HIRATSUKA, Kanagawa -- A recipe book on food in Lithuania on the Baltic coast has been published and is being distributed for free at public facilities such as community centers and libraries in this city south of Tokyo.

       The Kanagawa Prefecture city of Hiratsuka signed an agreement with Lithuania in 2016 on holding pre-Games training camps, and served as a host city during the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. Interactions have continued even after the Games, and the Hiratsuka-Lithuania Exchange Committee made the book to introduce Lithuanian cuisine.

       The cover of the Lithuanian recipe book "Lithuania no Ouchi Gohan" is seen. (Mainichi)

       The book was written by Rasa Varvuoliene, the wife of the Lithuanian ambassador to Japan, and Daiva Maekawa, who is a representative of the Lithuanian community in Japan. The pair held cooking classes in Hiratsuka, Tokyo, the Iwate Prefecture city of Kuji and the Fukushima Prefecture town of Nishiaizu to introduce their home country's dishes.

       Locals showed keen interest in the classes, but there were not many recipes on Lithuanian food available in Japanese, so Varvuoliene decided to make the book herself, she says.

       Titled "Lithuania no Ouchi Gohan," the book has 73 recipes centered on homemade meals, such as salad and soup using beets, marinated herring using many spices, and cheese curd. Among dishes said to have a history of over 600 years, there are seven meals using potatoes -- known as "the queen of traditional food" -- such as pancakes and gratin. The book also includes sweets with unique names such as those roughly translating to "lazy person" and "angel wings."

       Apple cheese, a traditional dish that uses the most common preservation method of drying, is said to have come from medieval rulers and aristocrats. It takes three days to make the dessert, during which you have to boil and bake the apples and let the dessert sit before drying it. The book also describes how Easter and Christmas are spent, fostering understanding of Lithuanian culture.

       The recipe book is 60 pages long, and in color. A total of 5,000 copies have been prepared. To have the book posted at the cost of shipping, phone the municipal government's Olympic and Paralympic promotion division on (0463) 20-8700.

       (Japanese original by Yuki Motohashi, Hiratsuka Local Bureau)

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