I tried my first ever vegan vastlakukkel at a downtown kohvik this year and it was expensive, a whopping 2,90 €, but it was fantastically good. The bun wasn't simply bland white bread (which the cheapest once tend to be), and it contained a törts of moos (jam) and kookos/kreem (coconut whipped cream). The other traditional vastlapäeva food is herne/supp (pea soup). Check! And you should go tobogganing. Unfortunately vastlapäev was the warmest day in a while and all the snow we still had on Feb. 27 (not much, but the ground was white), was gone for the last day of the month. People used to believe that there was a great correlation between the length of your sled run and the height of your flax the following summer. The word vastlad comes from the Danish word fastelavn. The accompanying fastlagsbulle are eaten in various forms in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Riina Kindlam, Tallinn
