Lithuania
Photo: Silar, CC BY-SA 4.0, croppedKibinai
/kʲɪbʲɪˈnɐɪ/kih-bih-NAI
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- Taste
- Savory
- Made with
- LambBeefWheat & flour
History
Kibinai are crescent-shaped pastries filled with chopped mutton or beef and onion, sealed with a crimped edge and baked. They belong to the Karaim, a small Turkic-speaking community in Lithuania. According to tradition, Grand Duke Vytautas brought Karaim families from Crimea around 1400 and settled them in Trakai, where they served as guards of the island castle. The Karaim kept their own language and faith, and kibinai remain their best-known food. Today they are mostly associated with Trakai, west of Vilnius, where several restaurants along the lake serve them hot with broth. Lithuanians have adopted them as street food, and variations with chicken, cheese or spinach are common.
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