Meat was slightly more difficult to get hold of, but my grandmother slaughtered a pig every now and then (yep, have witnessed this, too), and one of my Mum's younger sisters knew people in a chicken abattoir, so we were not on a totally vegetarian diet. Potatoes and other vegs came from my grandparents' farm, mum grew various fruit, berries and vegetables in our garden. But despite of the empty shops, we never went hungry. In the Soviet Estonia of 1980s, the shops got pretty empty, and I've mentioned the need to be self-sufficient already. Chicken neck soup ( kanakaelasupp) is one of the food memories I'd rather forget. Here's one I made couple of months ago - my nephews absolutely adored it.Ĥ. Almost 20 years on, this is still one of the favourites at children's parties and can even be bought in shops - and it's known as 'Kass Arturi kook' or the cake of cat Arthur. In one of the programmes, the 'cat' gave a recipe for a sickly sweet concoction involving toffees, butter and puffed corn.
Story behind pour some sugar on may meme tv#
There was a childrens' TV programme, Kass Artur - about a cat called Arthur - in our only Estonian language TV channel back in 1980s. Now I eat tomatoes with coarsely ground black pepper.
And I don't think it was to compensate for the lack of sweetness, as I did it with bright red and ripe tomatoes grown in my grandmother's greenhouse. For whatever reason I used to dip tomatoes into sugar when I was younger. This was an elaborate affair, often taking more than a day.Ģ. We'd spent all day collecting ripe apples from the orchard, washing them, squashing through the big wooden chopper/presser, and then drinking as much freshly squeezed apple juice as we could handle. Making apple juice was always lots of fun.
I remember picking cloudberries, blueberries/bilberries, bog bilberries, cranberries, wild raspberries and lingonberries with my grandmother, Mum, aunties and cousins - whoever happened to be at the farm. After couple of hours in the sun, we'd head back, crush the strawberries at the bottom of a glass with some sugar, pour over some freshly milked cow milk and enjoy. The first few handfuls would end up straight in our mouths, of course. There's nothing better than grabbing a small jug or plastic container and heading for the fields. There were lots of wild strawberry fields at the farm and at the nearby hillside. Although I can't remember ever playing with him (he was probably too busy working for that) or chatting with him, I remember following him into the forest, where he'd show us the mushrooms to pick and the ones to leave behind. He was a big, untalkative and somewhat scary man, who died when I was 7. There were lots of forests near the farm and one of the most vivid memories is of going wild mushroom picking with my grandfather. It was quite a large farm with cats, dogs, cows (in addition to my grandparents' cows, there were several collective farm cowsheds at the farm), sheep, chicken, and orchards, fields after fields of potatoes and other vegetables etc. I spent about one month there every summer, alongside with a varying combination of my 11 cousins. I have quite a few childhood food memories related to my grandparents farm in Paluküla, some 80 kilometres south from the capital Tallinn. Here are some food-related bits and pieces from my childhood - not strictly five, but a few more:ġ. Although quite a few of my friends are very good cooks, I'm probably the only one verging on the obsession (you know, buying yet another cookbook, reading all food magazines, getting out of bed early on Saturday morning to go to the farmers market, getting excited about good/new/interesting ingredients, and gleaming proudly at everything she cooks), so it was comforting to find out that I am pretty normal after all.
I enjoyed reading the cookbook memes and the cook next door memes of fellow foodbloggers when I started in June 2005 - it was fascinating to get a small glimpse into the lives of more experienced bloggers. Melissa of The Traveller's Lunchbox has tagged me for the latest meme sweeping through the foodblogging community and it's a real pleasure to take part.
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