Day 8 - 23rd May - Medieval Lunch; Riga, Latvia (Part 2)
I like to try local soft drinks when I visit other countries, but almost always there're reasons why they stay local.
More Art Nouveau
We'd booked a table at Rozengrals, the authentic Medieval place the day before and proceeded there for lunch. I bet 1 Lat with nw.t that YC would be less than 5 minutes late, but unfortunately he disappointed me.
Staff chilling
Unfortunately, there was one detail which wasn't authentically medieval - they didn't have bras in the Middle Ages!
Menu cover. As you can see, the place is aimed at English-speakers (if you don't speak English, the place is probably too expensive for you)
The Cellar the restaurant was in - taking the Baltic fetish for underground restaurants to its nadir. It was darker than even the third picture, but a faithful picture wouldn't have been very useful.
Notice there were no rushes on the floor. Oh well.
Me
Doorway
"Snacks and salads
1. Mixed salad with smoked salmon
2. Poultry liver salad with bacon and almonds
3. Vegetable mixed salad with goat cheese, olives and bread sops
4. Salad from tiger shrimps with asparagus, sun dried tomatoes and lettuce leaves
5. Smoked deer ham with cowberry and cheese cream
6. Peccary fillet salad with lettuce and nuts
7. Mixed salad with duck meat, lettuce leaves and carrots in mustard sauce"
Some of the menu items had contextual stories attached to them.
"Soups
1. Venison soup
2. Spicy soup with chicken giblets
3. Broth from chick-peas with fried bacon
4. Pumpkin soup with bean sprouts in Old English style
5. Forest mushroom pottage
6. Fish soup from two fish species with tomatoes and greens"
For weird tourists:
"Vegetarian dishes
1. Boiled cauliflowers with new carrots and almond milk, baked with cheese in a clay pot
2. Pumpkin baked in oven with aromatic herbs and mushrooms
3. Steamed vegetables
4. Brussels sprouts baked in butter with wild nuts
5. Ragout of wild mushrooms in white bread pot
6. Vegetable marrow roast with cepe mushrooms baked with cheese in a clay pot"
"Meat
1. Bone-in pork carbonade in apple-anise sweet and sour sauce
2. Rabbit meat stewed with prunes and cedar nuts
3. Duck drumstick bakd in the oven with cherry-onion jam
4. Grilled beef fillets
5. Capon baked with fennel in Old French style
6. Deer ragout with slices of bacon and coriander leafs in Old French style
7. Baked stock pigeon with spicy gravy from prunes and chili pepper"
"Fish
1. Trout to Grenoble taste with herbs, nuts and apple-ginger sauce
2. Butterfish fillet baked in white wine
3. Black cod in truffle sauce, cooked by special recept
4. Perch stuffed with prunes, cooked in the oven
5. Plaice stuffed with raisins, honey and hazel nuts in old French style
6. Baked oysters
7. Halibut fillet with lemon sauce"
"Trimmings
1. Mixture of two types of rice with greens and walnuts
2. Boiled pearl-barley with prunes, onions and pumpkin seeds
3. Stewed lentils with smoked brisket and onions
4. Fried beans with onions, bacon and sunflower seeds
5. Vegetables baked with wild mushrooms and greens"
"Desserts
1. Bilberry pie served with milk
2. Pumpkin pie
3. Baked apple with egg-white cream
4. Apple pie with pumpkin sauce
5. Almond pie with raspberry sauce
6. Strawberry sorbet with champagne"
As you can see, they had peccary, chili and tomatoes, so I don't know who gave them Authentic Medieval Certification. Maybe if you stretched the definition of "medieval" (one menu anecdotes was from the 18th century)
"Drinks
1. Apple drink with honey and mint leaves
2. Cherry drink
3. Cranberry fruit drink
4. Cinammon drink
5. Kvass"
Salt and pepper bowls
A mysterious bag which was delivered to our table
It contained bread, which was slightly stale. i.e. authentic
Cinammon Drink, Apple Drink with Mint and Honey. The other 2 had alcohol.
Smoked deer ham with cowberry and cheese cream (background), Peccary fillet salad with lettuce and nuts (foreground - there wasn't much peccary). No trenchers, unfortunately.
The deer ham was very raw - like halfway between smoked and raw salmon. The peccary tasted like duck but was very tender (more so than duck).
Forest mushroom pottage, Venison soup
The former was like mushroom consomme, with a bit of grain (barley, probably) at the bottom and the latter a more meaty minestrone. Both were quite watery, like medieval soup. They didn't give us diarrhea, though.
Baked stock pigeon with spicy gravy from prunes and chili pepper
Butterfish fillet baked in white wine. The fish had a very pure, clean taste.
Rabbit meat stewed with prunes and cedar nuts. Notice all the dishes were served on flatbread (the "trenchers", I guess).
Fried beans with onions, bacon and sunflower seeds
Even the toilet had pseudo-medieval touches:
Outside the 2 toilets
Notice the counterweights
nw.t and YC with the
Me discovering the secrets of flash powder (salt doesn't work as well)
nw.t's attempt
A mysterious chest
Except instead of treasure in it which left us rich beyond our wildest dreams, we found our bill, which was very steep
nw.t cursing
Just before we left the restaurant, nw.t went "And now we depart", threw a pinch of flash powder onto the flame - and extinguished it.
Hammer man making souvenir coins. The day before we'd given another guy manning the place a Singapore coin, and he gave us a free 'Medieval' coin
St Peter's
What's with the fashion sense of women in the Baltics?!
See also:
Very ugly rainbow outfit from Siauliai day