Rene - A fun dining experience

Well what do you know, there seem to be fun new cafes, bars and restaurants sprouting out all over Vilnius :) had the pleasure of visiting one of these unique little restaurants the other week and was pleasantly surprised by the experience. And what an experience it was! You sit at a table that's covered in sketch paper (you know the ones you buy in rolls, a godsend for art students who go through meters of them and don't go broke because of it being cheap) and a tin with pencils, three guesses why? Well to draw of course :) You're waiting for your food and you have that spark of inspiration and you have all you need to create a masterpiece :P Not gonna lie, had some fun with this. The service was very sweet as well, our names were taken and then the 'mailman' left envelopes for us containing our cutlery :) 

The menus were also very creatively written  made me smile on continuous occasions (sorry that it's in Lithuanian, but ranged from the description of Pepsi being - pipsi, popsi, pupsi to describing potatoes as being made the way grandma used to make them :)

All in all the food was good and well presented, the atmosphere entertaining and inventive. I give it a strong Yes.

Picture attacked my brother drawing a character that was coming after him as I struggled to evade the drawn obstacles... :P

Green xp

When being vegetarian and even vegan isn't enough, the next step is a raw food diet. This is when everything you eat has been made without using a higher temperature than 40 deg. Celsius. So basically, fruit, veg, nuts, seeds and anything you can muster up from those products. 

While I wouldn't have the will power to live on it even for only one week most probably, I have been very interested in trying something from that kind of menu (and no, not just a salad :P). And so opportunity came knocking when my mum suggested we go try out this raw food cafe 'Raw42' in old town the other day. And so we went, taking my Grandmother who apparently has been aching to try this interesting cuisine for a while now. 

I was anxious to try everything, the green cocktails, the peculiar salads, soups and main dishes. The benefit of not going alone was that I had that opportunity as we tried each of the dishes we ordered along with our special drinks. All in all, it was a good experience, is something I would recommend to try if you're looking for new and interesting meals. Would not recommend if you're a complete carnivore and can't survive without meat as there won't be any for m... eters? It's old town, probably a cafe next door has all those usual LT meat dishes if that's your thing ;)

Green cocktails. I chose to go for a berry almond milk (centre)

White salad

Carrot soup

Sushi! no rice though :P

'Lasagna'- letuce, tomatoe, seed spread, courgettes, tomatoe spread and seedlings

Getting hungry from looking at these photos, lunch break it is! :)

Home for Easter

Being at home for the holidays is always nice, the traditions, the atmosphere, the food...

Preparations started the night before with egg painting using wax. As this is the first time I've hosted such an event and didn't have any necessary equipment, we had to be quite inventive. The biggest challenge we had to face was improvising a container in which we would melt the wax and keep it from becoming solid. But with the ingenuity of my cousin we succeeded in our mission. Spending a quiet evening with close friends preparing for Easter is just one of those things that really put you in a holiday mood. 

Our amazing contraption

On the day we must have spent over 3 hours at the table trying all the various dishes, competing for the best egg and chatting. As it was the first time my brother couldn't join us, we made an effort to have a skype conference with him before we sat down to eat. The day ended with a family viewing of The Hobbit, an Easter classic :P

I'm glad I decided to come home for Easter, being with the family on this day is just one of those little things that can put things into perspective.

14 vs 16

Whenever people think of February holidays, most remember Feb 14th - valentines day. However, for me February brings another important day - the 16th - Lithuania's independence day :) This year we celebrated both in completely different ways as you would expect of course.

The 14th was a very crazy night involving a pre-party in Millennium, going out, a middle of the night walk down New Street with adventures of it's own and a whole lot of dancing. 

Lovely roses for lovely ladies

The 16th on the other hand was a quiet night spent with friends at home, making Kugelis - a traditional LT dish, listening to music starting with Lithuanian music in Lithuanian, then LT artist music in English and watching a flight over LT film. The evening ended with some cockney rhyming slang, because there's only that much LT culture that you should share in one night... To cut a log story about the later short, we shall now be referring to tea as Rosy Lee :P A great night in itself, and like that little by little we will spread awareness of LT culture through something that brings all students together - free food :D

Culinary marvels of students

Being students we can't really afford going out to eat all that often (this excludes free food deals when you buy a drink, which I took advantage of twice last week...). So, the only thing left to do is bring the restaurant to us. Even though our shelves are continuously stocked with Sainsbury's basics and Aldi products, every so often we manage to cook up something magical. It seems lately we've been quite good at doing this as a weekend doesn't pass without at least 2 tasty dishes that take more effort than your basic pasta with pesto to prepare. Hope this doesn't stop any time soon, loving the good food :)

Chicken fajita

Pink milkshakes on valentines day

Chocolate mousse

Friday night - pizza night

I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and bananas (cooked with honey)

Hard to beat this kind of breakfast

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” 

― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Amsterdam - Brussels: a journey of multiple food experiences

So, like I mentioned in my previous post, I started of my holiday in Amsterdam visiting my brother with a couple of close friends. We deemed this journey a trip of food as we seemed to be constantly trying new dishes and taking photos with everything we consumed.

We were exceptional lucky as my brothers newest flatmate happens to be a professional chef. What are the chances? He had just spent 6 months in India and seemed quite happy to show us how to prepare some amazing dishes, which we then ate sitting on the floor in a circle as is meant to be done. Mmm... can still remember the taste.

Photos by: Ieva Česnulaityte