Pashka in the shape of a hedgehog (Māra Siksna)
In Māra’s family, a special tradition of making pasha has developed for Easter. Each year Māra prepares uncooked pasha, while her daughter chooses to make the cooked version.
A kneading trough with traditional decoration (Edgars and Zigrīda Švinka)
This wooden kneading trough was made by Edgars Švinka for his wife Zigrīda after they arrived in Adelaide, Australia. Zigrīda used the trough for many years, when baking rye bread. The trough was donated to the museum by Edgars and Zigrīda’s daughter, Rasma Lācis.
Riga Bakery (Āris Bērziņš)
Āris talks about his father, Voldemārs Bērziņš, and the bakery he founded, “Riga Bakery,” in Australia in 1952. Watch the interview to learn how the bakery was established, how it grew, and what memories Āris has connected to it.
A mother’s blessing (Lilija Rudzītis)
This dried piece of bread, which is part of the collection of the “Latvians Abroad” museum, is a special symbol of Latvia, of home, and of a mother.
Freak-adelian Soup in Australia
Soups JANUARY 2026 Freak-adelian Soup in Australia Melbourne, Australia The ambassador of “Taste of home” Liene Brūns, together with her friends Evelīna and Valters, is cooking frikadeļu zupa (meatball soup) in Melbourne, Australia. https://youtube.com/shorts/bGjSLRwSOFY?feature=share January stories Freak-adelian Soup in Australia Frikadelle soup (Solvita Dambrovska) Soups in refugee camps in Germany post WWII. Photographs from the “Latvians Abroad” museum collection. Soups for Charity (Anita Jurevica) Squirrel Sorrow Soup “Saknes un zari” (Marika Mccue) Zupa Zupa (Elizabete Ludvika) Australians say no, we only eat soup in the winter (Līva Ulmane) TLP soups! Emptied the pot in one go (Ilze Atardo) Frikadeller soup – when you have a cold (Anda Cook) Crystallised ginger piparkūkas (Maija Liiv) Latvian School of Chicago piparkūku working bee Now I can give my recipe to everyone! (Dzidra Ādamsone) Pīrāgi making outside Latvia: photographs from the collection of the museum “Latvians Abroad” One recipe in three versions (Ilma Wilkinson) We send pīrāgi by mail! (Dace Gulbe un Inta Grunde) Pīrāgi is a comforting food for me (Māra Goldsmith) It’s not Christmas without pīrāgi (Anda Cook) It smells of braised sauerkraut! (Juris Sinka) The decorating process takes seven hours (Anita Kupcis-Clifford) Grandma’s pīrāgi in Rome (Austra Muižniece) My family pīrāgi recipe – with commentary (Aivars Sinka) Communal baking in Shanghai (Ilma Wilkinson) No posts found
“Saknes un zari” (Marika Mccue)
Marika talks about how “sakni un zari” came about. She also recalls a vivid moment when beet soup was cooked together with Lithuanians, Estonians, and Ukrainians, where at the end everyone had the opportunity to taste and compare the different versions of beet soup.
Australians say no, we only eat soup in the winter (Līva Ulmane)
Latvian Eats blogger Līva believes that soup is more of a summer dish, but in Australia the view is quite the opposite. In the video, she talks about how Latvian Eats came to be, which soups are the most popular in her home, and which ones are cooked in a small pot just for herself because no one else is interested.
Crystallised ginger piparkūkas (Maija Liiv)
My mother Lauma taught me to make piparkukas when I was a little girl, and I still make them now that I am 75.
I was born in Brisbane, Australia, in December 1950, and lived there all my life until moving 100km north to the Sunshine Coast in 2016.
I still use my mother’s piparkuka recipe, with only a couple of variations. Where my mother used Golden Syrup, I now sometimes use Treacle and brown sugar. We always used to put a slivered almond in the centre of each piparkuka, like generations of my family in Latvia have always done, but now that we live in a ginger-growing area (Buderim) we are placing a small piece of crystallised ginger in the centre of each piparkuka, and find it delicious.
Pīrāgi making outside Latvia: photographs from the collection of the museum “Latvians Abroad”
This album features photographs of pirāgi making in various corners of the world and across different periods of time.
Pīrāgi is a comforting food for me (Māra Goldsmith)
The pīrāgi recipe that Māra Goldsmith uses every year when baking pīŗāgi for Christmas was passed down to her by Mrs. Arnoldija in Sydney. In this interview, Māra talks about a special trick that makes the dough magical. According to her, it is exactly this that allows you to bake the most delicious pīrāgi in the world!