Svinet

I have a no cooking on Friday nights policy which we're trying to maintain in Stockholm despite the high cost of eating out. The most recent restaurant we've tried for our Friday night adventures is Svinet. I had been bugging Dale to try this place as soon as I read about it. It's only open for two months a year in the summer and they only serve pork - Svinet is the Swedish word for pig. Plus it's in the heart of Gamla Stan and I'm still not tired of strolling those beautiful old streets.

When we arrived there was a pleasant atmosphere. They had jazz playing, colorful strings of lights, and lots of plants everywhere. The weather was nice and it was a great evening to sit out on the patio, the only option at Svinet. I ordered the ribs which fell right off the bone and had a nice subtle bbq flavor.

Dale got the Iberico shoulder cut which did not disappoint.

As a side for our meat, all meals come with Munich salad which was very good.

We were most skeptical about the BBQ sauce since we have quite a lot of experience with BBQ sauce but it was actually quite great. What I liked the best about Svinet though was that in the sea of Stockholm restaurants that all offer the same three 'modern take on traditional Swedish meals' Svinet has entirely different and delicious options. Leave it to the Swedes to make BBQ so classy though, I'm used to a cheap pulled pork sandwich you get to go because you don't want to hang out in the neighborhood.

We were happy campers after dinner and took a nice stroll home through the cobblestone streets of Stockholm. If you're interested in going there yourself you better hurry, they are only open until August 27th otherwise you'll have to wait until next summer!

Love Always,

Matilda

Smitten Kitchen does it again!

Smitten Kitchen is hands down my favorite cooking website and Deb, the woman behind it all, can do no wrong in my book. She recently posted a recipe called Bloody Mary steak and salad and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to try it. Here's what the finished product looked like.

Dale was pretty excited about it too and after a couple bites he proclaimed it would be okay if I repeated this recipe whenever I felt like it. 

Are you convinced yet you need to make this?

Go try it out, your taste buds will thank you!

Love Always,

Matilda

SMAKA PÅ STOCKHOLM

Just after our trip to Benelux Dale and I went to the SMAKA PÅ STOCKHOLM ie 'taste of Stockholm' festival in downtown Stockholm.

 It was a beautiful day, there were live bands playing good music, and the festival was packed!

It was a lot of fun to be able to sample plates from all sorts of different restaurants around town to get to know the restaurants better. Dale got fish and chips from Melanders which we only thought was so so. A disappointment since Melanders seems to be a very popular seafood restaurant here with several locations in town.

But I got a chorizo with chimichuri from Nyagatan Patagonia which was so delicious it was devoured before I snapped a picture. I'm now dying to try out all 3 of the Nyagatan restaurants. Too bad the Patagonia restaurant is closed for 2 months while the owners backpack Argentina to find new meals. But the original Nyagatan is on the top of my restaurant list as well as their newest location in the archapeligo featuring Swedish food with a 'European flair', oh my!

Too bad Smaka på Stockholm isn't every weekend!
Love Always,
Matilda

Anchor Pub

A couple weeks ago Dale took me to a hard rock pub not far from our house called "Anchor Pub". It looked decent enough from the outside and inside looked like your standard pub and they were serving standard pub fare. I got a steak with mashed potatoes and bearnaise, pictured below. The Swedes love bearnaise and steak and bearnaise can be found on most menus.

The food was pretty good and we, well Dale really, enjoyed the rock music. We hung around after dinner and drank a couple beers and ended up making friends with some nice Swedish guys on their leave from Afghanistan. They told us all about the hooligan football shenanigans they participate in here and the hooligan's were recently in the news: http://www.thelocal.se/34008/20110526/ So, they were really great people but probably not my new best friends. 

Oh, and Dale was really excited to have found Dale's Pale Ale in Sweden! Who knew little old Oskar Blues of Colorado, USA exports to Sweden? We didn't get one though, $20 for a $3 beer and $5 shot just didn't fly in this household so Coloradoans enjoy some Colorado beer for us!
Love Always,
Matilda 

Malarpaviljongen

Friday night Dale and I ventured to the island of Kungsholmen in Stockholm to get dinner and drinks at Malarpaviljongen. We were initially going to a meet up but when we got there it was busy and it wasn't apparent where the meet up group was. So we found a stop to settle down and we were so happy we didn't bother trying to find the group. We both got cheeseburgers and they were the best burgers we've found so far in Stockholm! And they were reasonably priced (for Stockholm that is) at about 170 sek, which converts to almost $30 USD. Which reminds me I need to do a post about the cost of living here! Anyway, back to beautiful Malarpaviiljiongen, the picture below is my delicioso cheeseburger. You can tell it's mine by the wine. :)

The restaurant its self is floating on the water and the land it is connected to is a park with big beautiful trees. Here's a picture from our seats looking towards the shore and the glassed in pavilion whcih is the restaurants namesake. 

Looking to the left of the pavilion we watched a beautiful sunset from the river. I love being on the water! It's so peaceful. Even if it is just from a floating restaurant!

A little bit more to the left of our spot you could see the bridge to Langholmen (and the crowd of people).

You all remember when Dale told you that Stockholm is as far north as Anchorage Alaska right? That means it doesn't get terribly warm here. So a lot of the restaurants have blankets for you to keep warm in if you are sitting outside. The OCD part of me thinks there is no way that can be sanitary but I love being warm and I think it's down right sweet of the restaurants to want their customers to be warm! But the heat lamps that have taken the States by storm are no where to be found. Personally, I like the blankets better then the heat lamps anyway, as long as the restaurants are washing them!

Malarpaviljongen is definitely one of my favorite spots in Stockholm! Good food, good location, good atmosphere, and not too pricey! I see many summer days here in our future!

Love Always,

Matilda

MAX

Sweden is Americanized enough to have McDonald's, Burger King, and Subway but they also have their own fast food chain called MAX. Normally I don't eat fast food but in the off chance I might get a cultural experience, I did try MAX. 

That's Dale above with the menu which was pretty much your standard burger joint but I think Dale was happy to get some "American" food. The menu at the checkout broke down the CO2 used to make each item which we thought was interesting and we haven't seen anywhere else. I just looked into it on their website and they offset their carbon footprint: http://max.se/en/environment.aspx. That puts them a step ahead of McDonald's and Burger King in my book!

Here's our order - I told you it was still your standard burger joint! Below is a close up of the chili fritters I got and they were quite tasty!

Yummy! Just looking at them makes me hungry for more!
Love Always,
Matilda

Visitors in Stockholm: Part 1

I was a bit of a slacker about taking pictures in Stockholm while the girls were visiting, I guess I was just enjoying myself too much! So even though the girls were here more than two days I'll just be recapping in 2 posts. Dale had to work while the girls visited so it was just me and them exploring. I have heard much praise for Skansen, and open air museum on the island of Djurgarden and Nicola really wanted to see a Moose so we headed there. Most of the booths were closed this time of year but we still had fun looking at all of the Swedish animals and the examples of Swedish architecture. It must have been feeding time because all the animals were out and about, I even got this picture of an owl flying with a duck in it's beak!

We all agreed the Moose and Reindeer seem smaller here, anyone know why? Those are Moose in the picture above and Reindeer below with the Stockholm city scape.

We had so much fun looking at the animals we decided to eat them :) Ok, ok that might not have been the thought process but after Skansen we went to Östermlam Saluhall for a beyond delicious lunch or traditional Swedish food. We scarfed it down too fast to take pictures but oh man, we were in heaven! At the Saluhall we bought some reindeer meat and a moose sausage. After not finding much information online about how to cook reindeer meat I called up Mountain-Man-Mike in Colorado and he suggested we soak the reindeer in milk overnight and then cook it on the stove. We had read online that marinading the meat would hide the reindeer taste so we didn't put anything on it. Here's Dale with our reindeer meat in the middle of the pan and some pieces of the moose sausage around the outside.

Overall we decided the reindeer meat was good but nothing out of the ordinary. The moose sausage on the other hand, had a really distinct flavor to it and we all thought it was the better of the two. Although it was in sausage form so this could have skewed our opinion. Hopefully the Saluhall will have Moose meat one of these days so we can try it for a more fair comparison. Sorry Rudolf and Bullwinkle, hopefully Santa will forgive me!

Love Always,

Matilda

Pasta night gets a facelift

The other night I made a recipe from Gourmet magazines website for Zucchini, Corn and Basil Fusilli with Bacon. Follow the link for the recipe.

It turned out very tasty and it was very easy to make. I´ve decided to share it here in case anyone else is looking for an easy, cheap, and healthy way to upgrade from spaghetti with marinara. All you do is cook the fusilli according to the directions on the box, then add the sliced zucchini and corn into the pasta with the water still in it and cook for roughly two minutes, then drain the water out and mix in the pesto sauce. Sprinkle bacon bits and Parmesan on top and voilà! A new spin on pasta night that everyone is sure to enjoy!
Love Always,
Matilda

Semla Update

Remember when I introduced you to Semla? I had bought one from the grocery store and wasn't very impressed but I had oh so gracefully volunteered to try one from a bakery, just to see if that one would be tasty. See the sacrifices I make for you readers? ;) I was reminded of that promise when I picked up the newspaper the other day and the issue was all about finding the best Semla in Stockholm. I'm telling you, they love this pre-lent baked treat immensely.

This past Tuesday was Fat Tuesday or Fettisdagan as they call it here, the official day to eat semla. So I figured it was the best day to make good on my promise. There is a bakery near my school called Liselotte Hembageri (Norrtullsgatan 11) and I stopped by after class on Tuesday to pick up my semla.

The bakery was packed and they were almost sold out of semla! But I managed to get my hands on one and got it to go so I could eat it at Fika later.

The verdict? So much better than the grocery store version. The whipped cream was not too thick, in fact it was nice and airy, and in the almond paste I could taste the fresh almonds. Good thing these things are only around for a limited time or I would be fat every Tuesday!

If you wan to try to make them follow this link:

http://www.visitsweden.com/sweden/Local-pages/USA/Lovely-Buns---a-Swedish-delight/

Love Always,

Matilda

Filmjölk

One of the ladies at work keeps raving to me about how great filmjölk is and how much I should try it. When I asked her what it was she had a hard time describing it to me. She said it was something in between buttermilk and yogurt. She told me filmjölk is available in flavors and I should try a favored one first. So when I was at the grocery store I picked up some filmjölk. Here's my bottle at home.

I opted for blueberry, my co-workers favorite. I used it in my morning museli in lieu of milk or yogurt. It poured out just like she said, thinner than yogurt but still looked like yogurt. After the first bite I wasn't so sure about this stuff. It tasted like thick sour milk to me more than yogurt. But I kept going and by the end of the bowl I thought it was alright. I'll finish my container but I'm not so sure I'll buy more. Maybe it's one of those things you have to grow up with to love?


I did some further research on the internet so I could accurately describe to you all what exactly filmjölk is. Here's what I've figured out:


Filmjölk is a Swedish mesophilic fermented milk product that is made by fermenting cow's milk with a variety of bacterium from the species Lactococcus lactis and Leuconostoc mesenteroides. The bacteria metabolize lactose, the sugar naturally found in milk, into lactic acid. The acid gives filmjölk a sour taste and causes proteins in the milk, mainly casein, tocoagulate, thus thickening the final product. The bacteria also produce a limited amount of diacetyl, which gives filmjölk its characteristic taste. Filmjölk is similar to cultured buttermilk, kefir, or yoghurt in consistency, but fermented by different bacteria and thus has a slightly different taste. Compared with yoghurt, filmjölk tastes less sour. In Sweden, it is normally sold in 1-liter packages with live bacteria. 
(Source: filmjölk wikipedia page March 6, 2011)


So, it's mostly about the bacteria used to ferment the milk. Apparently different bacteria produce different flavored milk and here in Sweden the dairy aisle proves this. I'll take a picture next time I go. The dairy aisle here is seriously overwhelming. This bacterial difference might seem obvious to some of you out their but I had never contemplated the subject before and since there is a total of 1 type of yogurt available in the States it didn't seem so obvious to me. If you want to know more specifics see the wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmj%C3%B6lk

This venture down the dairy aisle has me tepid to continue but I'll update you as I progress.
Love Always,
Matilda

Blåbär Cafe

The other day Dale and I stopped for lunch at the Blåbär Cafe and it turned out to be our favorite restaurant in Stockholm so far! Dale thinks I might be biased, he claims I would never talk ill about blueberries. He might be right but I still think this place was great!

 We went to the location in Odenplan but the website says they also have a location in Kungsholmen. Blåbär Cafe has probably 20 salads prepared already and you can choose either 4 salads, a sandwich and one salad, or some hot meals (lasagna, chicken, etc.) but the salads are obviously the specialty here. Not only did everything look delicious but the prices were good too, a rarity in the expensive Nordic!

Dale and I both choose sandwiches which turned out to be panini style, yummy! Dale got a lamb and tomato sandwich with a 3 bean crawfish salad and I got a goat cheese and peperoni sandwich with a greek style salad which had a feta dressing. We left quite happy and already making plans to return.

Love Always,

Matilda

Korv

On just about every corner in Stockholm you can find a 7eleven or a kebab shop or a hot dog stand. All of these places primarily sell hot dogs, called Korv in Swedish. I hardly eat hot dogs, only when I go to New England to see my Pops every summer (we still have yet to solve the Schonland's vs. Jordan's debate) or at baseball games. I have to say, the korv adds around town don't make me want to eat more hot dogs!

Hungry? Why not eat a hot dog of unknown contents with some questionable pink stuff on top? Yummy! Nope, I haven't been hungry enough to try it yet but I'm sure Dale will try it one of these days.

At one Kebab stand around town I spotted a guide to help figure out what was on these dogs. I snapped a pic to share with you all and so I could remember to google translate it later! :)

Here's what I found out, left to right top to bottom:
Ketchup and Mustard - the classic, nothing mysterious there.
Cucumber-mayonnaise and Ketchup - hmm not too much of a stretch.
Relish and Mustard - If it's dill relish I'd eat it!
Mustard and Mashed Potatoes - Not a combo I had thought of before. Next . . .
Shrimp Salad - so that's what that pink stuff is! I think I just threw up a little in my mouth!
Roasted onions - This one I just might try, I bet it would be good!

The pink sauce mystery has been solved. Phew. Now I'll be able to sleep at night again!
Love Always,
Matilda

Fika!

I can't believe I've lived in Sweden for over a month and haven't shared with you all the wonderful thing that is Fika! Fika means coffee break and it's an institution here in Sweden. At my work there is a morning fika at 9 and an afternoon fika at 15:00 (they use "military" time here) and it consists of coffee - no pastries at my office- and conversation. It's as much about the coffee as it is about the conversation, the social interaction. At Dale's work though, exists what I believe to be the finest fika in Sweden. They only do the afternoon fika and each week a different person is in charge. This person brings pastries, meats, cheeses, nuts, fruits, etc. He's a lucky guy right?! And Dale doesn't even like sweets! I'm a little jealous of his fika.

We've already grown so accustomed to this daily ritual that when we are out on the weekends we find ourselves stopping for fika at 3 pm, I mean 15:00, I'm still getting used to a 24 hour clock. Here's a picture of our fika this past Sunday.

We love fika! (and I love pastries!) This is a custom that just might stick with us.

Love Always,

Matilda

Het falukorv

While here in Sweden, I've been spending more time cooking. I've always loved to cook but finding time to do so was hard. Since I start work next week I've had time to cook! Hopefully I'll be able to continue to do so because I really do enjoy cooking. After discovering that yummy Västerbottensost cheese I went to the cheese makers website and they have all sorts of recipes, jackpot! Thanks to trusty Google Chrome, which translates webpages for you, I've been able to cook several things from the Västerbottensost website. The first recipe didn't turn out so great thanks in large part to my inability to think in the metric system (Remind me again why the whole world doesn't measure things the same?!) but I'm starting to get the hang of it. The other night I tried a second recipe, this time for Het falukorv, and it came out much much better. Dale enjoyed this one, probably because it's one of the least healthy things I've ever cooked. But alas, it was tasty! Here's the recipe from the website:

(I know it's tiny but you can find the recipe here http://vasterbottensost.com/mat-och-recept/varmratt/het-falukorv/print/)

It's basically a sausage with slices cut in it and thinly cut bell pepper and onion put in the sliced sausage then covered with creme fraiche and cheese and cook at 175 C for 25 minutes. Easy! Here's a picture of what mine turned out like:

I told you it wasn't healthy! And in the future I'll work on presentation skills before I post more pictures :)

Love Always,
Matilda

Cheese'n

I have fallen in love, with a cheese! It's not made on the cheese-trail but I'm still cheese'n and freeze'n!

Not just any cheese, Vasterbottensost. The company that makes this cheese describes it as:

Vaserbottensost has a fruity, somewhat nutty aroma. The flavour contains hints of truffle, toffee and bitter almond. The cheese is creamy, round, full-bodied and moderately salty" and goes on to say it's a balance between salty and milky goodness. http://vasterbottensost.com/en/about/

If you see this in your local grocery store pick it up, it will not disappoint! Pure yumminess!

Love Always,

Matilda

P.S. Pops I put cheese'n and freeze'n in there just for you!

Snack Time

Today I had a snack consisting of a Trocadero to sip on and a Semla to chew upon. The trocadero came in this pretty almost circus like bottle and was a light, sweet but not too sweet, juice of a soda which you can read more about here. I would definitely drink one of these again! Yummy!

And after seeming semla's around town and reading about them in the guidebooks I just had to try one. The one I purchased was from the grocery store so maybe it wasn't as great as all the hype, I'll try another from a quality bakery just to be sure ;) A semla is a cardamom bun with the top cut off and the the insides scooped out, then it is filled with whipped cream and almond paste, you can read some of the hype here. The cardamom bun was delicious but the filling was heavy and sort of blah. These semla's seem to be a religion around here so hopefully I'm more impressed with the bakery version. I'll keep you posted!

Love Always,
Matilda