Lithuania's Strangest Foods? Are You Brave Enough To Try?

[@michaelamaestas4950]

I grew up eating these foods, in the USA , My Mother and Grandmother made them at home, In the Boston area.

[@Krumas123]

You probably have Lithuanian roots

[@michaelamaestas4950]

@@Krumas123 , My Mother was born in Kaunas is 1935. My Father born in Boston but died in Lithuania in 1996.

[@pro_grapist]

Pig tongue is amazing! IMO eating it with rye bread and mayo (instead of horseradish) is the best way. It doesn't look gross at all when it's boiled and sliced up.

[@ocd2222]

agreed, this is the food of the gods

[@viktorianas]

Mix horseradish with mayo.

[@pro_grapist]

@@viktorianas I sometimes eat boiled eggs that way, but for some reason never thought about trying it with pig tongue. I imagine it should taste amazing though, definitely gonna try during christmas, I know there's going to be pork tongue when I visit my parents because mom knows that both her kids love that stuff and always prepares plenty lmao.

[@blueeyedbaer]

Pig tongue is fantastic. It's supposed to be boiled for HOURS. It gets that consistency of pulled pork and just melts in the mouth. I like it with mayo mixed with horseradish. Gira, that you buy at supermarkets, can't even compare to home made.

[@Xenu321]

I mean, I get that the tongue is just another muscle, but I nearly vomited a bit in my mouth when I read your comment. The thought of eating tongue is just too disgusting for me.

[@Not-famous]

Yeah. Pig tongue and pig ears are best with beer

[@Bad_Artist_]

When I visited Lithuania 30 years ago, many of my hosts kept treating me with tongue. I was totally disgusted by it but was too polite to tell anybody. Most other foods I really loved, especially šaltibarščiai -- cold beet soup!

[@mariusrutkaus]

What I know from my grandparents, it's considered sort of delicacy. I ate it multiple times at home. Have mixed feelings about it. But definitely not the first choice from all Lithuanian cuisine

[@oaktreeman4369]

Smoked eel is lovely. It's a New Zealand specialty, though expensive and hard to find where I live now (England)

[@mariusrutkaus]

In Lithuania it's also not easy to find. Really seasonal and quite expensive. However, I was blessed by my dad's friend, who's hobby was fishing and smoking fish in summer, so I had lot's of this delicacy. Also was bringing it to friends and colleagues in summer. Anyways, quite cool to see that it's also popular somewhere else. Cheers!

@@mariusrutkaus bent jau rūkyklose tai dažniausiai tikrai rasi, pvz., Vilniuje Pavilnio žuvų rūkykloje. Dėl sezoniškumo nepasakysiu, bet kad lyg turi praktiškai visus metus išskyrus neršto periodą, tai pavasarį. Rekomenduoju pabandyti tuos mažus, ten daugiau skonio ir mažiau riebalo. Didelių nemėgstu, ten jau praktiškai lašinys beveik be skonio :)

[@reaplikacija]

tongue is the best, though I hate peeling it

[@fidenemini111]

Yes, peeling tongue is not easy, but the result is worth of it. With horseradish mixed with the sour cream - yum, yum, yum😝

[@neon_genesis_hobbit]

Not a great fan of tongue, but in jelly it is a good thing

[@reaplikacija]

when it comes to lašiniai, while not exclusive to Lithuania, the way of curing kind of is. say in Poland traditional meat curing/smoking method is hot smoking. Lithuanian meanwhile is about cold smoking. and the most famous salo aka Ukrainian is mostly about salt curing

[@mikeromadin8744]

Ukrainian сало is usually with salt and black pepper.

[@blueeyedbaer]

⁠Lithuanian also. But my grandmother used to add garlic and bay leaf as well.

[@raimundasgriskaitis1140]

@@mikeromadin8744 I've seen both in my little village of ~15 families, in Lithuania. My family does salt cured, and my childhood best friends family does black pepper and salt.

[@JanBaron-t5h]

Actually, salo or lasiniai bacon type is not popular in Poland. Poles eat this type of bacon only in the form of a paste, i.e. shredded bacon melted at high temperature with onion and spices, they spread a small amount of such paste thinly on the bread and put pickled cucumbers on top. In Poland, people are accustomed to bacon with a high meat content, in this country there are practically no breeds of pigs with thick fatty tissue bred because there is practically no demand for this type of product.

[@manometras]

I love šaltibarščiai (well made at home) in summertime. I also love many versions of fresh glaistytas sūrelis. It’s like a candy for me. Cooked Cow tongue - I used to love it. Šaltiena - I like it, but less in winter, more in summer, because it’s a cold dish. Šakotis is ok when it’s fresh enough. Knowing how many eggs are used for making it, I only eat a little bit of it. Gira is delicious, if it’s well made at home. The ones you buy in supermarkets are lame, full of sugar and taste similar to coca cola. Kefir is not Lithuanian at all, but I liked it a lot and used to drink it every evening in my Soviet childhood. Rūgpienis / sour milk is Lithuanian. I prefer rūgpienis or yogurt, or riaženka now, and make šaltibarščiai with rūgpienis as well. I find Vytautas and Birutė mineral water useful and am used to their taste. I prefer Birutė because there’s a still version, which is my choice. Cepelinai, vėdarai, kugelis - a way to torture potatoes, their makers and the stomacks of their eaters. But poor peasants needed to eat such dishes becasue potatoes were all they had and they let them feel not hungry for longer than any other food they could afford.

[@Perkunas1564]

Varskes surelis yra legenda ,niam niam :) Bet zmogau vedarai, tikrai nevisiems. Vytauto mineralis vanduo jega!

[@manometras]

Vytautas is ok, but there’s no still version, so I prefer Birutė, the still one.

[@manometras]

Kaimiškų vėdarų ruošimo kvapas tikrai ne visiems. O patys vėdarai - tik vienas iš daugelio lietuviškų bulvių ir jų gamintojų kankinimo būdų. Stebiuosi, kai lietuviai pravardžiuoja gudus bulbašais, patys būdami bulviaėdžiai.

[@jonaskazlauskas5117]

Mažai dabar kas žino patį lietuviškiausią troškinį iš kiaulės(avies) skrandžio, ar žarnų. Vadinasi Blėkas. Kvapas- ne duok Die, o skonis- pasaka😂.

[@dainiussatas]

@@jonaskazlauskas5117 neteko apie toki girdet kas tai yra jei galima smulkiau

[@DavidBale-vn4op]

I'm Lithuanian Canadian remembering watching Estonian man eating tounge with mustard when I was six. My grandparents were into the headcheese. Herring.

[@enigma26a]

Sakotis is absolutely delicious! My family had this here in New York City every Christmas. My parents came from Kaunas and Mariampole 🙂

[@sazarkanas5921]

i am not a fan of tongue, but it tastes okey, but smoked pig ears with a beer is quite a snack

[@PurvinasVanduo]

o kur tos lokio mėsos gaut?

[@sazarkanas5921]

@@PurvinasVanduo seniau kol tvoros nebūdavo tai viena kita iš Gudijos atklysdavo :D ačiū už pastebėjimą

[@jonaskazlauskas5117]

​@@sazarkanas5921 Pradžiuginsiu. Po daugiau, kaip 150 metų pertraukos Lietuvoje dvi meškos susilaukė lokiukų😉.

[@FanTaz1986]

i personally love beef tongue more then pig ones ,but pig are ok too

[@anzelmasmatutis2500]

Showing unprepared/uncooked cow tongue makes a disservice for real dish.

[@fidenemini111]

And it's better not to know how sausages are made😂

[@raimundasgriskaitis1140]

@@fidenemini111 nah, I've lived in Eastern European village, I've seen animals die for food since I was 5. I've seen how pig turns to vedarai, and I still love it.

[@antanassmetona4054]

@@raimundasgriskaitis1140 what is an eastern european village exactly? Like, Ukraine or something?

[@raimundasgriskaitis1140]

@antanassmetona4054 Lietuva, Vilkavškio r. Šikšniai

[@antanassmetona4054]

@@raimundasgriskaitis1140 Nuo kada Lietuva yra Rytų Europa?

[@Erik_Emer]

I find it funny and interesting that the linguistic diminutive of varškės sūris that's featured in this video is varškės sūrelis, but it's its own thing as a separate entity. I'd like to try them both; my supermarket also sells "cheesecake bars," but it's probably a different experience from varškės sūrelis.

[@siuksliukaralius7029]

Tongue delicious. It is very far from disgusting.

[@mikeromadin8744]

Perfectly agree, as well as halal pork!

[@ASAS-dn4ve]

Traditionally people were farming pigs for meat and every part of pig was used. I liked tongues quite well and don't see eating them more strange than using kidneys, lungs and liver. Has she ever tried blood sausage? I suppose, not. Even pork bones had value - were burned, crushed and used as fertilizer.

[@siuksliukaralius7029]

@@ASAS-dn4ve Exactly. When i was a small kid i always looked for brain. Delicious and nutritious.

[@ASAS-dn4ve]

@@mikeromadin8744 🤣🤣🤣

[@manometras]

I used to love it in my Soviet childhood. Not so much now.

[@DS.J]

How can she say she "cannot eat this" about pig's tongue? It's one of the nicest snacks with horseradish and/or mayonnaise. Absolute must. As for gira, I would not recommend to buy the canned or simiar mainstream variants. The closest one to real gira is sold in Lidl and I believe Rimi, perhaps other supermarkets too, and is kept in the fridges. It has far higher bread content than those fake gira in cans.

[@mariusakelis8689]

i dont think that kefyr is Lithuanian, i believe you can find Kefyr-like drink all around mediterranian region, especialy Turkyje and Greece.

[@Moliugas89]

It might originated somewhere else but we do produce it and use it a lot in lithuania. So it is one of Lithuania's foods.

[@Mendogology]

You are confusing Kefyr with fermented milk. They are not the same, even if both are literally fermented milks (keep in mind most cheeses are also, just a fermented milk). Kefyr is fermented with a very specific ferment, that as far as I know, originated in the Old Good Mongol times and lands. In the other hand, the typical fermented milk, is fermented by the ferments that are in the air. The end result is different in taste and texture. So, Kefyr is very little known in Mediterranean region and for most people, not known at all.(Greece, Spain, Italy, etc. Not sure about Turkey). Those countries, traditionally, have no idea about Kefyr.

[@manometras]

@@Mendogology, and Kefir is not Lithuanian either. Rūgpienis is Lithuanian.

[@Mendogology]

@@manometras At any moment I said it has Lithuanian origin, I specified it has Mongolian origin, as far as I know, without googling it. Also, rugpienis is not Lithuanian what it comes to its origin. Many Indo-europeans ferment the milk in same way, without a doubt its origins are pre-Lithuanian.

[@manometras]

@@Mendogology, I mean, we get rūgpienis out of our milk and our air here in Lithuania. Easily, naturaly, without doing anything, just leting milk stand there.

[@Xenu321]

She should be a regular guest! That was amazing. Thanks!

[@AbsentasLT]

I really enjoy watching your videos ;)

[@fidenemini111]

What you are showing is not a real gira. Homemade one is a real deal, especially when made not with yeast but with sourdough. This one is harder to make but it tastes way better.

[@The1979gregor]

The branch cake in Polish is called sękacz and it is fairly easy to buy. At least in Northern Poland

[@BBSGgming]

me Bangladeshi Lithuania my favourite country 🇱🇹🇱🇹❤❤

[@Palosiam124]

🤮🤮🤮

[@vspecial1]

Sakotis, Gira and Vedarai are delicious

[@karliszemitis3356]

What you missed definitely is kugelis. The way I was served, it was meat mixed with greated onions, heavy cream, milk and then cooked in wood fire oven for abuut 8 hours. Very interesting taste profile.

[@rain_1_3]

no. this is about STRANGE food. kugelis is totaly normal. but samogitian shmakalas , pig tails , pig sniff , tongues and other stuff is disgusting

[@Mendogology]

Pig's tongue, it's a delicatessen. I always eat it with mayo.

[@ToslisTosliauskas]

Lina supergirl . Thank you for emotional video 😍😉👍🎄

[@davidaio1019]

It's tasty if you don't know what you eat talking about the tongues pigs cows etc... p.s. it's way better with mayo than with horse radishes.

[@neon_genesis_hobbit]

It's a cool thing that most of them also present in the Belarusian culture. When i visited Lithuania for the first time, the most surprining thing for me was soared milk.

[@ZorroComputers]

Unfortunatelly, she forgot what our country is famous for. Where is skilandžiai, rūkytos dešros, vėdarai.......

[@UhOhUmm]

Pig ear and pig tongue are pretty boring I would say as far as exotic foods, they taste fairly bland, mostly carried by the spices. And Vytautas really HAS to be cold or at least very cool (below 15C I would say) or it will taste a little bit like piss/sweat because of how many minerals it has.

[@Rokaskongelis]

cold soup is very good

[@Janzius1]

Fried raven? Blood soup?

[@zabulmonas666]

we do also eat pig brains but u wont find it in shops or restaurants probably also no one eats it any more

[@wgkarolisc]

Kefir and soda?!?!?!?! Sounds so bad but i guess could be a banger :D

[@LithuaniaExplained]

😅

[@blueeyedbaer]

Sounds similar to Indian lasi drink. It's amazing so I don't see why kefir+soda would be bad.

[@tomasrackauskas]

Don't try mix these two unless you want to have as much horsepower in your a*s as X-space rocket at startup :D

[@manometras]

@@blueeyedbaer, most Lithuanians have never tried it like that, and would not think about it.

[@josephkrizauskas1052]

What? No pigs knuckles? Come to JAV. We also have cow tongue. I would try these Lithuanian foods at least once. I would love to get a case of Gira and the mineral water. They sound good.

[@EeeEee-bm5gx]

Gira in supermarkets is made from carbonated water, sugar, citric acid and food colouring. Fermented bread hasn't been near it. Real gira or stick to cola

[@EeeEee-bm5gx]

Šakotis tastes like dried pancake mix that has dripped on the stove and dried. Because that's what ot is.

[@mikeromadin8744]

Actually cepelinai - it's just a modified the german Kartoffelklösse. Beef and halal pork tongues are well known and popular practically everywhere in Eastern Europe. Kefir came to Lithuania, i suggest from Georgia in XIX-th century during the imperial times. Regarding gira / kvas - mass production drink has nothing in common with real gira, i could confirm it due to 20 years I use to work in Tauras Brewery in Vilnius center and except beer we were mixing so called gira from concentrate and water. My ukrainian grandma use to make homemade kvas, that's was a gorgeous drink. Who are old enough to remember times before 1991 might remember 1 axle yellow trailers with a barrell - that was a real gira.

[@ugnikalnis]

I like Cow Tongue over pig it's better to peel off the external layer it will be tastier ... LIDL Gira Kvass is not good at all Try at Vilniaus Craft beer speciality shop Baltojo Tilto Gira it has less sugar n more refreshing ofc it's more expensive even Craft Vilniaus alaus Gira Called retro is quite nice. etc.

[@EeeEee-bm5gx]

Fun fact the curds "sūrelis" have the same word root as "sour". As in it's made from soured milk.

[@LV-426...]

I find none of them disgusting and tried all of them except that mineral water at the end. But I grew up in Romania though.

[@gintaras63]

I grew on all these foods in village in Lithuania. Love it all. You did not show smocked pork trotters! That is another weird food🙂

[@avigdonable]

French made Baumkuchen is called Le Gateau A La Broche. Exactly the same as Lithuanian.

[@mikkorenvall428]

There are lot's of Kefir like drinks around Baltic Sea... In Sweden they call it Surmjölk, in Finland Piimä, Estonia Hapupiima. And so on... Whole different thing than yogurt....

[@aurered6387]

mmm all so tasty my fav. snack is smoked pig ears also there is blood vėdarai

[@dovileskiauteriene4940]

I love all the sweet stuff Lithuania has to offer!

[@ZorroComputers]

Kas čia per nesąmonės? O kur vėdarai, o kur skilandžiai, o kur rūkytos dešros?

[@mariusrutkaus]

Tai ganėtinai standartiniai dalykai kurie nelabai ką nustebins. Neikrenta į kategoriją "weird".

[@alisastebuklu8618]

Very funny automatic English translation. :-)

[@tdb7992]

In all honesty, the idea of mixing that dairy drink with carbonated soda sounds worse than anything she mentioned, haha. I just cannot imagine anything creamy and bubbly. I have next week off work for the Christmas break, so I may attempt to make Zeplins again because the last time I attempted I really messed them up :D Hello from Australia again mate.

[@MrIrvash]

Pig tongue is the purest form of torture and i am raised in Lithuanian everytime granny take out pigs tongue as a "Dish" everyone (kids) just disappear from building (me and my cousins just run from that thing)

[@andriusbalukas207]

I happily grew up with most of these acquired tastes found in Lithuanian delicatessens in the U.S., but I wouldn't dare share them with my American friends. Too scary. A gentle warning about exploring aspic and meat products: if you have a gout condition, watch out; they may cause you some painful misery. Living in France now, the blank taste of Lithuanian cheese and milk products would puzzle our local vendeurs de fromage. : )

[@Fikcija]

Pig tongue? I'm a 36 year old Lithuanian and I've literally NEVER heard of anyone eating boiled pig tongue. Cow tongue - yes, it's a delicacy, but definitely not pig tongue.

[@EeeEee-bm5gx]

Kefir and rūgpienis is good with heavy or greasy foods. As for mixing it with sodas 🤢

[@tikrslokis]

its missing blood sausage (vedarai) .

[@neringamuningyte1263]

I am from lithuania 🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹♥️♥️

[@marka0703]

no bloody sausage? what the heck?

[@Rokaskongelis]

lašiniai is good and lešiniai is for beer

[@batenka3430]

First. Tongue is not lithuanian dish. Tongue dishes you can find in Japan, Spain, Africas countries, even BBC gives us recipes for this dish. Second. This king if sweet cheese is very popular in Russia, Beloruss, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Latvia other counties of Eastern Europe and Asia. This product was invented in 19century in Altay, region of Russia. In the year 1930 the first official production startet in USSR. Since the year 1950 they became very popular. It is not a god choice, this dish has much sugar. Third . This cake comes from Poland- Sękacz. Poland got it from Germany- Baumkuchen. In France- Gâteau à la broche. The real origin is not clear. There are various, usually contradictory, legends about the origin of sękacz . According to one of them, the oldest recipe comes from a traveling medieval journeyman who, while serving a gingerbread baker in Berlin , introduced him to the dough, whose production he learned during his stay in Cottbus . Berlin is also linked to sękacz by a note from 1682 in the work of Johannes Sigismund Elsholz, court physician to the Elector of Saxony , entitled Gewürztes Brot und von allerhand Gebackenes ( Spicy Bread and All Bakings ), which mentions Baumkuchen , in Latin Placenta cylindrica , as a Berlin specialty. In Lithuania many people call it BANKUCHENAS from the german Baumkuchen. Fourth. Kvass it is russian national drink and there is no need to argue. Fifth. Kefir is asian drink similar like airan. The birthplace of kefir is considered to be “the environs of Elbrus along the upper reaches of the Kuban ” , and the honor of inventing the kefir starter belongs to the Karachays and Balkars . The first official report on kefir and its health benefits was made by the Tiflis (Georgia) doctor Dzhogin in a report to the Caucasian Medical Society in 1867. Discoveries in 2024 indicated the existence of two routes for the spread of kefir: from the North Caucasus to Europe and from Xinjiang deep into East Asia. Kefir in Lithuania appears in the years 1960-1970 when the new milk factories started. Sixth. Until WW2 lihuanians knew nothing about kefir, bet they used rugpienis and such kind of chees. It is similar like cheese in America is called "Philadelphia". This is only way to explain the taste. We will not speak about tongue one more time. So, seventh. Pressed pork or koseliena-aspic cames from Caucasies, in Georgia it called MUZHUZHY მუჟუჟი, in Armenia Khash խաշ. It is very healthy dish, there is a concentration of collagen. Eight. Pigs ears are popular all thru the world, people who like barbeque know it. Even pig's ears are known as ceng ceng cui (层层脆 "layers of crunch"). Ninth. Smoked Eel - Gerookte Paling ,Dutch delicacy. It is famous in most of the countries located near Atlantic seas. Few words about mineral water. The original Vytautas spring was buried under Nemunas river after Kaunas dam was made. Near this place was founded very similar another source. To understand Vytautas taste look at common concentration of melted salts in mineral water you drink, it would be 300-500 mg/l. Vytautas is 7309 mg/l. It is a bomb.

[@ExodentalCADAcademyofNorth]

thanks for telling about "Gâteau à la broche" I never knew about it. Kefir was known before WWII in Lithuania but it was more like delicacy and overshadowed by rūgpienis.

[@Citrina05]

First nobody said that these dishes are created by Lithuanians. No! These are weird foods that can be found in Lithuanian. And Sakotis is our desert - that does not mean that our neighbouring countries don't have something similar as we all share similar cultures and cuisines. Second of all, I don't understand the need to go thought this all history and this long explanation, like why? Nobody cares, nobody said that kefir, curd cheese, pig tongue (this is the hilarious one actually) kvass and whatever else are exclusive only to Lithuania. Get a life.

[@LithuaniaExplained]

@Citrina05 👍

[@troutinho]

6:37 what???

[@Citrina05]

Smoked pig ears ❤

[@GraveFable25]

Mixing kefir with soda is kinda unhinged ngl.

[@Patricksaviation-k9t]

Kaip lietuvišką 🇱🇹🇱🇹

[@fidenemini111]

Ką?

[@linaso9739]

The only thing that I don't like is curd cheese.

[@whynot6795]

Kur bulviniai ir kraujiniai vėdarai?

[@chiaudukas]

oh, but you are just scratching the surface here :)

[@raimundasgriskaitis1140]

Kvass - freeway? the least kvass of all kvass... ( nothing that is under "freeway" brand tastes good or even decent.

[@virmauskis1]

Pasigedau kraujiniu vėdarų😁

[@Rokaskongelis]

my from lithuania but kvass is not good for me

[@whtz9000]

Ahh yeah, horse sweat water - Latvians are crazy about it.

[@EeeEee-bm5gx]

I heard they eat pig intestine soup 🍲

[@fujitsu-no]

I know I'm gonna be banished from my home country, but I think that cepelinai is one of the most disgusting traditional foods. Even as a kid I used to eat absolutely everything, including košė, which was disliked among kids, I eventually came to like pig ear-tongue abomination, always loved šaltibarščiai, garlic bread, you name it... but when it came to eating cepelinai I only ate it with big amounts of sour cream to mask the taste, and finished the meat filling. I wouldn't have ate it at all if I wasn't hungry at school.

[@manometras]

I agree about cepelinai. They don’t have to be plain disgusting, it depends on who and how made them. But they are a very heavy dish, and hard to make well.

[@EeeEee-bm5gx]

My grandma only made them with curd filling 😋 You have to grate the potatoes on a very special grater that crushes the potato cells and releases the starch. Otherwise they'll just taste of boiled potato

[@ugniuseimutis9941]

Varškės sūris Italam skamba kaip gorgonzonė

[@la.4556]

6:44 what in tarnation. I have never tried it with a soda. Is it actually good this way?

[@mariusrutkaus]

Kefir and soda? I'm disgusted, but intrigued... Not the first time in my life :D

[@gogagaga872]

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