It’s not often that you have an opportunity to meet with someone who carries the traditions of Litvak food in her soul. Even if she doesn’t sing out loud as she prepares the ingredients, mixes them, all the while explaining not only what she’s doing, but what her mother and grandmother, and now her granddaughters do, you can sense the music and energy coming from within.

Her delight not only in cooking, but having a final product that looks as good as it tastes was so obvious. The bagels – two trays in a small oven, baking after boiling, took longer to brown because there were so many in the oven. Riva, the Balebosta, was worried that we’d grow bored or impatient. We didn’t and all patiently waited. The wait was definitely worth it – the bagels were done to perfection.

She hugged me as we left. She and I had been exchanging a few words here and there, in Hebrew. As I was leaving she pointed to her mezuzah which I did as she expected – reached out my fingers to touch the mezuzah and then kiss my fingers. She said I had a real Yiddishe neshama. A real complement from this native Litvak whose family survived the war, some went to Israel afterwards. She was born after the war was over and she remained in Lithuania where she carries the Litvak culinary traditions and is passing them on to the next generation. If you’re lucky enough when you visit Vilnius, you may be able to study with her for a morning as we did. After watching her and tasting the results of her efforts I humbly admit that there is no way I can every hope to duplicate her bagels.

I know I’ve commented many times on my fascination with the remnants of old buildings here. Today I feel privileged to have visited the Palace of the Grand Dukes and to see closer up what I viewed from the outside through glass a couple of days ago.

The story boards describing the history of this ancient city were phenomenal. To see the entire museum you’d probably need a daily visit for a month. To absorb all the information would take years.

What a day we ended with an interesting dinner – the menu had the century in which each of the offerings came from!

Lina with catfish, tomatoes and potatoes.

I had cottage cheese balls in tomato sauce which is from a Litvak recipe. There are so many more meatless options in restaurants now than there were 6 years ago when I was here last, but it seems like I’m eating the same things – cepelini with curds, crepes with curds, and pizza. Oh, yes, ice cream too. The chocolate in many places is a dark chocolate ice cream. I generally get that and pistachio. Heavenly.