Lately I've been craving Estonian food, fortunately I've been able to find the ingredients here or make them myself.
I used to get absolutely desperate for real rye bread in Ireland and have missed the softer variety here. I found a sourdough rye bread made from organic rye and nothing but rye. Whee! That organic rye bread is delicious! It's too thin to make good sandwiches, but it's oh so good to eat with soups.
Usually bread that is marketed as rye contains some rye flour, but mostly consists of wheat. In rare cases there is more rye in the bread, but then the bread is also chock full of sunflower seeds and that alters the taste.
Quark (kohupiim) has been another ingredient / food that I've been desperately missing. It is a dairy product that gets lumped in with fresh cheese in English, but it's not cheese. It also is almost impossible to describe to someone who has never had any. While I've been able to find some form of rye bread in Stockholm, I've not been able to find quark. Until I learned to make my own.
It is super simple: take sour milk, put in an oven proof container and bake at 100°C for an hour. Pour into a clean tea towel, let drip till it reaches desired consistency. Put into a container. Done!
I've made quark several times now and it's better than the ones one can buy in Estonia! I was amazed and so happy when I tasted my first batch that I almost cried. Now I can make quark pie, pancakes or just eat it with a bit of sour cream and raisins. Lovely.