Luha said that if a product went against another country's good reputation, the ministry would contact the national Consumer Protection Board.