"The Shepherd’s Inn pub on Leytonstone High Road is Lithuanian chain Berneliu Uzeiga’s first inroad into east London’s considerable Lithuanian demographic, and the incongruous mix of cultures produces an old man’s pub with decor somewhere between a castle and a school holiday chalet: lurid pink-orange walls, plush benches, melancholy Lithuanian electro-trash, and Guy Fieri on the TV. It’s a riot. Lithuanian cuisine is an exercise in how many combinations of pork, potato, and dairy it’s possible to eat before exhaustion sets in — with enough sauerkraut and beetroot horseradish, the answer is “all of them.” Cepelinai — little zeppelin balloon dumplings — come stuffed with pork or cheese curds, the potato casing providing a proper QQ texture, with a genius chopped bacon and onion condiment on the side; crispy potato pancakes stuffed with mince sit on a blanket of sour cream. A bland pork shank is worth ordering just for mashed potato, that comes whipped and encased by re-hardened molten cheese, better eaten with pork loin slices charred with onions and paprika. Best and most evil of all, soldiers of brown toast rubbed with garlic and covered in a snowstorm of grated cheese. This is cuffing season food." - Jonathan Nunn
