Estonia

Thanks to Air Baltic’s weight requirement of eight kilograms (16 pounds), I was not able to bring my notebook, which I had forgotten at the time of packing, has all my notes for the French food that I ate. Until i make it back to Paris, I will write about my other food experiences I’m having along the way. The reason that I want to wait is that i want to write about everything and I only have pictures of some places and dishes.

I did make an agreement with my professor to write another six more, but I would much prefer to write about all the experiences that I have throughout my travels. He mentioned that I might have a little flair for these blogs, so who knows? I may continue writing, though in English, after I graduate in August. He once said that I should find a style that I like and go with it. After reading the mere introduction to Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour, I think that he might be from where I get my style. I don’t think I’m nearly as pessimistic, but there is definitely some similarities.

So, on that note, let’s start with Tallinn.

I’m going to start with something very basic : water. When I first arrived around midnight, my longtime friend and his boyfriend took me on a little tour of Tallinn’s Old Town. It was very quaint and I enjoyed it very much, but it left me quite thirsty. So we stopped into 7-Eleven, which I was told was not too popular with the natives. Water was the obvious choice since I can use it without refrigerating it. My friend told me that water in Tallinn does not need to be bottled - I could drink out of the tap. He recommended Vichy since there was “no taste.” When I got back to my apartment (he rents 10 in Tallinn and he gave me my own space), I opened this Vichy bottled water, poured some into a glass and drank. Within an instant, I recoiled. Not that I’ve ever drunken sewer water, but I imagine that this is quite the taste that it would have. If this is my friend’s version of water without taste, I can’t imagine what the others tasted like. What a wonderful way to start out a trip and perhaps a bit of foreshadowing.

The next morning, we went to a “farmer’s market”, which was a normal market, but outside. There were so many delicious smelling fruits and vegetables. There was actually a lot I wanted to buy.

There were also some buildings at this market which were specialised. One building was a dairy market, which sold yogurt, butter and cheese ...

... another a wine and cheese shop ...

... and a third (though not the last), which sold fish (trout and salmon mostly), shrimp and caviar.

We went back to their apartment to fix breakfast. As my classmates recently discovered, I do not like eating marine animals. I enjoy being by the water - beach, temple (yes, there is one such temple in Korea), port, whatever. I really love the water. But, I won’t eat them. Maybe it’s a deep-seated psychological problem from attending sea camps as a child and thinking fish were my friends, or because Disney’s The Little Mermaid the first movie i saw in theatres. Who knows? But since I was eight or nine, I have not willingly eaten any fish. Every once in a while, I try it again, but usually have the same gag reflex. So you could imagine my surprise at breakfast when I was told, “Bon appetit !” over a plate of tomatoes, toast, scrambled eggs and … salmon. Oh, and we’re not talking about just any salmon, which I ate as a child in the form of patties, no. We’re not even talking about smoked salmon, which was used in lieu of pretzels or peanuts when I flew from Seoul to Tokyo in a sushi dish. Oh no. We’re talking about raw salmon. Totally uncooked. Just sitting there. Two slices. On my eggs. Hangin' out.

Apart from this rather shocking food, we had a wonderful breakfast. In addition to what I've already mentioned, we ate some parmigiano reggiano (or parmesan); some fresh cherries; some fresh strawberries; some Estonian "kimchi" (i.e., marinated and fermented cucumber); American-style parfaits with blueberry yoghurt, strawberries and blueberries; and some tea. My friend's boyfriend is actually Malaysian, but he was a chef in Sydney for fifteen years, so he was rather worried about the presentation of the parfait. They also gave me a glass of blueberry-apple juice to try. It was delicious. It was very nice to eat with them because it showed that the French were right : we grew closer over a meal as an American, an Estonian and a Malaysian-Australian.

Here's a picture of the marinated cucumber. I'm wary of calling it a pickle because it had fermented for only a day and didn't taste like any pickle I've had before.

It was an experience. The salmon had a slimy texture, which could be covered up by eating the tomatoes with it. Surprisingly, there wasn’t too much of a fishy flavour, and although I don’t want to eat anymore, it might have actually been better than cooked salmon. Maybe it’s just because it's fresher than the stuff we get at home. I sincerely ate my fill and we left for some outdoor amphitheatre. Quite soon after we left, it was raining, so we went back to Old Town to walk around in the rain (though, in reality though, what's the difference between walking around an amphitheatre or Old Town? You're still walking in the rain.) We took shelter, by design apparently, in a chocolate shop called Pierre Chocolaterie, where we bought drinks and two slices of cake to share. The first one was called, “Ma cherie” (“My dear” in French) and is considered the specialty of the establishment. I’m not sure what’s in it other than some sort of cream and chocolate, but it was bliss.

The other had "Sacher" written underneath. I'm not exactly sure what that is, but I remember that my Cordon Bleu book has a recipe of a similar nature with the same name. I know that "Sacher" is also the name of the chocolate used in that recipe, but I couldn't tell you what it was with 100% certainty. It was also delicious and this little chocolaterie around in me a need for cake that I've never had before because I'm not actually a big fan of cake and/or chocolate, but I think all three of us could have eaten our own piece or shared a whole cake since these two slices were gone in five minutes or less. I mean, even at home, I will not eat a chocolate cupcake, abstaining if there are no other choices. So that's saying something. If I had abstained from this, I would have suffered a major loss.

These cakes were surprisingly sweet, which I only say since most international students I meet complain about how sweet American desserts are, but not to the point of making me sick. I might even be dreaming about Estonia’s cakes in the near future. Although, I must confess, the house specialty would definitely be my personal favourite of the two.

We missed lunch, probably thanks to the cake and tea or coffee which we drank, but were starving around 4 or 5 in the evening. So what did we do? We looked for another café. It was quite a difficult task, despite all of the cafés - drinking coffee or tea after a meal is quite important … hmm … where have I heard that before? - because 23 June is a national holiday. I was quite shocked to see ESTONIA of all places celebrating St. John’s Day. Sure, I celebrated it when I was in Spain, but for some reason, it seems odd here. Maybe it’s because I know of Spain’s strong religious background, whereas Estonia … I wasn’t even sure to which religion they adhered. I suppose if I had really stopped to think about it, I would have correctly come up with Russian Orthodox, although I know that the Soviet Union (USSR) didn't really allow religion - yay, communism! It might also be because they celebrated it in a much different way than the Spaniards with their fireworks and drinking madness. Honestly, it reminded me more of how it was described in Eloise McGraw's The Moorchild, a children’s book from my mom which I had read to make me “not feel alone in being different” or some such thing. [My school wasn't what you'd call diverse with one Chinese boy, two Koreans (a boy and myself), one African-American, one Jew and one Moslem.]

In any case, we were hungry and my friend had made dinner reservations for 8, so in our hunt to see if a specific cafe was open, we went to a mall. When we found the cafe closed, we looked around and they saw a new restaurant (Tapita) which claimed to have Spanish tapas. The last time I saw this friend was when he visited me in Barcelona with his ex-boyfriend, so tapas seemed appropriate. Furthermore, his current boyfriend is a former chef from Sydney (Malaysian descent) and is constantly thinking about food and locational styles, thus he was interested in this new Spanish restaurant and its concept.

My friend ordered the hot tapas sampler which included some vegetables, some chicken, some beef, some calamari and some fish. It was a sampler with everything. And yay! I had yet another chance to have fish. I don't think that I have ever eaten this much fish in such a short period of time. Never. Even when I was learning to cook in Thailand, the school taught us with a variety of proteins, adn we never ate fish as frequently as I was doing on this little European excursion. I confess though ... I didn't try the calamari. It's the only thing that I didn't think I could pretend to eat. So, I can't give a precise description of it. But in the end, a few bites were still left in the cone that it came in, so maybe it wasn't all that good. The fried fish wasn't too greasy, but ... there was lot of it. Despite the fact that I don't like fish, I can eat some without making a face ... as long as it's not too fishy tasting. So, if you see me eat fish, you'll often see me doing so with my hand over my mouth to hide the fact that I really hate it. The three other tapas were, of course, better, but in my opinion, they weren't anything special. The beef on bread was my favourite, but the potato "bomb" was not bad since it was full of spices, the flavour I enjoy the most.

After the tapas, they dropped me off at my apartment because they had some clients to meet. We met again a little after 8 for dinner at a very touristy restaurant, Olde Hansa. Now, before I go on, I ought to say one thing about Tallinn which you may not know. Tallinn today is not exactly run down - but definitely the effects of the good ol’ Soviet Union’s communism can be seen everywhere. The Old Town is well kept for such an old city, and much better kept than quite a few Soviet-made areas of the city. However, during the Middle Ages, not only was Old Town more like New Town, it also thrived. Tallinn, according to my tour guide friend, flourished during the Middle Ages, but for whatever reason (he told me, but I’ve already forgotten), they could not keep up and during the Renaissance, Tallinn began to lag behind the other cities.

So, this touristy restaurant to which my friend brought me was a medieval themed restaurant - a reminder of the “good old days” (old, indeed). It was dark from being candle- and torch-lit and chilly as there were no big fires (no fireplaces). The benches and tables were made from wood. Our waitress stayed in character as a serving wench. And the bathroom ... I won't go into details about it, but I'll just show you the cleanest part:

I could imagine someone in hiding with the task of watching for people entering and then refilling this little pot after each use.

There were strange smells coming from everywhere. When I looked at the menu, it was very strange. They often combined ingredients which would not be combined today, such as salmon and pine nuts, saffron and pickles or ginger and turnips. Starting with the medieval beers, you could order a dark honey beer which I just discovered is not the same as mead; a strong dark beer with herbs which might be an ale; or a light cinnamon beer. My friend ordered the honey beer and it wasn't bad. But, I preferred the non-alcoholic mead ... or maybe they just say that since historically mead is fermented honey. Though my face didn't feel flushed which is the norm for me after just one sip of alcohol ... but who knows? As you can see, the drinks were served in earthenware mugs.

We ordered "Rewal's plate for tasting" which isn't exactly the most descriptive name. When I asked my friend what we were eating, he replied, "You don't need to know - just eat!" So when I asked my friend Google, I found this blog article about the restaurant from almost ten years ago (that's a scary thought ... people have been writing food blogs for that long?). Given the turn of events, I wasn't really sure if I wanted to know what I had eaten. According to this author, the plate had "juniper-ripened beef, orange tongue jelly, French royal poultry liver pâté, onion jam, quail eggs, herb-bread with nuts plus a few pickles and cream sauces." Although I could have passed on some of these, the pâté was pretty much awesome! The normal meats were still delicious, just not as much as the pâté, and the bread with the cream sauce ... it was all good food. But hearing that I ate TONGUE JELLY still makes me feel a bit sick to my stomach.

My friend and his boyfriend ordered the "thick meat soup" with another place that I've forgotten for sharing. I ordered the "Himalayan lamb dish with warming spices, Mountain people style". When I ordered, I figured it would be something rather exotic. Lamb with warming spices. Mountain people style. But, when the dish arrived, I was very surprised. The waitress described our plates to us one by one. "Here we have your bean bag, your lentils with garlic, wheat porridge with olives and fermented vegetables." Not all of the dishes had the same sides because my friends had bread with theirs as well as other sides. The "bean bag" was a puree of beans in a pastry wrap. I wasn't thrilled about it and it was the first time I encountered wheat like this. Needless to say, I didn't really like these sides, which is a bit of a shame.

The lamb itself was tender. I was surprised at first bite because I didn't know what they meant by "spices". For the information of future visitors of Olde Hansa, it's curry. My "exotic" dish (which I have no doubt WAS exotic for medieval Tallinn) turned out to be a normal lamb curry.  I had forgotten that when we thoroughly studied the medieval period when I was eleven or twelve (we even had to write a three page paper over a specific medieval topic of our choice) that our World Cultures teacher told us that they would overuse the spices in order to cover the true flavours of the food. So, in that first bite, these words immediately came back to me. It's not that the dish was spicy as in hot, but rather spicy as in a lot of spices. No, it was SPICY. I could feel the lamb in my mouth, but I couldn't really taste it. I only tasted curry. And damn, was that sauce heavy or what? When my friend went to the restroom, his boyfriend and I remarked how it was a touristy place and he really didn't like the food there. The meat was fine ... just not exceptional.

After we finished eating, they took me back to my apartment and everything was great … but a little later, everything was not great. I usually do not have a difficult time digesting food unless it’s spicy hot (as opposed to hot/cold or spicy as in a lot of spices), but man! I felt really sick and almost thought that I would need to make a restroom run. “Tomorrow will be better,” I thought to myself, “We’re going to Helsinki. It’ll be better.” Well … we’ll see.

Note bene : Despite the fact that I did spend another partial day in Tallinn, I won't be writing about my culinary experiences since it was just me, making a Korean dish for them to thank them for their hospitality.