Pingvinen in Bergen

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Originally uploaded by watermirrors

Husmanskost is a word that is not easily translatable to English. It means food that is distinctly Scandinavian, but cloudberry creme brulee is not husmaskost.

As an American, husmanskost is analogous to soul food: unpretentious, home-cooked, hearty, and made with native ingredients. Unfortunately, it's rather hard to find unless you live here and with natives. Many meals my roommates make are classic husmanskost, but when you go to Uppsala most restaurants serve kebabs, sushi, burgers, and fancy expensive Scandinavian fusion cookery. Most tourists never get to taste real Swedish food.

When I took a trip to Bergen, Norway I knew I wanted real Norwegian food. Googling husmanskost + Bergen, I came up with Pingvinen:

If you associate contemporary Scandinavian dining with cloudberries, minimalist tableware and breathtakingly expensive menus, you'll find the Pingvinen (Penguin) restaurant in Bergen, Norway, a refreshing departure from form. Tucked into a corner of Bergen's university district, the year-old gastropub trades on unpretentious local fare, done the way it used to be. "People come in here and eat my food and you can see they get nostalgic," says 38-year-old chef Alma Valle. "They want to talk about it."

Walking in from the cold Bergen rain, Pingvinen immediately felt warm and welcoming. At the bar they translated the menu for us and recommended the seafood dishes. I had sea wolf with mussels and vegetables, which was incredibly delicious and satisfying. My friends and I chatted for hours at the candlelit bar.

Unfortunately, Norwegian beer-brewing is stifled by draconian laws, so the beer I washed it down with was a little tasteless.

Later on my trip I ate at a fancy gastropub, but it wasn't nearly half as satisfying as my meal at Pingvinen. If you want to really experience Norway's food culture, I suggest paying Pingvinen a visit.

Food in Dalarna

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Originally uploaded by watermirrors

Recently I paid a visit to Rättvik, a town in the Swedish province of Dalarna, for their biannual fair. Much of the fair is filled with junk and bad food, AKA, kebabs, but you could still savor Dalarna's traditional cuisine.

The infamous Brunost, the sweet, but salty caramelized whey "cheese" seems more popular in Dalarna than in other regions I've been to. Stands sold many varieties, mostly made with goat's milk, of both the solid mesost and the spreadable mesmor.

At one stand they had kolbulle (kolbullar), which is a type of pancake invented by coal miners. To make one, basically fry bacon in butter and add flour and water. This one was topped with lingonberries and mesmor. The people working the stand initially gave me it without mesmor, which is because...well, many people from other countries feel the same way about messmor as they do about traditional salty liquorice.

However, I hate wasting food, so when I bought a package of mesmor on a whim, I used it up even though I thought it was bizarre and in the process grew to like it. So I insisted on having some on my kolbulle.

Being an inland province, seafood was not a big presence at the fair, except for one stand that sold herring on tunnbröd, another regional specialty. aTunnbröd is a flat bread quite like the more common knäckebröd , but flatter and more compact. At the fare there were many stands where they made it fresh. Oh, and don't forget the Tunnbrödsrulle, a piece of tunnbröd wrapped around two hot dogs and usually mashed potatoes and some shrimp salad (tiny shrimp plus mayo...the Swedish passion for mayo deserves its own post).

The Swedish confections at the fair were mostly liquorice, a taste I have not quite acquired, and other "godis," gummis and other candies which were mostly the same as the godis elsewhere. I tried some "fudge" but it was bland and insipid compared to American fudge. I did pick up some delicious honey and cloudberry preserves though.

There were also lots of stands selling game meats from wild boar to moose. I purchased some smoked reindeer because the cuts of moose were pretty expensive or sausages with only a small percentage of moose.

Fjällyoghurt Hjortron

I used to think Fjäll meant mountain, having seen the word on numerous signs and foods that had pictures of mountains, but Swedes alerted me to the fact that they are a particular type of mountains and the word is pronounced roughly like fell...and well, they are what Anglophiles who read too many dramatic British novels know as fells. Whatever the case, here in Scandinavia, fjälls are mountains that have snowy peaks, but they have also been eroded by glaciers, so their peaks are rather flat instead of rugged.

Regardless, here is Sweden you can get some damn good yogurt, made by Milko, that is called Fjäll, which is rich and creamy, but with a distinctive sort of fizz. According to my roommate, that fizz is produced from a reaction between the yogurt culture and the lining of the yogurt tetrapack (it's the box-thing that everything here is sold in), but I can't confirm this. Because the yogurt itself has a rich flavor, it has less sugar than most brands. The best flavor is hjorton, which means cloudberry, a rare berry that grows in the mountains here. I believe that Milko is trying to introduce fjäll into English-speaking countries, as they now have an English website.

Pumpa i Sverige (Pumpkins in Sweden)

In autumn I crave pumpkin: pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread...pumpkin everything. Unfortunately, the country of Sweden does not share my enthusiasm. Sometimes I can find them at the Satuday market in Uppsala, but often they are just ornamental pumpkins. When I googled Sweden + pumpkins not much came up. That's why I had to write this post. I found Swedish pumpkin utopia, but it's probably too late to plan a trip. Don't suffer my mistake!

There is an island in the south of Sweden called Öland, which has a harvest festival in September, which is pumpkin heaven apparently. But it's too late for me to book a hostel, so sadly I will have to hunt pumpkins on the lonely streets of Uppsala.

Student Nations

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Originally uploaded by watermirrors

Student Nations are the nucleus of student life in Uppsala. Founded in the 1600s, they are student societies are based around 13 different areas in Sweden. Originally students had to join the nation based on their home region, but these days you can join any one you want. Each one has a house, a restaurant, a pub, and usually a dance floor. They are the best place for affordable food and drink in Uppsala.

At SLU you don't have to join a nation, but you should! They have many interesting activities from trips to fancy dinners, called gasques. SlU has its own Union with a pub and such dinners, but activity there is more limited.

Each Nation attracts a different crowd. I'm afraid to say that my nation, Kalmar, is the hipster nation, for people who like Indie music and skinny jeans. Last week I attended the welcome gasque. It was a three course candlelit dinner served with excessive alcohol, which I tried to avoid, much to the protest of the Swedish boy I sat next to, who insisted it was a necessary part of toasting. There were lots and lots of toasts during the dinner, but I managed with .14 of a glass of awful snaps (horribly flavored Swedish vodka).

There were lots of speeches in Swedish and a few in English. Between that, there was lots and lots of singing. I actually knew some of the songs because my family owns a record that we always thought was Swedish Christmas Songs and we played it all the time during the holiday season. Apparently many are actually Swedish drinking songs, like Fredmans Sang No. 21, which seems to be about how lots of lots of drinking is so awesome.

Havtorn Recipe no. 1

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Originally uploaded by watermirrors

Havtorn (Hippophae) berries are in season this time of year. In English they are called sea buckthorn, but I had never heard of them before I arrived here. They normally grow by the ocean, but on campus someone planted some. I had wanted to try them since I first saw the expensive preserves at the store. I soon found out why they are so expensive...harvesting is very difficult. The berries leave their branch reluctantly and all the while birds shriek at you (although maybe they were just mad at me for some other reason). If you aren't careful they burst in your hand.

They are unusual berries, filled with a creamy orange liquid that tastes a little like bitter oranges. Supposedly they are a "superfood," full of vitamins and antioxidants, as well as fatty acids.

I have made several jams out of local berries here. Red currants, which grow abundantly here, and strawberries make wonderful jams. However, havtorn jam proved frustrating. The berries don't really break down when you boil they and I ruined the whole batch because I had one, yes one, unripe berry, which made everything bitter.

Oh well, now there will be English web-documentation on the subject.

My Recipe:
Don't put unripe havtorn in your recipes. You can tell they are unripe because they are reddish instead of bright orange and they are quite hard.

About that dinner...

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Originally uploaded by watermirrors

From a letter home:

Last night my roommate had a surströmming party and wow did it smell. We opened it outside and poured the juice into the woods. The worst part was removing the bones, which required some skill and involved having to look at the fish carefully. Unfortunately, the nose is kind of close to the eyes. However, once you piled it on the crispbread with sour cream and potatoes, it really didn't taste so terrible and of course you consume it with snaps, which arguably tastes worse. A real Swedish experience.

Baking in Scandinavia pt. 1

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Originally uploaded by watermirrors

So some Swedes and I decided to have a party and we all had to bring something. Given the chives in the garden, I decided to make some cheddar-chive biscuits. I also thought the currants in the garden would make a lovely batch of scones. However, when I arrived at the grocery store I realized that I was going to have some trouble. I adapted, but only after learning a few things
1. Baking soda is less common here. In America we use it often for cooking and most households also keep it around for cleaning. Here it is uncommon and comes in little expensive packets that you find in the spices section labeled "bikarbonat."
2. Vanilla extract is also less common here. Most cooks prefer the beans themselves or vanilla sugar. I haven't experimented with the latter, but I plan to since Swedes claim it is superior.
3. Argh. The metric system is sort of mixed with the traditional system here. For example, my IKEA measuring cups use DL and teaspoons/tablespoons. That's nice, since that means I only have to convert cups when I am making my American recipes, but it's still an annoyance.
4. Which is why I invested in a cooking scale, which allows me to make European recipes that use grams...and it's a nice European way to cook or something.

Verdict:
Converted cheddar biscuits: too dry!
British Red Currant Scones made with cooking scale: delicious!

SLU Campus

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Originally uploaded by watermirrors

SLU has an incredible campus that's lush with country gardens and forests even though it's only 15 minutes from campus. It's difficult to explore the whole place and each day I feel like I discover a new place. Just yesterday I came upon a marsh with a boardwalk through the lily pads and cattails. This picture was taken in one of the gardens at sunset.

Arla Ko Ekologisk gammaldags mjölk

I don't normally drink milk, but I love this style of milk. Most Swedes prefer mellanmjölk, which has a "medium" fat content and is homogenized, but gammaldags milk is unhomogenized and has a high fat content that varies with the season. People who worry way too much about life drink lättmjölk (.5%) and people who have no idea what milk tastes like drink minimjölk (even less than .5%). Lame. If I'm going to drink milk it's going to be rich and creamy. It's also much cheaper than similar American milk at 12-15 kr.

Filmjölk

Filmjölk roughly translates to something like "thick milk." It's much like a very thin plain yogurt, but has a distinct taste thanks to special cultures. Some Americans do not like Filmjölk because it isn't sweetened and has a sour taste, but I immediately liked it. Muesli, the breakfast of choice for many people here, doesn't taste right with regular milk, which just makes it soggy. So far I've only tried plain Filmjölk, but there are many different types and I hope to try them all.

GB Glace

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Originally uploaded by watermirrors

GB Glace makes ice cream similar to the Nestle brands in the US sold from ice cream trucks. The difference seems to that these are sold in cases nearly everywhere. So far I've tried only three types: two like American King Cones and this jordgubbar ice cream sandwich. The King Cone- like confections were inte so bra (not so good...the chocolate was waxy), but this strawberry bar hit the spot.

Why Swedish people are not big as houses given the ubiquitousness of ice cream, candy, and baked goods will be the subject of another post....once I figure it out. I have an inking that it has to do with all the walking, biking, and skiing people here do. And I think these things really are treats to have at sweet shops on the go or while having afternoon coffee (fika)...and not something people sit around at home eating.

I'd like to be able to say that it's because sweets here are less horrifying, but that's sadly not true. Bubble gum flavored gummy colas and princess cake, which is a cream cake covered with garish green marzipan, pretty much make the horrifying cut.

jordgubbar/strawberries

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Originally uploaded by watermirrors

Strawberries are very popular in Sweden and are affordable. In America, most of our strawberries are large, but tasteless. Good berries are only available in America for about a month at farmer's markets and can cost up to $7. Locally grown strawberies in Uppsala cost around $5, but similar Belgian strawberries can be found at street stands for about $3. They are ruby red through and through and smell divine. Lately I've been eating a carton nearly every day.

Diakonistiftelsen Samariterhemmet

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Originally uploaded by watermirrors

When my fellow travelers and I realized that the housing office was closed, we found it hard to find accommodations in Uppsala. Thankfully, my friend found Diakonistiftelsen Samariterhemmet, a bed and breakfast run by the Church of Sweden. It was around 700 SEK for both of us and we had separate beds in a gorgeous room. The building was lovely and located right near the city center. Breakfast was in a seperate building and was delicious traditional Swedish food like muesli with filmjölk and lingonberries.