Eating Beaver

Correspondent Greg Palkot and I have travelled the world together on assignments from the mountains of Tora Bora in Afghanistan to Sudan, where the closest power pole was 600 miles away. This time however we have returned to the ancestral home of the Palkot family.

Now I must admit that when I was told that I was coming to Lithuania, I had to go and find an atlas, yes one of those old fashioned things that lies around with lots of pictures in it. I actually wanted to see where in the hell I was going without Google maps.

So what do we know about Lithuania apart from the fact that famous Lithuanians include Charles Bronson & Monica Lewinsky. 90% of the worlds Amber comes from here, according to the French geographic society , the actual centre of Europe is 15 miles North of Vilnius, the capital. Public Holidays of note include : 8th September "Nation Day" - Grand Duke Vytautas was due to be crowned in 1430. He died the day before.

We arrived last night along with Producer Kim Miller, both she and I asked Greg for some everyday phrases like hello and thank you, since being a proud Lithuanian would naturally have a grasp of the language and be our interpretor. Actually he was waiting for his dad in New York to email him the essential twenty phrases



Now driving in from the airport in the dark it seemed like we were going in circles around a train yard in the rain. The old city of Vilnius is very beautiful, in that classic European sense of history and culture.

So what does one eat in Vilnius on a Wednesday night in Winter , what is a classic Baltic dish that defines the gastronomic taste buds of a true Lithuanian. There are not many places in the world where you can say to the waitress in the restaurant. How is your Beaver tonight? and I would like your best beaver please.

Now having eaten beaver, I can say beaver stew is a different taste and no it does not taste like chicken

Mal
Vilnius
Lithuania