Product Description

Traditional Latvian cuisine relies upon staples such as dairy products, porridges, pork, potatoes, rye bread and cottage cheese. This book presents over 100 easy-to-follow recipes, all adapted for the North American kitchen, for classic Latvian dishes like piragi, dumplings, and potato pancakes, along with specialties like "Courland Sour Porridge," "Sauerkraut Soup," "Pike-Perch with Green Butter," and "Gooseberry Dessert." Among the chapters included are: Salads, Breads and Piragi, Soups and Porridges, Pancakes, Egg Dishes and Cheeses, Potatoes, Meat Dishes, Fish Dishes, Desserts, Drinks, and Holiday Foods. Interspersed throughout the recipes are Latvian folk songs (dainas), poetry, mythology, information about local customs and holidays, historical accounts, and photographs that will provide the reader with a unique perspective on Latvia's rich history and cultural traditions. Complete with dozens of b/w photographs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #439554 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 246 pages

About the Author
Siri Lise Doub is a contributing editor of International Living, a monthly publication for travelers interested in living and working overseas. Her publications include the Official Handbook for International Correspondents and Spain: The Owner's Manual. She has contributed feature articles to many magazines, and has lived in Norway, the Marianas Islands, France, China, Poland and Latvia. She currently resides in Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews

REALLY BAD
This cookbook is really bad. As a Latvian cook, I can tell the author does not know real Latvian cooking. The best Latvian cookbook with authentic Latvian food is the one by Latvian women from Ontario Canada. The book is called Latvian Cooking. It has had 9 printings, so you know it is good. The Taste of Latvia cookbook has very weird recipes in it for Latvian food. Also it has editorial errors. For example, the recipe for Klingeris starts with " cups very warm milk". It does not specify how many cups. The recipe for Alexander cake is to make it in three layers. I have never made or seen one with 3 layers, not even in Latvia. It is always made with 2 layers. Also, the book is missing basic Latvian foods, like braised sauerkraut. Braised sauerkraut is a Latvian staple and no book on Latvian cooking is complete without it. I won't even go into her errors on Latvian history. The author would have been better off writing a cookbook from her own heritage. Latvian is definetly not her heritage.

A Great Little Cookbook
OK so its got a few spelling mistakes, but at least some one has bothered to collect and publish these old time family favourites.

"Caraway Cutlets"?, I think she meant "Kotlettes" (meatballs).
Its the sort of recipe book that will happy sit on the cookbook shelf near the stove, as a reference to remind you of how grandma used to cook. I've always wondered how to make "Galerts", and there four different recipes for "piragi" dough.

A bit US-centric for my taste, but thats easily overcome.
A few photos of the prepared meal would be nice, you would normally expect it in this price range.

There are a good range of recipes including a whole chapter on potatoes, meat fish, breads, soups and porridges.

Not sure how many of my Kiwi mates would buy it, but hey, thats their loss.

Love the historical stuff interspersed with "dainas" (Latvian Folk Songs) and Latvian symbols.

Presentation is frankly unimaginative, but I can live with that.
I enjoyed this little cookbook, and look forward to the day it's updated with more recipes and colour photos.

Taste of Latvia
Author Siri Lise Doub has thrown together her book "Taste of Latvia." First of all the book was not proofrd nor edited. It shows the appearance of being thrown to gether. The Latvian words are printed correctly in others they are not. The carelesness shows that the author plucked recipes like she did with "dainas". I would be reluctant to test her recipes. If Ms Doub is an editor, she should have done a better job than this.

I would not give even one star for this book.