The couple developing such projects as “Pieces of Lietuvos” and “Tikslas – Amerika” say that traveling is an old hobby of theirs, but only in the last few years have they started to do it almost constantly.
“Until then, we had standard jobs with limited holidays – we used our free time to the fullest. But time was still running out and eventually we found ourselves at a crossroads thinking about what to do next. Others aim for a career or a higher salary, but then the time does not increase, but decreases.
Then we decided to start working remotely – this way we can be abroad for half a year or even longer,” says Augustinas.
“We are both lawyers, we work in the same company. There was a time when, when the new year started, we would open the calendar and immediately see when the holidays would be. In the long run, we realized that this is not good,” adds Aistė with a smile.
Now, while traveling around the world, they always wonder if there are any connections with Lithuania.
“We do a lot during one trip: we meet people, we visit Lithuanian places. Each outing has many purposes. For example, when it comes to expeditions to the USA, the main goal there is to find Lithuanian places”, explains A. Žemaitis.
“Not all countries have Lithuanian heritage, but if they do, we always try to focus on it and allocate a certain part of the trip,” says Aistė.
When communicating with Lithuanians living abroad, Aistė and Augustinas talk to them about various topics. While talking once, they unexpectedly learned that their traditional dishes are completely different from what we are used to in Lithuania.
“Just as in our time we noticed how impressive Lithuanian buildings and monuments are, which no one knows about, so here too – we learned about Lithuanian dishes along the way. We saw that people’s understanding of our cuisine is completely different from that of those living in Lithuania. It turned out to be interesting, and the topic itself was little touched upon.
For example, in Dayton, Ohio, Lithuanians eat turtle soup, which they call a Lithuanian dish. To whom from Lithuanians we tell about this, everyone is surprised. We didn’t know about it before either. And they thought that we eat it in Lithuania”, says Augustinas.
“They just offered us to go and eat Lithuanian turtle soup there. When we told them that we don’t eat turtles in Lithuania, they were shocked,” laughs A. Žemaitienė.
“Usually a lot of people gather there and cook the soup together. Everything takes a lot of time, which helps develop friendships. The story itself is very interesting, starting with the Lithuanian community that emigrated before the First World War. At that time, you could have a limited amount of meat, and there was no limit on turtles – you could eat as much of them as you wanted. Lithuanians came up with the idea that turtles should be caught and made into soup, which has remained so until now.
Later, as they told us, a Lithuanian cafe was established in 1950, where they served turtle soup, even though it was already after the war,” shares A. Žemaitis.
A couple tried turtle soup in a restaurant founded by Lithuanians – as they admit, they were quite disappointed with it.
“The meat is so springy. The turtle is cut into extremely small pieces, because otherwise you wouldn’t chew it. You really wouldn’t eat such a soup for yourself anyway”, smiles Aistė.
“Strange taste and texture. Sharp because they add spices there. Some locals even say that they can’t eat soup because they remember the smell from their childhood when it was made, Augustinas says. – Lithuanian cuisine is understood very differently. For modern emigrants, the most Lithuanian food is zeppelins. But when it comes to the first generation emigrants and their descendants who left more than a hundred years ago, some of them do not even know what zeppelins are. The main dish of such people is kugel.
Same with drinks. For modern emigrants, it is Lithuanian beer, and for those who left earlier, it is a certain liqueur,” explains Augustinas.
Aistė and Augustinas agree that the strangest dish was the turtle soup, but they had to try more dishes considered Lithuanian there.
“For example, in 2021, we visited a Lithuanian restaurant in Brazil – instead of potatoes, there were cassava in the bowl. And in Cleveland, we tasted a traditional sandwich, which usually comes with dark bread, cabbage and meat. Our people came up with Lithuanianization and use potato pancakes instead of bread.
We also saw an interesting option, the “Lithuanian combo”, where you get a plate with zeppelins, potato pancakes, cabbage, and vedars. Good for those who want to try many traditional dishes at once”, says A. Žemaitis.
“It would be a good idea to offer this to Lithuanian restaurants, for example to foreign tourists,” advises A. Žemaitienė.
However, the zeppelins beloved by Lithuanians have also survived there – Lithuanian communities even have a zeppelin day, which, according to Aistė, is a fairly new phenomenon.
“Making zeppelins is difficult enough, so it’s worth doing for a larger number of people,” says Augustinas. – There is a problem with raw materials – if you live in Chicago, everything is simple, but America is huge. Many Lithuanians live in smaller cities, where our communities do not have such opportunities.
Sometimes, someone goes to Chicago, brings products. Modern emigrants ask them to bring their relatives in Lithuania.”
The couple notes that it would be interesting to try certain ideas in Lithuania as well – for example, traditional curd cheese with hot peppers.
“There is a surviving Lithuanian bakery in Nebraska that makes Napoleon cake. When we tasted it, it was delicious, but so sweet… You would never sell it in Lithuania, – laughs Augustinas. – In America, all desserts are sweeter, so they also had to adapt.
Also, the long-standing business of other Lithuanians is a cheese factory. He said the recipe was brought back in the 19th century. grandmother, who emigrated at that time. To diversify, they came up with many versions: with additional spices, hot peppers.”
Hearing such interesting things, Aistė and Augustinus want to share them with others – this is one of their most important missions.
“When I find out about something that is otherwise not well known, I feel pressure to tell others about it,” A. Žemaitis smiles.
“I think it would be a really good idea to tell someone in the food industry about it, so that they might think about, say, putting something like that into cheese production.” Why not? Although we definitely won’t get the turtle soup back, because we don’t have turtles”, laughs Aistė.
2023-09-06 19:03:04
#couple #exploring #corners #world #traditional #Lithuanian #dish #people #hear
