Aspic From a Sour Cream Container (Selga un Edgars Apse)
Selga and Edgars share their family’s rasols recipes. Edgars also talks about the aspic and cold buffet at the Latvian Centre in Toronto, as it was during the time he worked there as a catering staff member.
I Didn’t Know Rasols Is Made Without Beets! (Dārija Teika Gulēna)
Dārija talks about her family’s rasols recipe: without herring, without meat, and with beets. Listen to the interview to learn more about her rasols—and about her experience with aspic!
In 20 Minutes and Without a Recipe – “The Truly Latvian Easter Paska Competition”
The ‘Truly Latvian Easter Paska Competition,’ led by Māra Gulēna and Elizabete Ludvika, was held at the Toronto Latvian Seniors Association (TLPA) gathering on April 17, 2025.
Let’s Do It the Way We Do it in This Century, in This Era (Inese Grava-Gubiņa)
Fragments from an interview with Inese Grava-Gubiņa, July 13, 2025.
“Lett’s Bake” Sourdough
The Latvians Abroad museum met Mareks Nēgels in 2015 at the Toronto Latvian centre – he was baking “Lett’s Bake” sourdough.
A Master Baker from Latvia (Kārlis Atars)
Documents of master baker Kārlis Atars from the collection of the museum “Latvians Abroad”.
Before the Second World War, Kārlis owned a bakery on Avotu Street in Riga. After the war, while living in a displaced persons camp in Schleswig, Germany, he worked at a bakery run by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), baking bread for refugees. After immigrating to Canada and settling in the city of London, Kārlis opened his own bakery, “Riga Rye”, which operated until 1980, when he retired and moved to Toronto.
Zupa Zupa (Elizabete Ludvika)
Zupa Zupa founder Elizabete talks about how the idea to sell soups came about. Find out which soups are her favorites and which ones are the most popular!
TLP Soups!
“Thirty times a year, for TLP’s (Toronto Latvian Pensioners) weekly gatherings, Toronto chef Ingo Kārkliņš prepares delicious soups. We get to enjoy both traditional Latvian soups—meatball soup, sauerkraut soup, and cold soup—as well as soups from other parts of the world, such as Italian minestrone and Mexican sopa de lima. As is typical with Latvians, even exotic soups are sometimes garnished with dill. And certain soups simply are not eaten without sour cream!”
Pīrāgi Making Outside Latvia: Photos 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.
The Decorating Process Takes Seven Hours (Anita Kupcis-Clifford)
Anita writes: “After seeing some videos of cookies being decorated I was intrigued. That was seven years ago and since then I have decorated many cookies. My sense of design for my cookies might be attributed to my years of embroidery, specifically Latvian designs.
My piparkukas are different from my mom’s, hers were rolled very thinly and glazed with egg yolk. I recall when my mother would come for visits with a suitcase full of piparkukas, pirags and pounds of butter. I started making both when my mother was no longer able to do it.”