I wish that I had learned something (anything) about my grandfather's Lithuanian heritage, as it was always the most exotic sounding sliver of ethnic background I could draw on. I pictured a place like Narnia, under a perpetual blanket of snow.

But, alas, Grandfather Dave's people left that country to escape pogroms, and so they didn't have a lot of nice things to say about it. They did live in a village that he called Schlubutki, which may have been a bitter joke, as I've never been able to find it on any map.

What did people eat in Schlubutki, Lithuania, I wondered as a child. Dave wouldn't tell me. Steak (well done) with baked potatoes and ketchup was what we ate in America, and it was just fine. Sometimes Dave made scrambled eggs with salami for breakfast, which seemed exotic. Was that Lithuanian or just garden-variety Jewish? Who knew? He was a man of few words.

I still don't know anything about Lithuanian food, except for one recipe I learned from Renata Slapsys. Renata, my wife's best friend in medical school, grew up in Toronto's insular Lithuanian community — a place where life centered around family and church. She joked a lot about her nosy relatives, rolling consonants on her tongue as she spoke their names.

But the only actual Lithuanian food she ever mentioned was a cold beet soup. She probably never would have shared the recipe with me had we not once arrived at her house just as she was whipping up a batch in the kitchen. This viscous, shocking-pink concoction based on buttermilk, canned beets and their scary juices looked, well, unlike food. Maybe there was a reason other than the pogroms that my grandfather didn't have fond Baltic memories.

But I fell in love with this soup — crisp with cucumber and fragrant with dill — after one bite.

And I still make it to this day, unsure whether it represents my heritage or not.

Lithuanian Beet Soup

6 servings

Hands on: 10 minutes

Total time: 1 hour

Serve very cold on a very hot day, looking east toward Vilnius.

2 (14-ounce) cans julienned beets
1 quart buttermilk
3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
2 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
Salt to taste

Drain the beets and reserve the juice. Combine with buttermilk, eggs, green onions, cucumbers and dill. Thin to desired consistency with reserved can juice or, if the thought grosses you out, water. Salt to taste. Refrigerate 45 minutes to 1 hour to allow flavors to meld.

Per serving: 160 calories (percent of calories from fat, 23), 11 grams protein, 21 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 4 grams fat (2 grams saturated), 112 milligrams cholesterol, 466 milligrams sodium.