Food & Drink

Latvian cuisine typically consists of agricultural products, and meat features in most of the dishes. Since Latvia is situated on the east coast of the Baltic Sea, fish dishes are also often served. Common ingredients in Latvian recipes are found locally, such as potatoes, wheat, barley, cabbage, onions, eggs and pork. Latvian food is generally quite fatty, and uses few spices.

Local specialities include:

• borshch (beet soup)
• kotletes (meat patties)
• piragi (baked pastries filled with bacon and onions)
• rasols (potato salad)
• skabu kapostu zupa (cabbage soup)

A traditional Latvian cheese is Kimenu siers (caraway cheese), which is traditionally served during the celebration of Jani (midsummer).

Popular drinks are beer, vodka and balsam (or balzam). Riga's Black Balsam is a thick black alcoholic liquid, made from ginger, oak bark, bitter orange peel and cognac, which is usually drunk with coffee or vodka.