Vegan delights of Tallinn 2016 (guest post)

As the tourist season approaches, I get many emails asking for dining recommendations in Tallinn specifically and in Estonia more generally, some asking about special diets. I asked my friend and colleague Kadri and her partner Luke, both vegans, to share their favourite recommendations. 

Kadri is the host of veganmaailm.com, the oldest Estonian vegan food blog and her partner Luke is an Australian coffee snob. 

100% vegan:

V (Rataskaevu 12)

V is just awesome: food and atmosphere are second to none... We thinks. Nestled in Old Town, it's just a three-minute walk from the central square. Its medieval digs create a wondrous ambience that is relaxed and cosy. Far from ostentatious. Great al fresco deck for the warmer months too. Trip Advisor rates V as second best in all of Tallinn. Popular with all and sundry, we suggest booking a table in advance. If you can't get a table, you can get something to take away and enjoy as you meander through the cobblestones of Old Town. Prices are very reasonable - especially for Old Town: with mains between €7-10.

The place is run by Mikk, the first professional vegan chef in Estonia and Loore, a vegan foodie and activist. The talented pair started out as a catering business - the first in Estonia to be 100% vegan. Due to popular demand, Restoran V was born. Two fantabulous cook books have since been published by the duo. 

While beautifully presented, it is the delicious food that keeps us making up excuses to come back, week in, week out. Everything is good, but our favourite is the spicy tofu with quinoa and vegetables in tomato-coconut sauce. Yum! Daily specials are always worth checking out. Portions are good, but you must make room for cake! ... At least a cupcake! Keep an eye for new cakes that come in. V's snack platter works well for larger groups. Kadri is particularly fond of the beetroot ravioli with cashew cream, although it rather small as an entrée. Good selection of vegan wines. They do serve coffee, but it is perhaps not their forte. 

Mahemarket (Lootsi 8)

The largest organic store in Tallinn, recently relocated to the port-area close to the city centre. A great all vegan and organic buffet! We have had some of the best meals there. However, we have yet to visit the new joint. We loved being able to sample so many scrumptious salads and hot foods. Potato salad usually takes up half of our plates, though! It is hard for Luke to resist piling his plate high. As it's priced according to weight, it can quickly add up!  

Inspiratsioon (Lai 44)

A vegan café located in the Old Town of Tallinn. A good selection of dishes with reasonable prices. Gluten-free folk are particularly well served. Menu has improved considerably of late. With a lovely outdoor seating in the summer, it's great for breakfast and lunch. In fact, it's the only place for a vegan breakfast, opening at 8 am. Kadri is keen to try their new coffee smoothie and chickpea omelet with vegan cheese. Luke really enjoys their falafels and veggie wraps. Not the best place for coffee and cake, although Kadri has had the odd good latte there. Luke's attempts at ordering a ristretto have not gone well... Cakes have not been on the same level as V: they tend to be be smallish and overpriced. Quality of food and speed of service however varies, as the place is often understaffed or has inexperienced staff. We haven't ever needed to book a table, but take-away is also an option. This may change with the refurbished menu. Watch this space!

Vegetarian, with vegan options:

Bliss (Mustamäe tee 17)

As the largest veggie buffet in Tallinn, it has plenty of vegan options. Kadri is particularly enthusiastic. Luke, more lukewarm. The varied menus includes salads, hot foods and desserts that Kadri can't get enough of. She also appreciates their range of Indian and Chinese dishes. There is a small organic store above. For a somewhat austere cafeteria setting, prices are what you might pay at a restaurant. Located outside the centre, at the beginning of the Mustamäe suburb.

GreenBakery (Maakri 19/21)

A tiny bakery/veggie café tucked away on a small street in the new centre of Tallinn. Good vegan options. It's an interesting little bakery that Luke thinks is well worth a visit. It's growing selection of cakes makes them another place to keep an eye on.

Serves meat, but vegan options:

Burger Box (Kopli 4)

A tiny hole in the wall place in the Kalamaja hipster neighbourhood, right next to Balti Jaam, the main train station of Tallinn. Not entirely vegan, but with vegan-friendly options. Limited selection and cash only. Their falafel burger & fries are among the best in town. The vegan laksa is a must-have! (probably the only place that serves laksa in Tallinn).

F-Hoone (Telliskivi 60a)

An old warehouse tastefully converted into a cosy café/restaurant, retro style. This place is very popular among Tallinners and gets very busy at weekends. Menu features some vegan items. Their falafels are great. They make decent soy latte (still not something to be taken for granted in Tallinn). A trip to the hipsterish Kalamaja district is definitely worth making.

Aed (Rataskaevu 8)

Located right next to V. This restaurant features organic options, with at least a few vegan dishes in the menu, clearly marked, including at least one vegan dessert. The restaurant offers a different vegan lunch dish every day, at a very reasonable price. Kadri has not been there for quite a while and Luke has never set his snobby coffee foot inside :)

Papa Joe (Sadama 25-4)

A small Lebanese falafel and kebab place at the Harbour Markets (Sadamaturg). The best falafel in town, reasonably priced. The dream of a vegan fast foodie! Mostly good for take-away, has only 1-2 tables to sit at.

Elevant (Vene 5)

A cosy and stylish Indian restaurant located right in the Old Town. Most vegetarian dishes include dairy, with a few vegan options and the option to veganise some vegetarian dishes. Kadri’s favourites: Channa masala and Vegetable curry.  

Luke’s favourite coffee in Tallinn

(soy milk available in all those places)

The Living Room (Pärnu maantee 9) 

This became Luke's second home whilst in Tallinn. Their Monkey Blend ristretto is sublime! If you drink ristrettos, don't leave Tallinn without a visit to this joint. With good wifi, it's a great place to work or hold meetings. It really is a lounge room: complete with couches, chilled music and friendly folk - none as delightful as Triin herself. Triin made most of my ristrettos, but thought other baristas were great too. Kadri often goes to the Living Room to enjoy her afternoon latte over her laptop.

August (Väike-Karja 5)

Tucked amongst the cobbled streets of Old Town, August is treat for coffee lovers. I had a few great ristrettos in this chic cafe. However, the quality did depend on who was making it. We loved sitting by the window to watch people going by. Highly recommended. 

Coffee Angels (Telliskivi Loomelinnak) 

Down in the trendy Telliskivi district, the Angel Café was a great find. I enjoyed a very tasty organic ristretto. The barista graciously pulled another once when I was served a double espresso. Kadri cringes every time I do this. While not often, I do politely check with the barista when served an espresso. I appreciate there is little demand for ristrettos. 

Epic (Vabaduse väljak 9, in the tunnel)

Peeter co-runs a little coffee shop in the tunnel to Vabaduse Väljak (Freedom Square). It's all about the coffee here at Epic. He has this fabulous wall which showcases how coffees are made - like ristretto shots being between 15-20 mLs! Peeter uses Italian beans with 20% robusta. It's not bad, but it's no Monkey Blend. After making coffee for the snobs in Melbourne, he enjoys the more tolerant clientele of Tallinn.

All photos from the restaurants' Facebook pages.

Check out Kadri's wonderfully inspirational blog VeganMaailm.com here: 

K is guest-blogging about Cannelés, those little caramelised, irresistible buns from Bordeaux

[Pille is off to Budapest for a few days, so K. is using the opportunity to guest-blog again..]

Few years ago I took some French language courses in the city of Bordeaux, and opted for accommodation with a local family. I ended up staying with an excellent old-school French hosts: a retired couple Marie-Lucie and her husband Jean-Pierre, who had accommodated over hundred language students over the years.

Just before my arrival, the family had accommodated a student from Saudi Arabia, for whom it was the first trip outside his home country. Coming from deeply religious surroundings he couldn’t eat pork or drink wine. Seeing students from all over the world, always joyful Marie-Lucie was used to different cultures. But she also adored cooking and eating traditional and delicious French food, including some Clairet wine and hearty pork dishes... Sitting together at a dinner table was a sacred tradition for Marie-Lucie and Jean-Pierre. You can imagine how relieved they were to welcome a hungry Estonian guy appreciating everything her kitchen had to offer. In turn, I was ready to learn and be seduced by the Bordeaux cuisine.

During my two-week stay we savoured four-course dinners at home almost on a daily basis. The entire house was open for guests, except the kitchen in the mornings. It was behind these closed kitchen doors that Marie-Lucie and Jean-Pierre decided on the evening's menu. Most of the recipes were kept as small handwritten notes in huge plastic boxes labelled “poissons/crustaces”, “viande”, “entrées/legumes” etc (see photo on the right).

As expected, I could not keep myself out of the kitchen, and I learned many things. For example, do you know what the secret of happy marriage is? If wife and husband do not have an argument about finances, but argue about the perfect recipe for Tomates Antiboise. Jean-Pierre put the capers together with canned tuna into a blender. While I asked tête-à-tête from Marie-Lucie whether it would be better to chop the capers, she said that when they had been younger, she had a big argument with Jean-Pierre about this fundamental issue and she personally thinks that the capers should be chopped with knife instead of crushed in blender. But now, after several decades of conjugal life, she has given up and lets her beloved husband to do like he wants. On the other hand, although Jean-Pierre liked tête de veau, a French classic dish so vividly described in A Cook's Tour by Anthony Bourdain, and knew how to make it, it was a forgotten delicacy in the family as Marie-Lucie was not particularly fond of it.

I also had breakfasts at their home, enjoying different jams and cheeses. One weekend morning I was served innocent-looking buns that tasted superb. Before even noticing, I was already reaching for the fifth bun. Later I have learned that substantial quantities of cannelés can vanish very quickly in the presence of children and grown-ups alike. This was my first experience with cannelés, a miracle bun from Bordeaux that has not only an extensive Wikipedia entry in English, but even several dedicated web sites in French. Cannelé has interesting history, wrapped in the mystery.

This simple pastry, made of eggs, milk and flour flavoured with rum and vanilla is currently hugely popular both in Aquitaine and Gironde, with hundreds of producers. But as it turns out, it is rather easy to bake at home. Marie-Lucie kept always the batter on hand when the grandchildren were visiting, because they always asked for cannelés.

Traditionally, cannelés are baked in special metal fluted moulds (cannelé means 'fluted'). We have got silicone moulds at home - they are easier to handle, even if they don't yield as caramelised crust as metal moulds do. Usually 8 cannelés can be made with one mould and I strongly recommend buying at least two. If you're based in the US, then you can buy tin-lined copper cannelé molds and silicon mini cannelé molds - both by Matfer Bourgeat - from Amazon.com.

Cannelés
(Cannelé koogikesed)
Makes 16



500 ml milk
25 g butter
100 g plain/all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
250 g sugar
4 egg yolks and 2 egg whites
1 Tbsp of rum
2 tsp of Bourbon vanilla extract

Whisk sugar, eggs and flour in a large bowl.
Bring milk and butter to a boil in a saucepan. Slowly whish into the egg mixture, stirring constantly.
Add vanilla.
Let cool to room temperature, then add rum.
The batter should be rather runny, just like a crepe batter.
Cover the mixture and keep it in the fridge for at least overnight or up to two days.
When ready to bake your cannelés, stir the batter again, and fill the prepared cannelé moulds three-quarters full.
Start baking at 275C, after 5-10 minutes lower the temperature to 200C and continue baking around 40-50 minutes until cannelés are dark golden to almost blackish brown*.
Extract from the moulds when cannelés are still hot. Cannelés should have a caramelised crust and be chewy, yet soft, inside.

Although I am very happy with the flavour of these cannelés, I have not yet figured out why my cannelés always 'climb' out of the moulds during baking. They finally fall back to the 'normal' size, but not always evenly, leaving the shapes somewhat uneven. I appreciate if you can give me a hint on this one.

* There seem to be two schools: those, who like cannelés golden brown outside and those who prefer them caramelised to black. At the stores in Bordeaux they are usually blackish.

You can read more about cannelés from these foodblogs: Chocolate & Zucchini, Kuidaore, La Tartine Gourmande (and Bea again), The Traveler's Lunchbox and 101 Cookbooks.

Previous guest posts on Nami-nami:
K is guest-blogging about Heston Blumenthal's perfect ice cream (August 2007)

K is guest-blogging about Heston Blumenthal's perfect ice cream

There is obviously a good reason for stepping up as a first guest blogger: current recipe is inspired of In Search of Perfection by Heston Blumenthal, a challenging macho cookbook waiting for the boys’ egos to be satisfied. Browsing through the 20-plus step recipes Pille decided that it is not her style. Therefore it takes a guest blogger for Blumenthal to be featured here on Nami-Nami.

I noticed Jersey milk ice cream recipe in the book right away as it included dry ice as a freezing component (see here; note step 2 of the recipe: 'Put on safety gloves and protective goggles and open the packet of dry ice':). Carbon dioxide ice at -78.5 C is a familiar substance to me from constructing a cloud chamber for tracking cosmic particles, a well-known experiment in particle physics. Dry ice is mainly of industrial use and it can be bought only during working hours and from the industrial gas company situated far outside the city. While I was waiting for a moment to go and fetch it, our KitchenAid Ice Cream Attachment had finally arrived from Germany. Although using dry ice would have lead to dramatic photos of the mystical fumes sneaking out of the bowl, it seemed quite pointless to overcomplicate things.

Eliminating dry ice lead to an unexpected realisation: with just four components - milk, double cream, unrefined caster sugar and glucose syrup - to be heated gently until the sugar has dissolved, this is one of the simplest ice cream recipes one can possibly find.

Blumenthal’s book has a pleasant feature: thorough stories about finding the best ingredients, the essential part of a quest for perfection. For example ice cream recipe requires milk with fat content 5.2% from organic free-range Jersey cows. I have nice memories of cycling on a sunny autumn day through green pastures on Jersey Island few years ago and participating in a staring contest with a genuine free-range Jersey cow, but I also remember that it took me a multi-stop air travel and a whole day to get there. Besides Estonians do not use double cream with fat content 48%, we have whipping cream (fat content 35% - 38%) instead.

Therefore following Blumenthal’s footsteps, without compromising his perfectionism, called for creativity. I calculated that an average fat content of a milk/double cream mixture in the recipe was 21.2% and for the whole recipe 17.3%. (For the sake of comparison David Lebovitz's vanilla ice cream that Pille prepared a day before had 25.2% fat content for the dairy component plus 5 high-calorie egg yolks making an average fat content of a mix 21.4%). Using premium 3.5% milk and 35% whipping cream in 50/50 mixture I ended up with 19.2% fat for a dairy component and overall fat content 15.7%. That falls neatly in the middle of the range of 10-20% fat content, that according to Harold McGee is characteristic to most good ice cream recipes.

Glucose syrup is needed in the mix to give ice cream smooth, creamy consistency without the presence of yolks or high fat content.

After standard procedure with the ice cream maker, the end result was with smooth texture and notably milky, clean and fresh taste. I was resisting temptation to add a spoonful of Pure Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extractor to throw in pieces of quality chocolate or to pour over some maple syrup. The recipe just seemed too simple. I closed my eyes and brought back childhood memories of a simple milk ice cream called Plombiir. In 1980s we had Soviet Union, iron curtain and stagnation and the producers did not yet know the virtues of artificial ingredients and milk & skimmed milk powders.

Blumenthal writes in his book: 'Perfection is the ultimate, the best something can possibly be. For many of us, the perfect meal won’t be some fancy restaurant food. Stuck on a desert island, our dream dish is more likely something we grew up with and have taken to our hearts.'

Apparently molecular-gastronomic image does not tell all about the chef of The Fat Duck.

For the Jersey milk ice cream

500ml Jersey whole milk
300ml double cream
80g unrefined caster sugar
100g glucose syrup

Piimajäätis
400ml 3,5% Alma piima
400ml 35% Alma vahukoort
80g demerara suhkrut
100g glükoosisiirupit

Segada ained kergelt kuumutades kuni suhkur on sulanud, jahuta. Jäätisemasinas segada madalal kiirusel kuni segu omandab pehme jäätise struktuuri. Jätta segu tahenema sügavkülmikusse.