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!