Food ghosts

Smorgon was once famous for its bagels. The bagels were backed in a special ovens big and small, with and without poppy seeds. Smorgon bagels were sold not only at local markets, but also in Vilnius, Poland. They were known in all of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.They were also promoted by Gypsies who toured Europe with trained bears.

Another dish, one of the almost lost dishes of the Belarusian-Lithuanian cuisine, which was once widespread, is mushroom kvass. This is not a drink, not a drinking kvass made from mushrooms, as some might think, but a soup with sour and sharp taste, always with mushrooms, usually lenten. But this dish also has (or at least had) many different variations, its own “microcosm”, which is largely incomprehensible to today's people.

Zburazhsky Grechaniki are pancakes made from buckwheat flour, and Buckwheat Babka is bread made from this flour. They are a local landmark, almost the main brand of Zburazh village of Malorita district. Here, the Babka and the Grechaniki are baked in every second house. That hostess is considered to be diligent and real, who welcomes guests with the Babka backed in her own oven. Local pensioners surely remain the best bakers. They learned this skill from their mothers and grandmothers.

The popularity of Lithuanian cheese was mentioned by Frantishek Bogushevich in St. Petersburg weekly newspaper "Krai" on September 18, 1888: "The current "Industrial and agricultural exhibition" introduces 270 exhibits, among which... there are 8 dairy products (mainly cheese, the so-called Lithuanian cheese, whose production was started by Brakhotskaya 29 years ago in Gorodea town)". If we substract 29 years from year 1888, we get the date of the beginning of the tradition of Lithuanian rennet cheese making - 1859.

This aromatic delicacy has a long history and the national product status in many European countries. Gingerbread production was also established in Belarus — mainly in cities and towns. Gingerbread cookies were backed in Orsha, Kopys, Dubrovno, Minsk, and the gingerbread cookies from Mir in the shape of soldiers were sought after at fairs. The best flour, honey and, of course, spices, such as cinnamon, ginger, cloves, lemon and orange zest, were used for the production of the gingerbread cookies.

This perennial herbaceous plant, densely covered with short hairs, gives the impression of a vicious weed. Its scientific Latin name - Borago officinalis - appeared due to these hairs, as burra is the Latin for "short hair" or "bristle". Sometimes in Belarusian or Russian it can be called "bourachnik", although it has nothing in common with the beetroot (in Belarusian the word 'beetroot' sounds like 'bourak'), it is an only slightly modified scientific name. And the most wide-spread name of the plant is borage.

Дисненское масло - это масло, которое производили крестьянские артели Дисненского уезда Вильнюсской губернии в начале XX века. Оно отправлялось в крупные промышленные центры Российской империи, а также на экспорт.