I miss the food of Eastern Europe

When you live abroad for long periods of time, you get accustomed to certain foods which, returning home, you can’t find anywhere, and the sense of a habit unwillingly broken is acute. If the foreign country is Thailand or Italy, you stand a good chance of finding dishes approximate to those you’ve left behind in a local restaurant. But if your working life has been spent in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and you live well outside London, you must learn to make them for yourself or do without.

The first foreign country I lived in was Estonia. Estonian food at that time (maybe it has changed) tended to be simple and subtle – I remember roast pork, endless varieties of sausages, milk curds and gently spiced cakes. All this was pleasant and wholesome enough, with often bracingly fresh ingredients – Estonians are great ones for having an extensive kitchen garden, and often bee-keep as well – but rather unexciting to the palate of an Englishman, who’d grown up on such food.