loves the coffee

Swedes love their coffee. According to a postcard I got from IKEA, the Swedes are only after the Finns (apparently drinks the most coffee in the world) in their coffee consumption.

The Swedish verb “att fika” that roughly translates to “to drink coffee”. Fika also works as a noun. I won’t get into it.

The Swedes also like to have something sweet with their coffee.

Fredrik and I picked up some “kaffegodis” today. I felt like having a “dammsugare”, also known as the punschrulle.

We only got 4 assortments because that’s all the shop had but it still made a good fika.

The punschrulle is arrak flavoured filling wrapped in marzipan and dipped in chocolate on both ends. It’s commonly known as a “dammsugare”. Guess it looks sort of like a vacuum. The chokladboll is cocoa and oatmeal mixed in butter, then dipped in chocolate and coated with coconut. The pärlboll is just like the chokladboll but instead of coconut, it’s covered in nib/pearl sugar. The biskvi is an almond flavoured cookie with chocolate cream on top and then covered in chocolate.

what do you eat for breakfast?

After reading Almost Bourdain’s post on curry laksa, I started thinking about breakfast.

When I was really young, my mom would make me eat an egg and drink a glass of warm milk for breakfast. I stopped getting the glass of milk for breakfast after discovering that my lactose intolerance was one of the reasons why I was getting “unexplained” stomach aches. I stopped eating breakfast after high school started and when college rolled around, coffee and donuts were the breakfast of choice to give me that kick in the morning to survive the 8am pattern drafting class. It wasn’t until the last 5 years that I started eating breakfast regularly again.

Fredrik loves his Swedish breakfast. Boiled egg with caviar on bread. Cheese on bread. Shrimp cheese on bread. Ham on bread. Mackerel in tomato sauce on bread. He loves his bread. The Scandinavians all love their bread. They also love their foods that come out of tubes.

I on the other hand will eat anything for breakfast. Usually depends on what I’m feeling like and depends on what’s available. Every so often I like the bacon and eggs combo. Which makes me wish there were diners here in Sweden.

When Fredrik and I were in Hong Kong, we ate out for every meal including breakfast. Liver congee and plain rice noodle rolls were my choice of breakfast. Oh how I could go for congee and rice noodle rolls RIGHT NOW.

Speaking of breakfast. I’m getting hungry. Think I’ll go check out what I can have.

frustrating as hell

There are a few courses aside from Swedish that I have to do before I can apply for university.

I assumed that applying to study here would be as easy as studying back home. I just had to contact the local education board, find out where the evening courses are, register and start. Easy as pie.

Well that’s not the case here.

I registered myself for a Swedish course and physics for the upcoming semester. I was turned down for the physics course.

Was it because I don’t have the requirements? No.

Was it because the course was full or cancelled? No.

Apparently I’m only allowed to study Swedish and English through the adult education program. I have been studying for too long. If I want to take these other courses, I’m going to have to finance it myself.

Ok fine. So I’ll finance them myself. But where do I find these courses?

The lady I was speaking to tells me to find them through Google.

Gee… thanks a lot.

mmm clam chowder

When I was a kid, my family went to Cape Cod kind of often. We loved whale watching and the seafood. I love Provincetown and Boston. I’d really like to go to Cape Cod sometime with Fredrik in the near future. Perhaps next year. We’ll see.

One of my favourite foods includes the New England clam chowder. Unfortunately fresh little neck clams are not that readily available here in Sweden. The clams in clam chowder aren’t so great either. I prefer them stir fried with some black bean and garlic sauce. I intend to get my fill of that in Hong Kong in less than 2 weeks.

I did, however, find a fish monger in the city and they sold cans of clams. Tonight I made New England clam chowder and it was DELICIOUS! Fredrik thinks I should make it more often. I’m thinking about doing a chicken and corn chowder next.

I used Martha Stewart’s recipe as a base. She had a chowder feature in the the August 2008 issue of Martha Stewart Living. I learned about the Manhattan Clam Chowder from that feature. I had no idea that it existed.

As usual, I made modifications of my own. I added diced carrots, peas, sweet corn and chunks of fish (Alaskan pollock). I also used fish bouillon and the juice from the canned clams. Since the clams were already cooked, I put them in the bowls instead of dropping them back in the soup. Fredrik wasn’t the biggest fan of the clams but like I told him, it was more for the clam juice.

The chowder is also rather soup like. Not thick like the commercial stuff I had in the past. You can thicken it with some flour if you want. I thought it was kind of nice to have it soup like. Sometimes the thick soups can be a bit heavy.

Serve with some knäckebröd. DELICIOUS!

would you look at that

Already on the 13th, would I have been living in Sweden for 2 years. How time goes by.

It’s been an interesting couple of years and frankly I’m looking forward to the years to come. There were set backs and moments when all I wanted to do was fly back to Canada. But there have been good times that make it all worth while.

In the end I’m glad that I hung in there and look how things worked out.

I’m looking forward to celebrating my 5th year of life in Sweden.

ice cream all year round

Hemglass is the company that owns the ice cream trucks around here. The truck music can be heard all year round. Unlike the ice cream trucks in Canada, you can only buy packages of ice cream.

Last week, Fredrik and I ran out of our flat, down the 2 flights of stairs and out the backdoor to catch the ice cream truck. I was thoroughly happy with my ice cream truck experience. Not as much of a selection as the grocery store but still a pretty nice selection.

down by the shore

We’re heading to Sandhamn today for a wee vacation of sorts.

It’ll be my first time in the Archipelago.

Unfortunately the cats don’t get to follow. Don’t think they’d like the boat ride too much anyways.

Every summer, loads of Swedes flock to the Stockholm Archipelago. It’s the Muskoka of Sweden. The Stockholm Archipelago is a bunch of islands, Muskoka has a bunch of lakes. According to the tourism website, there are 1600 lakes in the area.

a dose of crazy

The other day I was doing laundry and I saw an interracial couple in the laundry room. The guy was a Swede and the girl, Asian. For some reason I had a moment of “Ugh…” despite the face that the guy and the girl were of relative age to each other.

I’m fully aware of the fact that my reaction is completely retarded.

In Canada, seeing interracial couples would not even make me blink. Apparently it’s a different story here.

I was thinking that perhaps it has something to do with the amount of old Swedish men with young Asian, I’m actually going to say girls that I’ve seen here. In Canada, there are old caucasian men with young Asian girls but the frequency is not like it is here. Perhaps there are loads in Canada but I don’t see them as often as I see them here.

I’m sure that there are couples out there that are based on love but you hear about way too many couples that are about getting identities and/or money.

I know that my concerns are irrational but there are times that I wonder if people think I’m with Fredrik because I want to get an identity in Sweden. I’ve gotten a few odd looks from people. It also doesn’t help when people insist that I’m from China even after I tell them that I’m from Canada and born in Hong Kong.

But I suppose everyone has something irration that makes them go “Ugh…” I’m trying my best to keep those thoughts contained.

midsommar

This weekend is Sweden’s most important weekend. This weekend is midsommar.

I’ve baked a 3 berry pie. Fredrik’s had a load of potato salad and we’ll head to Öregrund to spend midsommarsafton (midsummer’s eve) with Fredrik’s mom and possibly the rest of his family. I suppose they’re MY family now. How about that.

drying out

Since coming back to Sweden, Fredrik and I have noted that our hands are super dry. Stockholm water is supposed to be soft water and from most sources, soft water is supposed to help dry skin. So why are we getting all flaky and itchy?