Latvian food is hearty, seasonal, and rooted in what the land and sea provide: rye bread, pork, dairy, potatoes, root vegetables, fish, and berries. It's not glamorous, but it's honest, and the best of it is genuinely good.
Rye bread (rupjmaize) is the cornerstone of Latvian eating — dense, slightly sour, made with malt and caraway. It's served with almost everything and exported with national pride. Grey peas with bacon (pelēkie zirņi ar speķi) is the unofficial national dish, a simple winter staple that shows up at Jāņi celebrations.
Cold beet soup (aukstā zupa) is a summer essential — vivid pink, made with kefir, beets, cucumber, and hard-boiled eggs, always topped with dill. It's better than it sounds. Meatball soup (frikadeļu zupa) is the comforting everyday counterpart.
Fish features heavily on the coast and in Riga: smoked sprats, herring in various preparations, and fresh pike-perch from inland lakes. The Central Market in Riga has an excellent fish pavilion.
Sklandrausis is a traditional rye-pastry tart filled with carrot and potato, flavoured with caraway — it holds a EU Traditional Speciality Guaranteed designation. Jāņu siers is caraway-seed cheese traditionally made for Midsummer.
Riga's restaurant scene has improved markedly in recent years, with a good selection of places doing modern Latvian cooking alongside the usual European options. Outside the capital, choices narrow quickly, but most towns have at least a couple of decent cafes.