But first and foremost, this is a foodie city. Hales Turgus food market, built in 1906, is a particular delight: juxtaposing country women selling their black rye bread, honey and cured sausages with the exemplary modern deli Roots, which stocks an alluring range of Baltic conserves, including lingonberry, and fruit wines from elderberry to rhubarb, and whose owner will proudly explain the story behind each of the artisan Lithuanian cheeses she sells.
Meanwhile, at one of Vilnius’ best contemporary restaurants, Ertlio Namas (ertlio.namas.it), the menu draws on dishes once cooked for the baroque Lithuanian nobility, using lightly smoked vendace fillet and arkas made with twarog – a cheese between cottage and ricotta – sugar, rose water and saffron, served with baked wild mushrooms and nutty deep-orange swede.
But it wasn’t until the very last day of my visit that I really felt the tug of my Lithuanian lineage. Sitting having tea with Zilvinas Beliauskas, director of the Vilnius Jewish Public Library and Arts Centre, and a group of his colourful, friendly regulars, the conversation turned from food – typical of any Jewish gathering and, it seems, any in Vilnius too – to the traditional character traits of a Litvak, or Lithuanian Jew.
Source link : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/lithuania/finally-visited-city-jewish-ancestors-fled-what-found/
Author :
Publish date : 2022-11-05 03:00:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.