A Hangar of Milk and Honey

The Baltic tour continues to Latvia and its capital, Riga, where local products are on display on a grand scale.  Spending time in Riga--once known as the Paris of the East--and missing the Riga Central Market would be a huge sin.  After visiting this gem, your local farmers' market would feel as exciting as buying vegetables from your supermarket's clearance bin.  Latvia's pulse is on display at the Market, which has been operation since 1909.  If you're a foodie, you'll find paradise here.

 

The market started as a bevy of outdoor stalls at Riga's railway hub.  City leaders wanted to build a central complex dedicated to selling food, but the plans were delayed until after World War I.  The market found the prime location:  a collection of zeppelin hangars that the German army built, but abandoned once the Kaiser pulled all German soldiers out of Latvia.  These five hangers and their stunning art deco façades were perfect for clustering farmers and food vendors . . . except for the fact that they were so enormous that the hangars had their own weather patterns, wreaking havoc with the products.  Riga leaders hired engineers from outside Latvia, and they retrofitted the hangars so that the interiors' temperature and humidity would stay ideal for the produce, meat, fish, bread, and dairy products that have a place in each of the five hangars.  The market has been in operation continuously since 1930.

I don't think I had ever seen so many varieties of honey until I visited Riga, and the varieties of cheese, yogurt, and other dairy would cure the lactose intolerant in a heartbeat.  It's the perfect place to pack a picnic lunch, if you can get out of there in less than a couple hours.  You may also need to skip the picnic lunch because many vendors will shove samples at you once eye contact is made . . . others may figure out you're just trolling for food and will wave you away.  Leaving the market for Riga's old center or the Occupation Museum (where you can walk through reconstructed gulags), will be a challenge:  the yeasty scent of rye breads, pastries, and bacon-stuffed rolls; the endless color wheels of fresh produce and flowers; and the dairy displays, so white they smack of an Arctic landscape, will keep you in these hangars' clutches.  You'll also end up as wide as a zeppelin if you stay here long enough.

 

Most of the products at the market are Latvian or from neighboring countries, impressive as this country's population of 2.4 million continues to decline.  Latvians were a minority in their land up to independence, but laws enforcing Latvian language and citizen requirements have spurred the once-majority Russians to leave.  While Latvians rate high on global unhappiness surveys, you would not guess it at the Central Market:  I cannot think of a grander and more vibrant display of local products anywhere.

 

You can take a tour of the Riga Market here.  If you're in a city that has a market that can hold a candle to Riga's culinary masterpiece, we'd like to hear about it from you!