RIGA - The grill season has arrived! As the weather finally starts to warm up, grill enthusiasts are refilling their gas tanks, stocking up on coals, preparing marinades and keeping an eye out for sunny weekend days to come. Food companies are also starting to cater to the upcoming summer grill season. Hearing about a small culinary festival that one food company, mc2, was throwing I decided to go see what sorts of new things would be on the menu this summer. I wasn't quite sure what to expect as I made my way through Maskachka 's one of the seedier areas of town 's to try to find mc2, but was pleasantly surprised when I arrived.
Approaching the entranceway, I encountered an outdoor grill with an employee providing free samples and information about sausages that had been imported from all over Europe especially for the grill season, a sight rarely seen in the Baltic states. It looked like something out of one of the upper-class areas of New York or Boston.
The store itself is something in between a restaurant and a grocery store. Walking into the store, I immediately noticed a few things that set it apart from either one. Although there is an area where it is possible to sit down and order from a set menu, it is also possible to buy most of the food from the restaurant in pre-marinated, ready-to-cook form. But it isn't quite like a grocery either, as there are no shopping carts or frozen foods: everything you buy is fresh.
There is a restaurant section and an outdoor grill section both of which feature set menus which change according to the season. Prices from the restaurants are a bit steep at four to seven lats (5.75 to 10 euros) for a soup or appetizer and 12 to 18 lats for a main course, but there is another aspect to the place that can't be found at other restaurants. In addition to the set menu, customers are able to choose something that looks particularly tasty from the grocery part and have the chefs prepare it on the spot. Moreover, they are willing to divulge some of their secrets and explain how they prepare it, so that you can buy the materials and later prepare the same dish at home.
There are small booths dedicated to different culinary aspects, each featuring some of the widest variety of foods I have seen in Riga. There are sections dedicated to wine, herbs and spices, nuts and dried fruits, meat and cheese, marinated meats for the grill, oils and vinegars, Asian food, and anti-pastas. Each section has an expert in that particular culinary area who is ready to discuss the merits of the different foodstuffs and explain to customers how the dishes should be prepared.
Roman Glukhman, a product category manager for the company, explained a bit about the idea behind the place. "We're educating the public. We're not just selling a product, we're selling a lifestyle. We're basically trying to teach people how to eat. We want people to understand that they don't need to be a chef, they can make this sort of food themselves at home," he said.
"We want our products to appeal to all the senses, you can touch them, taste them, smell them. In the spice section [for example], we tried to set it up like a Marrakech market, where you can taste things first and then decide what and how much you want," Glukhman said. Indeed, each section had the possibility to taste most of the products before buying them. It is even possible to sample the oils and vinegars with a small piece of black bread.
While products in mc2 might be a little more expensive than average, the place is the home cook's paradise. They provide a huge variety of fresh foods and enough advice on how to prepare them to convince a spouse or significant other that you actually know how to cook.
Mc2
Krasta 68a
Monday through
Saturday 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.,
Sunday 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.
www.mc2.lv/en/gastronome/
