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.
Mayse Artisan Bakery (Aleksandrs Strelīts-Strēle and Elīna Krieviņa)
How did the “Mayse” bakery come to be in Hong Kong? Aleksandrs and his daughter Elīna talk about their bakery, which has been operating for eight years and has become a well-known and popular plant-based bakery among local residents in Hong Kong.
Piparkūkas in Romania (Laura Sarkane)
Laura: My husband, while learning Latvian, tried to say speķa pīrāgi (bacon buns), but it just wouldn’t come out right, and the best he managed in the end was — piranhas.
Frikadelle soup (Solvita Dambrovska)
On December 13th 2025, the Jutland Latvian weekend school “Mazputniņš” celebrated Christmas. Vegetable meatball soup was prepared, and the meatballs had already been made the day before by Solvita Dambrovska together with her husband.
Soups in refugee camps in Germany post WWII. Photographs from the “Latvians Abroad” museum collection.
The collection of the “Latvians Abroad” Museum preserves life stories that include memories of soup during refugee journeys and in refugee camps in Germany after the Second World War. The collection also contains photographs depicting food queues in the camps, where people—often holding homemade containers—stand in line for soup distributed from the camp kitchen. Several photographs show Scout and Guide groups eating soup during camps, while others depict soup as part of meals served in camp schools.
Soups for Charity (Anita Jurevica)
Anita Jurevica talks about a charity initiative—soup lunches—that she organizes every year in Minneapolis, USA. For 17 years, this initiative has become a testament to warmth, togetherness, and Latvian traditions.
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.
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!”
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.