Tubeliai

Lithuania

“Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.”

Kurt Vonnegut

A morning walk and calesthetics.

Breakfast early. I order enough for three people and eat most of Shells.

ParZona serves a good meal and decent coffee. An Italian omelet for Rachelle, a Spanish omelet for me, and a Caribbean burrito for the second me.

We get away early. On the road by 8.15 am.

A six hour journey to Tubeliai. The drive is uneventful.

We arrive around 3.00 pm, and our place is a converted barn. Old timber beams exposed in the ceiling, a bath. We are in the middle of nowhere. The nearest building happens, by sheer coincidence, to be a restaurant famous for local cuisine.

Kuchmistrai is a genuine farm to table restaurant. I say this confidently because farms are the only thing we can see, or did see, in the last 100 km of the drive here.

We take a bath and relax, dinner at 5.00 pm.

We stroll around the grounds as we wait for our table to be available. It is St. John’s Day here in Lithuania, so Kuchmistrai. Before it was St. John’s Day, it was the Summer Solstice, or Litha. What a shock that all the Christian ‘special dates’ fall conveniently on ancient Pagan dates of celebration.

It is a beautiful summer evening, and Kuchmistrai does not disappoint. The service is excellent, and the food… in the top five meals I have ever had.

And a hedgehog wandered by.

We start with a litre of house white; everything is shared.

Fried parsnip doughnuts with sour cream mousse.

Potato gratin with dill and cream.

Beetroot carpaccio marinated in orange juice with goat’s cheese.

Rabbit stewed in white wine, served with parsnip cream, fried marinated tomatoes, and toasted bacon.

Homemade pork sausages served with roasted potatoes, stewed cabbage, and almond horseradish sauce.

Pavlova with lemon cream, basil, and fresh berries.

Stewed apple with cake crumbs and home made cherry ice cream.

We stroll home and read.

The best news is that breakfast is provided by Kuchmistrai tomorrow morning.

“Though their life was modest, they believed in eating well.”

James Joyce