What to Eat in Estonia
What should you eat in Estonia? What are the most typical and traditional Estonian dishes? Here is the list of the Best Estonian Food & Cuisine that you should try before you die. You cannot leave Estonia without eating these foods!
Best Top Foods You Must Try in Estonia
- Meat Jelly / Sült / Headcheese / Brawn
- Sült is a traditional dish in Estonia made of cooked pork and veal inside a gelatine or jelly. The jelly comes from the pig feet (hocks) and leg bones (that contain the cartilage) themselves. It's typical to have it for Christmas or wedding celebrations. Althought it used to be considered only winter food, you can also eat it during summer, as it is served cold.
- Potatoe Salad / Kartulisalat
- Kartulisalat is a dish composed mainly of boiled potatoes accompanied by different ingredients. It's a classic dish for parties, especially for birthdays. A perfect and more estonian touch combination is when you mix the potato salad with delicious Kodujuustu (cottage cheese).
- Spotted Dog Cake / Kirju Koer
- Kirju Koer is a simple cake (also known as Spotted Dog Cake for how it looks like) made out of cookies, marmelade and cacao. It tastes sweet and sour at the same time. It's probably the favourite dessert of many estonians and the one people feel more nostalgic about when they are abroad.
- Beetroot and Herring Salad / Rosolje
- Beetroot and Herring Salad is beet salad that accompanies other dishes (for example some sausages) and it's other classical and popular salad in parties and celebrations. There is the option to remove the herring to make a vegetarian Rosolje, but the most traditional people will tell you that that's not the authentic Rosolje.
- Blood Sausage / Verivorstid
- Verivorstid is the black pudding from Estonia and is a must have for Christmas (in addition to the Verivorstid, if we put the seapraad-roast pork-, the hapukapsas-fermented cabbage or sauerkraut- and potatoes we will have the full menu of Christmas dinners). The process of elaboration of verivorstid is a full ritual that repeats every year. The Verivorstid is served by roasting it until the skin is turned up and small blisters are marked.
- Kissel / Mustikakissell
- Kissel is a kind of fruit pudding, very popular as a dessert. It consists of sweetened berries juice, thickened with corn starch or potato starch, and sometimes it is also added red wine or fresh or dried fruit.There are plenty of forests in Estonia and this means we have plenty of berries to make these kind of delicious drinks. Kissel can be served hot or cold, even with a cream of sweetened cheese or a semolina pudding. It can also be served with pancakes or ice cream. If made softer, using less starch, it can be drunk - so it is very popular in Russia.
- Curd Snack / Kohuke
- The Kohuke are small frozen chocolates of different tastes and flavors which contain cottage cheese. They are so popular, delicious and addictive that I think everyone remembers eating at least one a day while growing up.
- Kama
- Kama is maybe the most estonian iconic food and it's known as the Estonian Muesly. Being a mixture of various flours (barley, wheat, rye and oats) it is perfect to create the most amazing Estonian desserts. With its raw form it is generally used in breakfast, mixed with milk, kefir or yogurt.