Festive Menus: the Emperor of Japan in Tallinn

Photo courtesy of Office of the President of Estonia

I'm always curious to know what some high-ranking foreign dignitaries get to eat in Estonia. How does Estonia want to represent itself to visitors through the food? Is it Estonian, international, fusion, simple, rustic, fussy, modern, traditional? The choice is endless. Therefore I've shared with you what President Bush had for lunch back in November, and what Queen Elizabeth II had for dinner in October.

The Emperor of Japan, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Akihito, and his wife, Empress Michiko of Japan, visited Tallinn last week, and they had an official lunch at our new art museum, KUMU.

According to the PR of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the festive lunch consisted of the following:

Starter:
Pike-Perch & Snow Crab Tortellini with Pureed Black Salsify and Wood Sorrel Salad
Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie, 2005 (France)

Main course:
Fillet of Veal with Porcini Sauce, Young Asparagus and Beetroot
Irancy, 2005 (Burgundy, France)

Dessert:
Rhubarb Carpaccio, Strawberry Bavaroise, Mascarpone Ice Cream
Põltsamaa Kuldne, 1992 (Estonia)

Food by Roman Zashtsherinski (the winner of 2006 best chef award, and the chef who was in charge of the menu for this year's SilverSpoon Gala Dinner), catering by Carmen Catering.

Sounds pretty good to me, especially as pike-perch (Sander lucioperca, also known as Zander) recently _almost_ won the title of our national fish (yep, we've got one - I'll tell you more soon), so that's quite representative of our cuisine. Wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella, known as jänesekapsas or rabbit's cabbage in Estonian) is a typical wild salad leaf (and apparently foraged by Roman, the Chef, himself), and beetroot a popular root vegetable, so assuming the rhubarb and asparagus were local, I'm happy with the menu. The only 'outsider' is the snow crab, which was caught in Kamtchatka. Notice that they serve a local dessert wine, too.

The Emperor began his tour in Sweden (where they had a luncheon with the Swedish government hosted by PM Reinfeldt), then visited Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and ended their tour in the United Kingdom.

I wonder what they were served on official occasions in these countries?

Rhubarb & coconut cake - or is it a coconut & rhubarb pie?

Last Thursday, my Edinburgh friends Dianne & Peter came for dinner. They're the lovely couple that gave me a roof over my head during the last two weeks in Edinburgh, so when they told me they'd be in Tallinn, I quickly grabbed the chance to reciprocate their kind hospitality. We had a joyous meal together, catching up about the life in Edinburgh - much appreciated, as I'm off to visit my old hometown next week! Foodwise, coconut was the dominant theme. For starters, we had local, Estonian asparagus with coconut milk and lime. For main course, there was salmon with lots of coriander/cilantro* and quinoa (no coconut there, but coriander goes well with coconut milk, so it still counts:), and for the dessert, I served a rhubarb & coconut cake with whipped cream.

I used some rosy pink rhubarb bought at the local market (yes, I finally ran out of the farm-sourced rhubarb), and the cake didn't only taste wonderful, but it also looked lovely pink (see the flecks of rhubarb?) - white (the coconut filling) - yellow (the pastry base). And it tasted even better on the day after, as the coconut flavour was much more pronounced then..

Rhubarb & coconut cake*
(Rabarbri-kookosekook)
Serves 8



Pastry:
200 grams plain flour
2 Tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt
100 grams butter
1 medium egg
a dash of cold water

Rhubarb layer:
400 grams rhubarb, chopped

Coconut topping:
75 grams butter, at room temperature
200 grams sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
250 grams natural yogurt or thick sour cream
2 medium eggs
200 grams grated coconut
2 Tbsp plain flour

For the pastry, mix flour, sugar and salt, add the butter and work with a knife until you've got fine crumbs. Add the egg and combine - if necessary, add a bit of cold water. Wrap into a cling film and put into the fridge for 30 minutes.
Butter a 24 cm springform tin. Roll out the dough into a slightly bigger circle than the cake form, and line the cake form with the pastry. Pierce with a fork, and blind bake at 200C oven for 10-15 minutes, until golden.
Meanwhile, cut the rhubarb into 1 cm slices (there's no need to peel your rhubarb, as long as it's young and slender).
Mix the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add yogurt/sour cream, vanilla extract, eggs, then add coconut & flour (I combined used the flat beater of my KitchenAid for this).
Spread the rhubarb slices on the pre-baked pastry case. Pour over the coconut filling and bake at 200 C oven for 30-35 minutes, until the cake is slightly golden.
Cool a little, remove from the cake tin and serve with whipped cream or some vanilla ice cream.

* I'm still to figure out what's a cake and what's a pie. I blame my mother tongue - they're pretty much all 'cakes' ('kook' in sing., 'koogid' in pl.) in Estonian :)

Other coconut recipes @ Nami-nami:
Coconut brownies (February 2007)

Other rhubarb recipes @ Nami-nami:
A creamy rhubarb pie (June 2005)
Moist rhubarb muffins (May 2007)
Rhubarb crumble (May 2007)
Rhubarb jam with ginger (May 2007)

Spring in Paluküla

Paluküla is a small village where my mother was born and raised, and where I spent all my childhood summers. It's about 80 km from Tallinn, and it just happens to be adjacent to the village where K. spent all his childhood summers. Nope - we had never met until we bumped into each other at a reception in Edinburgh, which led to a cup (or two) of mulled wine in Tallinn during Christmas 2005, a date in Paris, and a reunion in our childhood villages last summer, picking honey-coloured cloudberries, sweeter-than-sweet wild strawberries, cranberries and a range of wild mushrooms that some of you would describe as 'exotic', and finally me taking the plunge and moving back home and in with K. after seven years in Edinburgh (where, incidentially, I'm off again next week, but this time as a tourist).



We went back in early May, to celebrate my uncle's 50th birthday, and while there, we decided to take a walk. The path alongside the small stream was so tranquil and beautiful, and the sides of the stream full of cowslips/marsh marigold/kingcups (Caltha palustris) which were so bright yellow in colour that it hurt!



There were two elegant white storks (Ciconia ciconia) slowly wandering just behind the house, in what used to be the sheep garden when my grandma still kept these furry animals:



Their nest is on top of the lamp post next to the main house, but the storks probably decided to take a walk, too, to avoid the thirty-odd persons who had suddenly decided to turn up in their courtyard. On the way back home in the afternoon, we also spotted a much rarer Common Crane (Grus grus) on a field, a protected species in Estonia.

A truly tranquil and captivating place... I just wanted to share the photos with you, especially as there are few other food-related posts related to this place coming up on my blog soon :)