![]() ![]() They were quite a positive surprise once you get past the idea of eating blood, if maybe a little bit fatty, and the currant jelly was a good match. These are the local blood sausages, served with bacon, red currant jelly and a few vegetables. While Daniela decided to go all conservative on me and have Mulgi kapsad, a sauerkraut stew (can't take sauerkraut out of the German -) ), I opted for the more exciting option: Verivorst. I love soups that combine pea and pork, something that a lot of cultures have found out given how widespread this basic idea is, and this Estonian take was definitely a good one. The hernesupp suitsulihaga, pea soup with smoked pork, warmed up us nicely. We started with some Spiced Baltic Sprats served with Boiled Egg and dark bread: simple and quite nice, plus more to my taste than other northern European fish specialities like marinated herrings or jellied eels. No gastronomic fireworks, but that's not what we were here for. The food is simple and pleasant, exactly like I had hoped. The menu is quite extensive, with a special section dedicated to national specialities, though I did not really understand the sense of that, given that the menu is throughout full of traditional Estonian dishes, which is what me and Daniela stuck to. Instead, the atmosphere is rustic, yet warm and cosy, and the non-smoking room on one end of the restaurant where we dined was even quite intimate. It is seldom that an establishment manages to sell itself so short on its own website, but Eesti Maja manages this feat. looks like a dump, but you would be wrong. Looking at the restaurant's website you would be excused for thinking that the place is not exactly appealing on the aesthetic level, i.e. ![]() I picked Eesti Maja mainly because it was the one place that seemed to come up again and again with goodish reviews on the web, but with a little more time I would have liked to try at least another of the remaining three mentioned above. There is also Maiasmokk, serving a modernised version of traditional cuisine, which I mentioned before and comes with Pille's recommendation. Apart Eesti Maja, two traditional places are Kuldse Notsu Kõrts (Little Piggy Inn, Dunkri 8) and Vanaema Juures (Grandma's Place, Rataskaevu 10/12). In Tallinn there is a small group of Estonian restaurants that seem to pop up in every guidebook I have read. All these places certainly tickled my curiosity, but when travelling somewhere new I prefer to get a taste of the local cuisine instead of going for stuff I could get elsewhere. If that is what you are after, then, according to what I read on the web, places like Ö and Bocca might be a good choice Silk sushi is for some people a real hidden treasure and clearly one should not forget Estonia's own celebrity chef Imre Kose and his Vertigo, opening in July (maybe, I would add, since the opening date has been shifted forward a few times already). You should not to get the idea that Tallinn has only traditional or medieval restaurants, so I should mention that, like in any European capital, there are quite a few exclusive restaurants offering refined international cuisine. Though it will probably not be the last Estonian flavoured post to appear on this blog, I wanted to tie things up with a post about Estonian cuisine and one of the Tallinn restaurants specialising in it: Eesti Maja. And so I come to the final post of this series on Tallinn. ![]()
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