It's Kama to me!

Today, as I headed to the library to pick up a book I ordered on interlibrary loan, I had the pleasant surprise of running into one of the faculty members in one of my courses. She was the organizer of a semiotics conference, and she and the participants were heading to lunch. They had extra places at the dinner, so she invited me along as a "hungry person" who needed to eat.

The menu was great and much better than the tuna sandwich I was heading home to prepare: cream of broccoli soup, pork chops potatoes with creamy dill gravy (chunks of pickles in this white sauce!), sauerkraut, and a fantastic Estonian desert of ingredients that don't fully exist in the same way in my world of English: "Kohupiim jakama moosiga." It was lovely enough to warrant a fuller description and a future repeat appearance in my Estonian diet.

Kohupiim (curd) Kama (grain mixture) moosiga (with jam).

Everyone warned me that I wouldn't like it. It was supposed to be strange. Grain sprinkled in sour cream/curd/cottage cheese/cream cheese. . . "Foreigners just don't like it," I was told. I was prepared to try it out but not anticipating anything scrumptious. It was really fantastic and defies a translation or simple explanation.

A website put out by the Ministry of Agriculture explains: Kama is a quite traditional, however initially only a seasonal dish and it is one of the undisputed classics of Estonian cuisine. The kama flour is a mixture of rough grain flour and peas. The composition of kama is not very clear. There is an Estonian saying about a situation when something does not matter: "It's kama to me!"

In the summer, many Estonians mix kama with keefir (sour milk) for a refreshing drink as pictured here, above.

For more about Estonian food and how Estonians eat it, visit Estonian Food!