Black Bread, Kama and Kohuke: What Estonians Eat and Kids Will Try

Estonian food is northern, simple and better than anyone expects. Three things to know before the first dinner.

Black bread. Rye, dense, dark, slightly sweet, on every table with salted butter. Estonians abroad miss it more than anything. Kids will eat it if you call it chocolate bread, and it is close enough in color to get away with once.

Kohuke is the snack. A little bar of sweet curd cheese covered in chocolate, in the fridge of every shop for under a euro. Vanilla, kiwi, caramel. Buy a handful and hand them out on the tram. Every Estonian child grew up on them and yours will understand why.

Kama is the strange one. A flour of roasted barley, rye, oat and pea, mixed with kefir or yogurt and a spoon of sugar into a thick breakfast. It tastes like a healthy milkshake. The kids will say it is weird and finish it.

The dinner table

Elk. It is on the menu at the old town restaurants as a soup or a stew and it is worth ordering once for the story. Wild boar too. Pork with sauerkraut and potatoes is the everyday dish, and mulgipuder, potatoes mashed with barley and bacon, is the comfort food.

Herring in every form at breakfast, smoked fish on the coast, and in summer, chanterelles from the forest in a cream sauce on everything. Berries picked that morning at the market hall by the port.

The Balti Jaam market by the station is the place to see it all. Fish on one side, bread on the other, street food upstairs, and a stall selling kohuke by the dozen. Lunch for a family there is a fraction of the old town price, and it is the better meal.

Planning Estonia with kids? Start with the full Estonia family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.