An international style Easter dinner.
“It was the strangest thing. We had the same food for Easter dinner that we had for Christmas.” So said Nici, a German friend who had dinner at her Swedish father-in-law’s house. And the rest of us all laughed. In sympathy. Because it’s true that here in Sweden, the same smörgåsbord meal is served up for every holiday celebration. Be it Easter, Christmas or midsommar, you can count on the the menu including pickled herring, snaps, salmon, Västerbotten cheese, hard bread, potatoes. It’s reassuringly predictable.
But because we cooked Easter dinner with a group of international friends consisting of just one Swede, one German, one Italian, one Australian and me, the American, we bucked tradition. As an appetizer, we had hummus, bread and olives and drank it with a prosecco that Roger had just brought back from Germany. The first course was a zucchini soup that Nici and Roger made out of vegetables from their garden last summer. For the main, Robert cooked New Zealand lamb, haricot verts, and roasted potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes. And we served a bottle of Riesling that we had brought back from Australia with it. For dessert, Giorgio made panna cotta. It was a perfectly international combination. And very, very tasty. But now you can laugh: I did kind of miss the herring!
Easter eggs, including ones from Graeter's, a chocolate store in Cincinnati. I've had these eggs every year since I was a kid in my Easter basket. And my Mom still sends them to me.
Giorgios' panna cotta.
Easter witches looking for candies of any sort.
Easter feathers.
Today is långfredagen – long Friday – or good Friday as it’s known in much of the world. It’s a public holiday here and as with any weekend holiday, many people had a half work day yesterday and will also be off on Monday. We were out at Adam and Marie-Louise’s new house last night and just after we arrived, the Easter witches above came looking for treats. I’ve written before about the Easter witch and feather branches, so I won’t go into it again here.
It’s quiet in town. Not much is open. And it’s snowing buckets. Kind of nice.
A promotional photo from Svenskt Tenn that I received via email yesterday.
When I first moved to Stockholm, I went to a Swedish couple’s house for dinner. In showing me around their home, Anna was very proud to tell me that the pillows on her couch were made with a Josef Frank pattern from Svenskt Tenn. As I looked at them, all I could think was: oh my, I have no idea who Josef Frank is, but those are hideous. Garish. Horrible. I never want to see them in my house. Now seven years later, I look at those very same (and expensive) fabrics and think: aren’t they cool? Maybe I should get some pillows. My, how I have changed. I am not sure how this happened, either. Perhaps I’ve become saturated and I’ve grown so used to the prints that they are just part of life here?
But I do love the Scandinavian design aesthetic and I am particularly a fan of Danish furniture and clothing design. For a bit of inspiration, check out Emma’s Design Blog. She does a beautiful job of showcasing all the new interior looks in Scandinavia.
Cider and oil from Oaxen Skafferi in Stockholm.
More tasty choices.
Our helpful cashier.
Recently, I discovered Oaxen Skafferi. Located on Södermalm at Mariatorget, the Skafferi (Swedish for pantry) is a butcher shop and specialty food store with a variety of aged, smoked and cured meats and sausages, mustards, oils, chutney, honey, butter and such Swedish favorites as gravad lax and pickled herring. We bought pepper sausages, a liver pate, pickled beets and cheese and thought everything was pretty good.
By the way, the pantry is owned by Oaxen Restaurant, voted one of the top 50 restaurants in the world. Oaxen closed its island location at the end of last year and will reopen in Stockholm on the island of Djurgarden in 2013. The Skafferi opened in December.
It’s been snowing for the last several days. I knew the chances were good that it would snow again. I remember very well that it snowed last year in May. But. After getting back from Australia, I was really hoping for – OK, I needed – spring weather here. And we actually did have a week’s worth of temperatures around 10 degrees c. That seemed acceptable. But this week it’s below zero and as I mentioned already, it’s snowing. I went for a long walk on Djurgården this morning with some friends. We were proud of ourselves for getting out and we had a good time. But dang, it was cold and windy. I’ve been back for over two hours and I am still a bit chilled. At least the sun is shining at the moment. And the snow is not really accumulating. So I am grateful for that.
April fool's day snow in Stockholm.
Artist John Daily talks with Nicole.
Learning about the gallery.
Daria and John.
Artist Deborah House and Brooke Decker sample the Prosecco.
For 15 years, I worked for art magazines in the US. Basically, I got paid to talk and write about art. It was a great gig and I still love hanging out with artists. So it was fun last week when I hosted an evening at a local art gallery for the American Women’s Club of Stockholm. The event was held at Galleri Duerr and owner Deborah had arranged a private showing of a group of artists. We had the gallery to ourselves and drank Prosecco and talked art. It was a fantstic way to spend a rainy Wednesday night.
The entrance to MOOD Stockholm. Photo from MOOD.
Some of the opening weekend attractions.
MOOD Stockholm is the cool new shopping mall in the city. Robert and I went on Saturday, the day after it opened, and as could be expected in this fashionable, trendy town, the place was packed. It has a diffferent look and feel than other malls in this city – perhaps best described as American boutique style. The restaurants and cafes morph into the public spaces and include tapas bars and bakeries, smoothie bars and the Royal Copenhagen smørrebrød – tasty Danish-style, open-faced sandwiches. The boutiques are stylish and set up in such a way that you feel like you are walking into a cool friend’s living room and want to hang out for a while.
Bar service.
Not your usual mall dining.
Tapas at Boqueria. Photo by Kim Andersson.
Our Indian cooking class at work. All photos by Johan Mellin.
Robert concentrates on flipping a pancake for the dosas.
The filling for the dosas.
It makes sense that in Stockholm, where dinner for two at an only OK restaurant without drinks can easily run you $100, dinner parties are big. And I have to say that one of my favorite variations of this has been going to a gourmet cooking class dinner party. Australian/Vietnamese chef Helen Thai has been assembling groups of 8-10 people at a time in her home to learn about the cuisine of a country and discover how to cook a few recipes. In the past, we’ve tried such favorites as Spanish, French and Malaysian cuisine and on Friday night, we cooked Indian. Our very, very yummy menu included:
* Anglo-Indian empire roast chicken with an addictive gravy sauce and Bombay-style roast potatoes
* Nepalese meatballs slow-cooked in a spicy tomato sauce, garnished with fresh coriander
* Trinadadian prawn, sweet potato and plantain curry served with chickpea-stuffed flatbread
* Crispy South Indian dosas (pancakes) filled with mixed vegetable curry and roasted coconut and chili sambal
* Comforting dahl – traditional dahl soup or modern dahl dish with saffron and mint
* Sides: Home-made naan and basmati rice
* Dessert: Ras malai and/or chocolate coconut ladoos.
I made the Nepalese meatballs with the help of Johan. But my hands-down favorite dish were the dosas. They were divine, but definitely labor intensive! Thanks to Helen for patiently hosting and helping us with the recipes. And a special thanks to photographer Johan Mellin for sharing his images from the class. Check out more of his work at www.jmellin.se.
The fruits of our labors.
Dita and Alana discuss the recipe.
Nick demonstrates making dough for the naan.
Making the transition from winter to spring along Stockholm's Strandvägen.
Sun seeking in front of Dramaten.
Oh yes I am ready for it. Aren’t we all at this time of year? But while it feels tantalizingly close, spring is not quite busting out all over for us just yet in Stockholm. The last few days have been gloriously sunny and Stockholmers have been out in full force, walking, cycling, eating and drinking outside and just sitting in the sun. The outdoor furniture at restaurants is coming back out. But yesterday it was only 8 degrees c (that’s 46 in fahrenheit) and while the sun was shining, it was definitely cool in the shadows. I keep looking for things to start blooming, but other than the pansies I’ve seen in planters, nothing seems to be poking out of the ground yet – although I did hear rumors today that things are starting to come up here and there.
We went on daylight savings time this weekend. In Swedish, it’s called sommartider or summer time. I like that. And here’s another one for you: yesterday was väffeldagen or waffle day. It was on the Swedish calendar. How funny is that?
Stockholm is glorious right now and that does make it a lot easier to be home again.
It’s 8.30 on Sunday evening and I just put my pajamas on. I was in a bit of a funk all day and I could not figure out why. So I went out for a long walk in the sunshine and spent some time on the couch watching travel shows. Funnily enough, it took me all day to realize the obvious: I’m tired.
Directly after arriving home from Australia, I’ve had meetings and plans every night. We traveled around 17,000 kilometers to get from Sydney to Singapore, then on to London and finally home to Stockholm. In Queensland, we drove 6,500 kilometers around the outback and north coast. To put that number in perspective, the flying distance between Stockholm and New York is 6,292 kilometers. The longest we stayed in one place was for four nights. I packed and unpacked my suitcase countless times during our four weeks on the road and by the end of the trip, didn’t even bother to dig down to the bottom.
It’s always hard for me to switch back to everyday life after a long trip. We had an amazing holiday and a wonderful time. But right now, I have to say that it’s good to be home.
