This Year's Banquet

Mr. Irene and I just attended the annual banquet hosted by Madison Vilnius Sister Cities, Inc. Our friends V and her husband again joined us for the weekend. It was a great occasion.

The Madison Club once more decorated the tables in the tricolors of the Lithuanian flag.

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This year, Mr. Irene welcomed the guests.

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Guests enjoyed cocktails before the meal. Some of us eat the olives first.

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We had a great turnout.

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The chef is becoming expert at preparing Lithuanian dishes.

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We started out with a favorite: Šaltibarščiai.

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The kitchen remembered to serve the soup with a traditional accompaniment: boiled potatoes.

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Our featured speaker this year was Dr. Audrius Plioplys, creator of the Hope and Spirit exhibit.

Local Flavor

Madison, Wisconsin, March 15, 2016. A Napoleonas is one of our favorite desserts. When I am too lazy to make it (even the cheater's version), then we order it from Omaha's Lithuanian Bakery.

Word recently spread on Facebook that a local grocery store now carries a version of Lithuanian Bakery's Napoleonas. I've never seen it with strawberry or cherry filling (apricot is the usual), but we look forward to trying it.

Weekend Baking

Suburban Chicago, June 1976. The box of saltine crackers indicates we're making a peculiar torte. It consisted of multiple layers of unsalted crackers held together with a buttercream made from butter and chopped, dried fruit. The torte was very popular in the 1970s among Lithuanians. The recipe mimicked the more complicated preparation of a "Napoleonas."

Here's the recipe, as I wrote it out back then:

Another, Annual Banquet

Mr. Irene and I just attended the annual banquet hosted by Madison Vilnius Sister Cities, Inc. Last year, I got sick, and we were bummed out that we couldn't go. This year, we were delighted that my friend V and her husband joined us for the occasion. We had a great time.

Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2015. Our venue was the elegant Madison Club.

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2015. Guests registered with the greeter before they enjoyed cocktails.

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2015. The management again decorated the venue with the three colors of the Lithuanian flag.

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2015. Grab a seat before all the spots are taken!

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2015. Donors contributed items for the loterija (raffle).

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2015. My Mom knitted three hats for the raffle; she made this one out of a luxurious merino-wool-and-silk yarn. Yeah, Mom!

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2015. The chef prepared a Lithuanian meal.

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2015. My favorite dish was the Šaltibarščiai.

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2015. We also enjoyed a blueberry-enhanced Napoleonas.

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May 2, 2015. It was great to see my friend V— the friend I made because of the blog!

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 2015. We also were delighted to meet V's husband. Thanks for a wonderful visit!

Bummeris*

Mr. Irene and I had planned last night to attend the annual banquet of the Madison Vilnius Sister Cities, Inc. organization. We couldn't go because I got the flu! I haven't had a cold or other viral illness since 2007, so I was shocked when I developed feverish symptoms and spent three days in bed. It was a big disappointment.

Mr. Irene did, however, stop off at the venue to deliver the items he and I donated to the banquet's loterija. He snapped a few photos while he was there.

Madison, Wisconsin, May 3, 2014. Our gracious greeter checked in guests.

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 3, 2014. The raffle prizes included Lithuanian beer, some woven sashes, a woven tablecloth, two baumkuchenai, and a bottle of Polish vodka (our fault).

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 3, 2014. How nice!

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 3, 2014. Super bummeris: look what we missed. The chef again adapted some Lithuanian dishes for the service. This time, he added Cepelinai to the menu.

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Madison, Wisconsin, May 3, 2014. The guest of honor was His Excellency Žygimantas Pavilionis, the Lithuanian Ambassador to the United States.

Ambassador Pavilionis also spoke to WISC-TV. You can watch the clip here.

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*Lithuanians adopt English nouns into their vocabulary by adding declentive endings to the words. "Bummer" becomes "bummeris;" "basement" is "basementas;" and "blog" is "blogas."

A Cheater's Napoleonas

Verona, Wisconsin, February 8, 2014. Yesterday, I made a Napoleonas torte. The job was easy because I used frozen puff pastry. It's a small portion—yielding about seven pieces.

(Omaha's LithuanianBakery ships Napoleonai. We ordered one for Christmas, and it was great!)

Annual Banquet

Mr. Irene and I last night attended the banquet hosted by Madison-Vilnius Sister Cities, Inc. The centerpiece of the evening was a presentation by the Grandson of Aleksandras Stulginskis, the second President of the Republic of Lithuania.

 

Madison, Wisconsin, April 2013. The greeters warmly welcomed us.

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Madison, Wisconsin, April 2013. The venue decorated the tables with the tricolors of the flag.

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Madison, Wisconsin, April 2013. The chef delighted guests with a customized, Lithuanian meal. We started out with Šaltibarščiai. Note the appropriate side plate of dill-coated, boiled potatoes.

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Madison, Wisconsin, April 2013. We ended the meal with a chocolate variation on Napoleonas. One criticism: the dollop of orange marmalade was a downer because I expected apricot jam.

(Note: The Šaltibarščiai were so good, I decided to share a spoonful with the tablecloth.)

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Madison, Wisconsin, April 2013. No Lithuanian event is complete without a loterija.

UPDATE: Link to professional photos taken by Paulius Musteikis.

Easter Manners: Enjoy the table.

Suburban Chicago, Easter Sunday, 1961. My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, again enjoys hosting another party. She's seated at the dining room table with the mother of my Mom's Rockford friend and my Godmother's father. The decanter holds Tatjana's brew of citrus-flavored, milk liqueur. Ach! The tablecloth has creases.

Tatjana made a yeast Babka every Easter. The recipe used five egg yolks. On the table, you can see what Tatjana made with the leftover egg whites: a "Bizet Torte." A Bizet Torte consists of five or six layers of baked meringue disks, held together with coffee buttercream, and decorated with toasted almond slices. Although the Bizet Torte isn't as popular in Lithuania as a Napoleonas, it is a lot less labor intensive.

Latvians make Bizet Torte, too.

Another "Sister City"

I mentioned earlier that Madison is a Sister City to Vilnius, Lithuania. I learned today that Šiauliai, Lithuania is a Sister City to Omaha, Nebraska. There's a large population of Lithuanians in Omaha; my maternal Grandfather Jake's brother, Zigmas, emigrated to the city.

Omaha also is home to the Lithuanian Bakery, a business that sells and ships "Napoleonai."

Recipes in Translation

Preparations for our little Kūčios are under way. I searched today for plotkelės ("Opłateki" in Polish) at our local Russian store. The shopkeeper had never heard of them; I suppose it's not a Russian Orthodox tradition. She looked at me as if I were speaking Greek when I described the wafers.

I also am tweaking the "Christmas Fish" recipe. This is a preparation of a white fish and sliced onions layered in a thick tomato sauce. It's served cold, like the other foods we eat on Christmas Eve. I've made it for many years, but I have not been satisfied with my recipe, especially after tasting two delicious variations served recently at our local, Madison Kūčios. I've received a couple of recipes to try, and a search today revealed our "Christmas Fish" is a close cousin to Poland's "Fish in the Greek Style." Who knew!

Every Kūčios, Mom and I prepare two "Vinegretai," or mixed vegetable salads. One is a "pink" salad made with beets and navy beans. The other is a "white" salad made with potatoes, peas, and carrots. Our family always called the latter "Babos Vinegretas," or "Grandma's Salad," in honor of my Russian-born, paternal Grandmother, Tatjana. When I moved to Venice in the early 1980s, I noticed that most delicatessens carried a dish that looked identical to "Babos Vinegretas." The Italians call it "Insalata Russa," and it's a modification of a classic Russian dish, "Salat Olivyeh." Iranians make "Salad Oliveh," too. Sources attribute the recipe to a nineteenth-century French chef who lived in the Russian empire. Ah! I had thought Tatjana was the genius behind the dish.

This year, we also will be making a spicy carrot salad, "Aštrios Morkų Salotos." I stumbled on the dish when I bought this product (scroll down to the fourteenth jar on the page) at our Russian store. The salad is identical to a spicy carrot salad that the Russians call Korean Carrots. Russians incorporated the dish into their cuisine after those Koreans deported by Stalin began living in the western Soviet Union. Today, every Russian grocer carries Korean Carrots. At our shop, you can buy the bottled salad (made in Lithuania), a fresh salad in the deli case, or a spice packet to make the salad at home.

That got me back to thinking about the Napoleonas, the torte French pastry chefs adapted from Lithuanian bakers.

Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Greeks, Italians, Iranians, Koreans, French: it's all one big table.

Verona, Wisconsin, March 2011. The "pink" salad of beets and beans is on the menu. (Photo by Laurence Meade.)

UPDATE: I've corrected a grammatical error in the first paragraph. *Blushes.*

Napoleon and the Serenissima

I've occasionally touched on the arrival of Napoleon in Lithuania.

Here's a good look at how Napoleon's arrival affected another favorite place of mine—Venice.

Do you long for the taste of a Napoleonas?

You can order one here. Mini tortai are available here.

Absorbing Conversation

Suburban Chicago, January 1964. I love this dinner-party shot because no one is aware that my Dad is taking a photograph. It must have been a big party because my Mom, on the left—wearing an apron over her home sewn, avocado-green cocktail dress—has pulled a living-room chair up to the table, and my Dad has brought the mahogany desk chair down from the Master Bedroom. It looks like we're serving a Napoleonas for dessert.

Catwalk

The annual fashion show, the "Madų Paroda," was a celebrated event in the Lithuanian community. My Mom and her best friend, Donna, attended the show every year. The show was a stylish event, and it took place at the Lietuvių Jaunimo Centras, or "Lithuanian Youth Center,"on a Saturday night. Women sat at long tables, and, during the intermission, they ate a family-style meal of Lithuanian foods, namely sausages and sauerkraut, boiled potatoes, kugelis, a lingonberry crumble cake, and Napoleonas. The room smelled like hairspray and cigarette smoke.

All garments featured at the Madų Paroda were handmade. Women submitted their items to a committee that juried the selections for the show. We were thrilled when a few suits that my Mom had knitted made it onto the runway.

The catwalk models were Lithuanian women; most were former Displaced Persons. They were among the most elegant in the community: they had perfect figures, and most had "Baltic blonde" hair and frosted nails. When not fashioned for the show, the stylish women usually wore a lot of black clothing, accented by bulky amber jewelry. If you grew up in the Lithuanian community, then I'm sure you can picture this 1960s standard of ethnic beauty.


Gage Park, Chicago, about 1963. A woman, serving coffee, stands between my Mom and Donna. Mom and Donna have secured a great table, right next to the catwalk. (Photo by V. Noreika.)

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Gage Park, Chicago, about 1963. There's a lot going on here! (Photo by V. Noreika.)

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Suburban Chicago, 1972. It's my first Madų Paroda, and Mom and I have sewed matching dresses.

Napoleon Complex

Vilnius, Lithuania, August 2011. When my Toronto Cousin visited Lithuania, the tour guide explained that architects modeled this façade at Vilnius University on Napoleon Bonaparte's hat in commemoration of the general's visit to the country.

Thanks to my Toronto Cousin for making this photo available to us.

Back to Napoleon's Hill

Napoleon's Hill, Kaunas, Lithuania, 1934. My Mom and my maternal Grandfather, Jake, sit in the park on Napoleon's Hill.

The Independence Day "Minejimas"

Today, February 16, is Lithuanian Independence Day. The children from our Lithuanian School prepared for the annual "minejemas," or commemoration, every year. Although we participated in many cultural programs, the Independence Day "minejimas"was our most important "programa."

The Displaced Persons who made up the Lithuanian population in our suburban enclave sometimes organized the event at the hall of the local park district. (It's now called "Bulger Park," but boomers will remember it as Veterans Park.)

Often, the Independence Day celebration intersected with a more formal occasion, the "Balius" ("ball") that the local Lithuanians annually hosted. The Balius was a formal occasion, and it was one of the few adult parties that the children attended.

The locals rented a large, then-attractive hall operated by the Melrose Park Fraternal Order of Eagles. The hall stood on the second story of the village's main shopping district, near the intersection of Broadway and Lake Street. The hall was a large space, with a stage, a dance floor, and an annex in the back with a bar. The lighting and acoustics were decent. We felt familiar with and comfortable in the hall especially because one of the nice Lithuanian families in our community owned the store that stood on the first floor of the same building.

As children, we looked forward to the Balius because we got to fool around at the party as soon as our performances ended. We ate Lithuanian sausage, braised sauerkraut, boiled Russet potatoes, and rye bread. Usually, the younger set hung around in the back annex, where, after dinner, we danced and drank 50/50 or Canada Dry Gingerale.

The adults conducted a "loterija," or raffle, at the end of the evening. In 1967, I was declared one of the winners. I learned I could choose one of several prizes. I remember standing at the prize table with my Mom, deciding what to take home. Mom saw a Napoleonas torte among the options, but I was unmoved. I wanted a record album. The only LP on the table was "Tubby Chess and His Candy Stripe Twisters do the TWIST," which of course spoke again to the Lithuanian immigrant community's branding paralysis: whoever selected the prize as a lure for the "young people" could not distinguish Chubby Checker from an imitator.

The organizers felt badly for me and Mom, and I took home both the torte and the faker LP.

I went back to the Balius several times when I was in high school and college. The event was a good chance to recycle prom dresses.

The Fraternal Order of Eagles Hall burned in 1989; I don't know whether it still stands.

Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1965. I take a bow after finishing my poetry recitation. This was my first performance at an Independence Day event. Look! My lifelong friend Kris sits on the far left.

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Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1965. The children from our Lithuanian School sang folk songs. I stand in the first row, on the far right, and Kris is directly behind me.

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Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1966. After the children sang, we danced. Kris and I are in the center, holding hands. The adults watch patiently. There's the back annex.

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Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1965. We are having fun! You can see the "FOE" letters suspended above the stage.

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Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1966. Our Lithuanian School sometimes had more girls than boys enrolled.  

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Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1966. After our successful performance, we show our gratitude to our Lithuanian-School teachers.

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Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1966. It's the end of our segment of the "programa."

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Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1965. We then sit and wait, oh my, during the rest of the performance. Usually some soprano sang Lithuanian tunes. Kris is behind me, again.

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Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1967. I give a bouquet to the soprano, too.

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Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1967. Ha ha! There's my Mom, holding the Napoleonas torte prize. I hadn't noticed the torte until I posted the photo. I instead was focused on the Lithuanian sausage in the front, on the right. There's my Mom's best friend, Donna, smiling beautifully on the far left.

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Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1967.  There's the rye bread.

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Melrose Park, Illinois, February 1966. It's the end of the night because I've taken off my folkdress crown. Mom and her friend, Jadzė D, are keeping an eye on it. Both women wear knitted dresses.