REcipes & Ingredients

SEPTEMBER 2025

A Nonstop Karbonade (Pork Schnitzel) Marathon (Austra Muižniece)

RomE, ItAly

Austra Muižniece, who lives in Rome, talks about Latvian potatoes and airport security checks, about her comfort foods, and about what she always carries in her bag when returning to Italy from Latvia.

Photos from Austras Muižnieces private archive.

ℹ️ How to watch with English subtitles:
Turn on CC → Settings → Subtitles → Auto-translate → English

Austra Muižņiece:
Austra Muižņiece: What does true comfort food from Latvia look like, the kind you long for when you’re abroad? Pork chops, good new potatoes with dill, a lettuce and kefir salad, mom’s or grandma’s pork chops, and local strawberries.
Austra Muižniece: A typical selection of products from an Eastern European shop in Rome during the first half of the year. I used it when I had to make a honey cake for an international work team, among us were also Balts, Bulgarians, and Romanians, all of whom, after a few months, no longer wanted to even look at the Italian food we ate every day. I have to say, though, that after 2022 it’s become harder with these shops, since some sell products that might come from Russia or through related companies, and I have absolutely no desire to support that economy in any way. If I find Ukrainian or Polish products, though, I definitely go for those. In the Polish section, I often get kielbasa sausages that remind me of homemade smoked meats, perfect for something as simple as a breakfast sandwich. In the foreground of the photo, you can see a moment of desperation: there’s no fresh dill anywhere, but at least there’s dried dill, and maybe that can be used for something, even just mixed into a dip.
Austra Muižniece: The essence of identity — the Song and Dance Festival season, Teterovskis, and cleaning chanterelles at the countryside house (because without a toothbrush, it’s not real chanterelle cleaning).

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