Vilnios voted European Capital of Culture

Posted By Shayne Dahl, Special to the Herald-Leader

Posted 8 months ago

Editor's note: Over the past several weeks, the Central Plains Herald-Leader has hosted a festival of cultures that are represented in this region. This week's stop is Lithuania.

The Republic of Lithuania is situated on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, south of Estonia and north of Poland. Vilnius, the capitol city of Lithuania, was recently voted the European Capital of Culture 2009 for, among other attractions, its clash of Baroque, Gothic and Renaissance style architecture and the world's first bronze cast of rocker Frank Zappa. This is the hometown of Portage la Prairie newcomers Irina and Marius Malkin.

Irina is a beautician and Marius a welder, both 43. They met and married in Lithuania, which was, at that time, part of the Soviet Union. When the Malkins were in their mid-20s, they had their first child, Pavel, who is now 24. Soon afterwards, the Malkin family immigrated to Israel.

Part of the culture shock experience between Lithuanian and Israeli culture, says Irina, was that: "in Lithuania, we have one culture because Lithuanians are mostly from Lithuania and some from Russia. In Israel, we have many cultures from all over the world."

The transition was not very easy, as the Malkins hah a young child in a new country with limited Hebrew language skills. Over time and with dedicated efforts, they were able to learn Hebrew and make headway. Irina worked her way up the ladder and even landed positions at top-end hotels just of the coast of the Dead Sea and Marius in the city as a welder. Not so long after settling in, the Malkins had their second son, Jechi, who is now 15 and a student at Portage Collegiate Institute.

The Malkin family minus Pavel, who is currently employed by an Israeli television company, moved to Canada from Israel in November 2008 and have been enjoying the now frozen fruits of Canadian living since. In Portage, Marius has been working steadily as a welder at Hi-Tec Industries and Irina is at Hair Artistique. She says everyone at Hair Artistique has been very patient and supportive of Irina in her quest for fluency in English.

Lithuanian is the language of choice at home, but every member of the family is trilingual in Lithuanian, Hebrew and English. Although the Malkins house was made by Canadian hands, their kitchen is portal to the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Of the plentiful delights included in Lithuanian and Israeli cuisine, Irina especially enjoys cooking Cepelin, Lithuania's most well known dish. Cepelin is nicknamed after "Zepplin" because of its appearance. It consists of potato rolls stuffed with meat and topped with bacon.

According to Irina, "Cepelin is good to make in Canada because Canada has good potatoes!"

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