It was just past Christmas-time when I was in Hong Kong and one of my colleagues who calls Hong Kong home was back visiting friends and family; we arranged to meet up in Mongkok one afternoon. There’s nothing like being shown around by locals and they understood what I meant by wanting to try things that were particularly from Hong Kong. And yes, they too are serious about eating. Mongkok was exactly what I expected of Hong Kong: crowded and brightly lit with signs and with snack stands at every corner!

After walking about the pet market for a bit (and cooing at the cute little puppies), we started with the proper eating with my first egg waffle (also known as an eggette).

Oh, how beautiful it was. I loved the contrasts in the waffle – the light and pillowy puffs connected by a thin crisp sheet. The flavour was excellent too and no extra sauce was necessary. It amused me no end to eat them by hand, snapping off pieces as you go.

We went off wandering down the Ladies’ Market but that egg waffle wasn’t enough to fortify us and we found ourselves flagging by the end of it. We were brought over to China Cafe, a little cha chaan teng, a particularly Hong Kong style of tea cafe, hidden from the street by a food market. Nothing seem to have been touched in the cafe since the 60s and had retained every bit of charm for it. Watch out though if you don’t read Chinese – they don’t seem to have an English menu.

Hot milk tea was very strong and benefited from lots of sugar.

A couple of pineapple buns (bolo bau) were ordered with thick slices of butter stuffed in the middle. Ah, now I know where I was going wrong with pineapple buns – I always found them quite dull. They’re just plain buns with their only redeeming feature being the sweet cookie crust; despite their name, there’s no actual pineapple in them. Well, it’s much better with butter!

And another first for me – Hong Kong style French toast. I think they deep fry the entire thing, which is the only way I can think of for the egg to turn such a beautifully even brown. M poured syrup over the entire thing and we all tucked in – yes, I do love this kind of French toast.

China Cafe
1077A Canton Road
Mong Kok
Hong Kong

We wandered back past the station to see the lights of Mongkok. The sky may have been dark but down on street level, it could have been confused for day! It was crowded (Mongkok has the highest population density in the world) and bright and fun.

After again walking around for a bit, K and M led us to a street lined with restaurants. K wanted to introduce me to Chiu Chow cuisine. Also known as Teochew cuisine, Chiu Chow cuisine is very popular in Hong Kong and while I recognise many of the dishes on that Wikipedia page due to their popularity in Malaysia too, I had never had a purely Chiu Chow meal nor did I know what was popular in Hong Kong. (Oh, Teochew porridge I do know – I wrote about it a couple of months ago.) I was quite excited to try it with those in the know.

K started us off with a peppery soup of pork intestines and pickled vegetables. While the intestines weren’t for me, I loved the strong flavour of white pepper in the porky broth.

A combination of barbecued sweet sausage and squid appeared on almost every table there. An egg braised in spiced soy too was also ordered. It’s quite plain but in a soothing way.

A plain grilled fish came out with a variety of sauces – soy, chilli, soy bean. Actually, I started losing track of all the sauce dishes around me. If it’s one thing that struck me about Chiu Chow cuisine, it was the use of so many condiments at the table.

The Chiu Chow oyster omelette was totally different to the sticky, starchy Malaysian variety that I knew. This deep fried eggy fritter had oysters scattered throughout and was delicious dipped in chilli sauce.

Some brilliant salt and chilli pork ribs and stir fried pea shoots with garlic rounded up our meal. Oh, and white rice too, gotta have that. We stuffed ourselves well.

Biu Kee Lok Yeun Chiu Chau Restaurant
G/F 33-37, Fa Yuen Street
Mongkok
Hong Kong

As always, there was still space in our dessert stomachs (though this time, we really were struggling) and K and M took us to Lucky Dessert nearby. We were there early in the night and so the place was half empty but they assured us that it gets much busier later as it’s quite popular with the younger crowd. I do like the fresh and fruity Hong Kong style desserts and the ones served here were quite modern in style.

Mango pancakes were thin crepes filled with cream and slices of fresh mango. This appears to be quite a popular dessert in Hong Kong and I have to admit, I’m still on the fence about this one. I think I prefer my mango without cream.

This was a whole banana and chocolate chips wrapped in filo pastry. Nice but my focus was really on the next dessert…

My favourite was this last one – durian in sticky rice rolls. Thin mochi-like skins were rolled around lots of fresh durian meat. I had no idea durian was so popular in Hong Kong!

Lucky Dessert
G/F, 25-27 Soy Street
Mong Kok
Hong Kong

As you can imagine, we had to roll ourselves back home that night. Thank you so much for showing us around, K and M!

At about 8pm on a weekday, three of us found a table with relative ease though the small restaurant was constantly packed while we were there. A bowl of Kau Kee’s special beef brisket in traditional broth (88 HKD, all beef and no noodles), another of beef brisket with e-fu noodles in broth (32 HKD), and two curry beef tendon with rice vermicelli (30 HKD each) had us bursting at the seams.

The bowls weren’t large but they were filled to the brim – lots of noodles and beef and topped up with broth. The beef brisket was just tender and very flavourful and well, beefy, as was the broth. I enjoyed the e-fu noodles though perhaps their strong flavour would pair better with the curry.

The curry beef tendon was gorgeous. This beautiful bowl opened my eyes to excellent Chinese curries – I had only had terrible yellow curry powder and cornstarch monstrosities prior to this. This was delicious and rich and complex and full of both tendon and beef brisket. I’d never had such soft beef tendon as this before; they must have simmered the mixture for ages.

We did over order by that bowl of extra beef; a single bowl of beef and noodles each would have been enough and been even more of a budget dinner. Oh, what I’d give for a bowl of the curry right now!

Kau Kee
G/F, 21 Gough Street
Central
Hong Kong

Apparently, the thing to do on Cheung Chau is eat seafood. With empty stomachs, we wandered down the road and ended up at one place where the tables were packed and the food looked good. The New Baccarat Seafood Restaurant, it was!

What a lovely spread we had out there in the sun (yes, about 20C that winter day)! Scrambled egg with prawns was the first to our table and it was excellent, all fluffy egg and juicy, crunchy prawns.

Stir fried gai lan with garlic was crunchy and all the green we needed.

The salt and chilli squid was greaseless and crisp and made up for a hard and greasy version the previous day at Hay Hay Kitchen in Wan Chai.

Salty, carby goodness came in the form of chicken and salted fish fried rice.

Our steamed garlic scallops came with a wonderfully ridiculous amount of sweet garlic and unexpected but pleasantly slippery mung bean vermicelli. We scraped the contents of each shell straight into our mouths.

Finally, a whole steamed fish, a Cantonese classic. We picked it clean.

The seafood was all magnificently fresh though I doubt they’ve been caught very locally. I was told most of the waters surrounding Hong Kong had been fished clean though I did see a few fishing boats come in with a small catch and some fish and prawns being dried in the sun. Local or not local, with the warm sun on our backs, fresh breeze on our faces and cold drinks in our hands, this was a memorable lunch.

New Baccarat Seafood Restaurant
9A G/F Pak She Praya Road
Cheung Chau
Hong Kong

With full bellies, we strolled around Cheung Chau’s car-less streets and over to the beach on the other side too. And I knew Hong Kong was famous for its wide variety of street foods but the variety of snacks available on Cheung Chau was still amazing and surprising. Fish balls, deep fried mochi ice cream, sticky rice cakes, popcorn, waffles, egg waffles, ice cream, shaved ice, pastries, grilled squid … all that temptation was just too great.

We first stopped at the Grand Plaza Cake Shop (91B, Hoi Poi Road, Cheung Chau) where a large crowd was jostling for just-out-of-the-oven egg tarts of both the Hong Kong and Macanese varieties. We had one of each – the mini dan tat (the Hong Kong version) was particularly tasty.

We couldn’t pass up this Taiwanese shaved ice stand and I walked away with this aromatic guava one. The flavours are already frozen into the ice block and the shaved ice almost resembles freshy fallen snow in its consistency – all light and fluffy.

Finally, on the way back to the ferry port, my first tornado potato! It’s a single potato spiral cut on a stick and mine was fresh out of the fryer. A bank of shakers in front of the shop allowed you to custom flavour your fried potato however you wish – there was curry, extra hot, chicken and garlic powders all along mine. Salty, greasy, good.

Needless to say, go with empty stomachs to Cheung Chau. To get to the island, take a ferry from Central Pier 5 in Hong Kong. You can use an Octopus card to pay – did I mention my love for their Octopus card? I love that all transport around Hong Kong can be paid with it and many eating establishments also accept payment with it.

One of the first and best breakfasts I had (jetlag meant that I desperately needed a big meal in the morning) while there involved scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs. I went all the way to Hong Kong to eat scrambled eggs!

Oh, but what luscious and silky scrambled eggs. They were from the famed Australia Dairy Company and when we visited one weekday, we found a queue going down the road. Not being in any rush, we joined the end of it and to our surprise, we found ourselves at the head of the queue (still going down the road) in about 10 minutes. It was soon apparent how they managed to turn over customers so quickly. Everyone was sat wherever possible, sharing tables if necessary. Your food arrived within 5 minutes of ordering and your bill was also ready when you finish for you to take up to pay at the counter next to the entrance. This was not a place to linger. We shared a table with two other friends having breakfast and while it was a bit cramped, it was never uncomfortable.

The short menu is either on Chinese on the table or brought in English separately. There are a few sets and then an a la carte menu that mostly consisted of the food in the sets served separately along with a few more bits and bobs – like I said, it’s short and they obviously specialise in dairy and eggs (it’s the “Dairy Company” after all though I have no idea if they have any relation to Australia). We both opted for a Breakfast Set (26 HKD): toast with butter, fried or scrambled eggs, macaroni with ham in chicken soup and coffee or milk tea. Scrambled with milk tea for both of us.

I think the macaroni soup is a good example of what they call soy sauce western food – there is obviously a western influence on this dish but nowhere in the west would you see a dish like this. This was certainly filling but not something for which I’d jump through hoops.

But those scrambled eggs! I’d jump through a dozen flaming hoops for that plate of softly set yellow. The buttered crustless toast on the side was thick and fluffy perfect with it. All this and a hot milk tea really set us up for the day.

We also tried one of their egg custards (20 HKD). There are yellow (egg) and white (egg white and milk) versions and we tried a yellow. It’s very smooth and soft set and while I’m not a big fan of milk in general, it very slowly started to grow on me. Well, it didn’t grow on me enough to actually like it – we didn’t even manage to finish half.

Definitely recommended and if you happen to pass it and are feeling a bit peckish, do get their scrambled eggs (also available in a sandwich). I’ve got to learn to make eggs like they do.

Australia Dairy Company
47 Parkes Street
Jordan
Hong Kong

I came across this aubergine salad in Mai Pham’s excellent cookbook Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table and had to try what appeared to be an extremely simple recipe (adapted to feed the two of us). It’s certainly a dish that’s more than the sum of its grand total of five ingredients (four if you don’t include salt). The silky vegetable gets coated in a savoury mixture of spring onion and fish sauce and somehow just pulls together into something you can’t stop scoffing. Good stuff.

This salad ended up being part of a meal we ate with white rice, long beans fried with egg and leftover curry.

Vietnamese Aubergine Salad
serves 2-3 as a course with rice.

3 large, long Asian aubergines
1.5 tbsp sunflower oil
1 large spring onion, thinly sliced
0.5 tbsp fish sauce
a pinch of salt

Grill your aubergines until their skins are black – I whack them onto our gas stove and char them. You can also throw them into a very hot oven or better yet, under the grill. You want the skins to be black and the insides all soft. Leave until cool enough to handle.

When cool enough to handle, peel the blackened skins off and cut each aubergine into lengths of about 5-6 cm and cut each length into 4-6 strips (depending on how you like your aubergine pieces).

Heat a small frying pan (or any frying pan really) and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the spring onion and stir until wilted. Take off the heat and stir in the fish sauce and salt. Toss this dressing with the aubergine strips.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

And this includes sprouts. I love winter vegetables and I’ve heard that this season’s crop of Brussels sprouts is supposed to be a bumper one. I picked up a whole stalk of them for about a pound at my farmers market before Christmas and had been eating them constantly. Rather than my usual method of roasting them, this year I’ve been shredding and then stir frying the little globes.

This year seems to be all about slicing and dicing up sprouts: I encountered two recipes for them in the span of just a week. Jun Tanaka’s recipe mixed them with ham and pine nuts; Jamie Oliver’s was with bacon and lots of Worcester sauce. I preferred the former with its nutty pine nut bite, the latter being a bit too fruity to pair with other dishes, and here’s my take on it.

Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta and Pine Nuts
recipe adapted from Jun Tanaka.

Take a large handful of pine nuts and toast them in a hot frying pan, tossing often. Set aside.

In the same frying pan over medium-low heat, add 2 tbsps of olive oil and throw in a whole smashed clove of garlic. Fry gently until the garlic is golden and then discard the clove. Toss in a handful of chopped pancetta and fry gently for a couple minutes. When the pancetta is cooked, turn up the heat and add a few large handfuls of sliced Brussels sprouts. Turn up the heat and stir fry for a couple minutes – if brown spots appear on the cabbage, then all the better! Add a little water and cover the pan and cook until the sprouts are as soft as you like. Uncover and let the water cook off.

Add salt and pepper to taste, mix in the pine nuts and serve.

Here are photos of the real thing we saw last year in Barcelona.

The pavilion is built to scale (well, as much as is possible with gingerbread) using a blueprint we found online. It’s not made from your usual gingerbread but instead, Swedish pepparkakor, a recipe for which I used from Anne’s Food; I only halved the recipe but still had to freeze half the dough I made – the recipe makes a lot of biscuits. Very good, spiced, crisp biscuits, I should say. The pieces were put together with royal icing and gelatine sheets were used for the glass panes. It was fun… and tasty!

Further views of the structure can be seen in this Flickr photoset. If you’d like the plan we used, I’m happy to email it to you.

How were your Christmas celebrations?

As if they were reading my mind, the Gothenburg Tourist Board very kindly arranged a julbord dinner for both me and Jeanne on our second night but the restaurant they’d booked wasn’t actually in Gothenburg but on an island in the Gothenburg archipelago – on Styrsö. It sounded like a bit of an adventure involving a tram ride from the centre of Gothenburg to the end of the line and then a ferry (all transport covered by the Gothenburg Card). It did turn out to be a bit nerve racking to get there with everything being quite dark and the ferry running late but the restaurant at the Pensionat Styrsö Skäret was lit up like a Christmas tree, making it easy to find on the island.

We received a warm welcome inside and after being shown to our seat, we were offered hot glögg (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions were available) and pepparkakor. Raisins and slivered almonds had already been set out on the table to place in your hot glögg – the plumped up raisins and crunchy almonds making the drink, well, more than a drink. That warmed us up nicely and got us ready for the eating.

To drink with our julbord meal, we were offered Christmas beverages – Julmust is a Christmas beverage like a spiced Coke while the Christmas beer was a dark ale and both are only available at this time of the year. I knew Sweden took Christmas seriously!

There is an order in which a julbord (or smörgåsbord in general) is tackled and it’s probably best to follow the rules (I also noticed that the julbord was cleared in this order too…so don’t follow the order and you risk missing out on a whole course!). The restaurant was packed that night but seatings had been staggered, making trips to the julbord not overly crowded.

The first round should be the herring and gravadlax and other cold seafood. I’ve got a book on Scandinavian cuisine dating back to the 1960s that states that herring should be a course by itself, followed by the rest of the fish and seafood. I don’t know what approach is more common today but there’s nothing stopping you from just eating lots of herring.

Of the herring, my favourites were in a creamy white and dill sauce, one with lingonberries and another in mustard. Some preparations were a bit too salty but most were excellent. I can never turn down gravadlax too but I passed on most of the fish mousses. This being the west coast, there was a good variety of shellfish on offer too (prawns, crabs, langoustines) and we were most taken with the smoked prawns. In addition to the fishes, there were eggs topped with caviar, baked herring, hard cheeses, boiled potatoes and breads and whipped salted butter.

After you’ve had your fill of foods from the sea, move on to the cold meats. Salamis, sausages, pates, hams and other cured meats were all laid out invitingly. And as there should be on every julbord, there was julskinka, a Swedish Christmas ham, already sliced up. Pork, beef, lamb, duck – almost all the major meat groups were out in force on the table. In addition, there were lots of condiments – pickles, chutneys, a whole array of mustards and a mysterious mimosa salad, which I discovered later was mainly fruit in mayonnaise.

I loved the julskinka with its coating of mustard and breadcrumbs and also the sliced cooked pork belly. My favourite though was a smoked duck “ham” that had been cooked with cinnamon and cognac – gorgeous! And their red onion confit was wonderful.

The hot foods are the last savoury course. Swedish meatballs, pork ribs, prinskorv (little sausages like Vienna sausages), boiled sausage, creamed spinach, brown cabbage, green cabbage, lutfisk and poached fish with all the fixings (peas, bacon, melted butter, white sauce) and, of course, Janssons frestelse (Jansson’s temptation – a baked potato gratin with Swedish anchovies). My book from the 60s suggests that one should eat Jansson’s temptation with the first herring course but I pay attention to this combo on anyone’s plates that day.

Our lack of vegetables had us hitting the peas, spinach and cabbage pretty hard – the spinach and cabbage were sweetened. The Jansson’s temptation was delicious though salty and the lutfisk was jellylike and flavourless, necessitating the stuff on the side. Strangely, this was the least exciting course to me – I think the strengths of the julbord and smörgåsbord lie in the cold and room temperature courses or perhaps my thoughts were a bit skewed because I was already quite full by this point.

Finally, the desserts and sweets. Swedish cakes and desserts aren’t particulary sweet and these were no exception. I skipped the ris à la Malta (a creamy rice pudding) and tried a dry cheese cake (it tasted like unsweetened pressed ricotta), an almond biscuit that I topped with cream and preserves and my favourite, a delightfully light and crisp fried biscuit topped with sugar. There were a few other biscuits and a selection of soft cheeses but those I skipped.

I was really saving myself for the sweets! There was a whole cupboard full of bowls of the most delectable looking titbits. There were homemade fruit jellies, chocolates, truffles, marshmallow santas (they appear to be very popular in Sweden at Christmas time), candied nuts, caramels and knäck (a Swedish Christmas toffee). The variety was enough to make anyone gasp in awe.

We were utterly stuffed after making our julbord rounds (there were definitely some repeats) but saved room for some tea and coffee to aid digestion. More popular in the room was the drinks trolley that was making the rounds.

It was a fantastic experience. The staff did everything to make us feel welcome, explained to us how to approach the julbord… and my apologies for rushing them at the end! We were having such a fab time that we almost lost track of time and found that we only had 10 minutes to run to the dock in time for our ferry. We made it!

I would definitely highly recommend everyone going to Sweden to try a julbord (or at any other time of the year, a smörgåsbord) – it’s very obviously a big part of Swedish culture and it’s good fun! It’s not cheap (this one was 535 SEK, not including drinks – and we were invited) but I’d definitely save up to have one. but Reservations are essential at this time of the year – book in advance.

Pensionat Styrsö Skäret
Skäretvägen 53
430 84 Styrsö
Sweden

Thank you again to the West Sweden Tourist Board (Facebook page, Twitter, Blog) and Visit Sweden (Facebook, Twitter) and also to the Gothenburg Tourist Board for organising this wonderful Christmas trip for us. Our flights were provided by SAS and a return trip to Gothenburg from London Heathrow is £103 including all taxes and charges.

That brings my Christmas in Gothenburg series to an end – all my photos from Gothenburg can be found in this Flickr photoset. Now it’s time for Christmas in London. Merry Christmas, everyone!

At Stora Saluhallen, the city’s centrally located covered market hall, patisseries, bakers, butchers, fishmongers, and grocers were all arranged neatly in stalls while that day, farmers set up smaller stands outside. There were lots of Christmas goods inside and Christmas trees and plants available to buy from the stands outside.

We found very good chocolates at Flickorna Kanold, including special Christmas season flavours. I took a boxful of them back to Blai and we loved the saffron one and the cinnamon and orange one but haven’t yet tackled the cuteness that is the Jul Marsipan chocolate.

Every sweet shop and patisserie was also selling marzipan pigs, which I think are associated with luck. These ones were my favourite as they looked somewhat insane.

We were actually in Gothenburg just before St Lucia’s feast day (13 Dec) and a saffron bun called a lussekatt is traditionally eaten on this day. These were gorgeous and tasted even better – it’s made with a rich brioche-like dough flavoured with lots of saffron.

On St Lucia’s Day, one girl is chosen to be Lucia for the city of Gothenburg (and other cities in Sweden and even in homes and other smaller community events). In the spirit of all things modern, you could vote for the one you wanted – the photo below was taken the next day in Nordstan, a shopping mall in Gothenburg. The Lucias wear a candle wreath in her hair and from what I understand, there’s a procession involving other girls and boys and singing.

At the nearby Feskekôrka (fish church – nothing religious about it apart from the market’s resemblance to a church), we gawped at the marvellously fresh fish and seafood on offer and sampled all variety of pickled herring. I wonder if some of that seafood will show up on Christmas tables. It was here too we discovered the combination of pickled herring and gingerbread – it sounds a bit odd but they really are delicious together (I’ve been recreating it at home with soft gingerbread and mustard herrings I brought back from Sweden).

A stand had been set up in the middle of the hall with glögg and Christmas treats for shoppers and vendors alike.

We strolled over to Haga, a particularly pretty district of Gothenburg and found a Christmas Market taking place on the main street (Haga Nygata). There were lots of craft stands and food vendors set out along the cobbled streets and it is certainly good for Christmas shopping. We were surprised to see that everything sold was beautiful and of good quality, not like the tat commonly found at Christmas markets in London (wooden ties, anyone?).

There was quite a bit of music too that Saturday with carollers setting up along the street and a grand ol’ marching band complete with festive cheerleaders and flag girls continually marched and played up and down between the stands.

The biggest and possibly most famous of the Christmas Markets in Sweden can be found in Gothenburg and it’s at Liseberg, the big amusement park in the city. Using our Gothenburg City Cards (provided by the Gothenburg Tourist Board), we hopped on an old-fashioned wooden tram in the centre of town that took us directly to the park and then gained entry to Liseberg. This was exciting – both Jeanne and I are big fans of Christmas markets and here we were at Sweden’s largest. It was hard to get in the festive spirit with everyone else there equally excited.

Most of the rides were closed but a few were still open for those who enjoy being flung about in the cold.

The whole park looked wonderfully festive with its beautiful lights and Christmas goods on sale. While it took a lot of willpower to not buy a little candle powered angel chime, we happily handed over our money after sampling some gorgeous hot smoked salmon.

There were even reindeer and a whole section of the park dedicated to Lapp culture (they had the most delectable looking flatbreads and reindeer kebabs). They say that almost 5 million lights are strung up in Liseberg at Christmas time; I believe them. I’d recommend going when it’s dark as it’s difficult to see them during the day and also make sure you allocate at least a few hours to see everything!

I was particularly tickled by the numerous Wheels of Fortune in Liseberg. I’m not sure if giant bars of chocolate and humongous bags of crisps are normally the prizes at other times of the year but they were out in full force at Christmas and people were going crazy over them. You buy a number or range of numbers, wait for the wheel to spin and if your number comes up, you win a prize – I only saw regular sized bars of chocolate being handed out. I suspect that you must collect quite a few of these before you can trade them in for a giant bar. There were a surprising number of people with multiple giant bars – I don’t even want to think about how much they must have spent on the wheels. It became my mission to take photos of all the wheels we encountered and this is just a selection of them. And no, I didn’t have a go at them.

Sadly, we didn’t eat much while inside as we had a big dinner that night and we had to leave the park early when we were hailed on but the Swedish are tough! We passed lots of them watching a outdoor show on ice, paying no attention whatsoever to the rain and hail.

That night, we sat down to one of the most epic of Swedish Christmas feasts – a julbord. That’s in the next and last post on our trip to Gothenburg.

We had arrived Friday morning on an SAS flight from Heathrow and the landing had been horrendous – there had been serious turbulence all the way until we landed (enough to warrant a shriek from someone a few rows ahead of me). It’s quite disconcerting to watch as your plane wobbles from side to side with the ground just within spitting distance from you. It turned out to be the tail end of the big storm that hit Scotland the day before: high winds and rain were the order of the day and while Gothenburg is renowned for its rain, even this was a bit extreme. That wasn’t the end of it: luggage was left behind in Heathrow, an umbrella broken, we got wet and lost. We ended up giving up for the day (I barely have any photos to show of the day) and just settled into a cafe – SoHo in Gothenburg where we were due to meet Stephanie from Travel PR, Emelie from West Sweden Tourist Board and Eva of Gothenburg Tourist Board for fika. Thank goodness for Gothenburg’s many warm and comfy cafes!

The hot coffee warmed us up and got us ready for more indoor activity – shopping. I’ll keep it brief but yeah, I love Scandinavian design and the everything there is beautiful. Anyway, our stomachs were quite empty come dinnertime as the events of the day caused us to forget to eat properly (I know!); I was experiencing this unfamiliar feeling called hunger and it caused me to feel somewhat lost and out of sorts. Eva had kindly arranged for our dinners during this trip and that night we went to Restaurang Familjen. The place is ultra casual but sports a Bib Michelin and was totally packed that Friday evening. Dinner there turned out to be just the thing we needed.

Bread and crispbread (knäckebröd) and butter and a jar of chicken liver pate with pickles and crispy fried onions were brought to our table. Crispy fried onions! They just make everything better and indeed, I adored the crunch it gave the creamy pate. (A tubful of the crispy onions left with me that weekend.)

We both chose the Menu – three courses with a choice of two main courses, priced at 335 SEK. A la carte was available as was another Menu Familjen priced at 455 SEK.

To start, a Baked pork belly, glazed with honey and apple cider vinegar, black cabbage and puree of Jerusalem artichoke from Lödderup arrived looking dainty but it turned out to be just the right size. Sweet and tangy and soft was the meat but I only wished the crackling had been crunchier. To accompany, black cabbage (cavolo nero) deep fried to a crisp and a delicious smooth puree (much better than the one time I tried to roast Jerusalem artichokes).

For my main, I chose the Braised chuck steak with porter fried turnips, pearl onions and cream of yellow onion. The steak could have benefited from a longer braise but it was still quite tender and so good with that cream of caramelised onions.

Jeanne had the Seared Swedish potato gnocchi with cauliflower cream and chestnuts, served with a roasted cabbage bouillon. I’ve decided that seared gnocchi is really the way to go and that for cauliflower, a cauliflower cream is right up there flavour-wise with roasted cauliflower.

Dessert was simple yet impressive. This was not the lingonberry cake with star anise bullion that was on the menu but instead was a Gingerbread cake with vanilla ice cream served with lingonberries, saffron bullion and crisp of Christmas spices. The saffron syrup at the bottom of the bowl was so fragrant – I had no idea that the use of saffron is so popular in Sweden. The lingonberries had been ever so slightly stewed and popped gently like salmon caviar.

I like to think of it as sophisticated comfort food. The preparations are familiar to us all but the ingredients were novel to me at least. It was obvious that the restaurant cooks seasonally but despite the obvious limitations of this in Sweden (hello, cold Scandinavia!), the food was delicious. And yes, perfect for when there’s a gale outside. Booking recommended.

Restaurang Familjen
Arkivgatan 7
411 34 Gothenburg
Sweden

I need to say this upfront but I wasn’t fond of their press release they sent out for Christmas: it was geared towards men, suggesting that men might enjoy receiving hot sauces in their stockings (wait, that’s not how it should sound…). Well, I will stand up for everyone, male or female, and say that anybody of any gender will enjoy hot sauces and do enjoy hot sauces! Anyway, Hot-Headz sent me five bottles to try and from first impressions, they ranged from very mild to incredibly terrifying.

With five bottles, I thought a little tasting was in order. This was set up in my office and well….here are the results. Comments from my colleagues are in bullet points.

Brother Bru-Bru’s Mild African Pepper Sauce
This was the mildest of the bunch and one of the tastiest too. Family friendly.

• More about taste rather than being hot – good.
• Tasty!
• Nice flavour.

Tapatío
Ah, a classic that I thought was made in Mexico but is actually American (and they export to Mexico). I slathered some on my burrito today.

• Very tasty.
• I can’t determine the taste. A bit sour? Not hot.

Pyromania!
Looks scarier than it is. I mean, a she-devil? Its name even sports an exclamation mark. Texturally, it’s lumpy, like one of those posh ketchups.

• Nice smoky flavour.
• Like barbecue sauce with a hint of spice.

Who Dares Burns Crushed Naga Bhut Jolokia Chilli Sauce
I originally thought this was going to be the hottest sauce as I’d read about the naga bhut jolokia – supposedly the hottest chilli in the world.

• Good amount of spice.
• It’s very hot!
• Still has flavour. It is hot but manageable.

Mad Dog 357 Hot Sauce
Oh geez, this hot sauce is not actually meant to be eaten, is it? Our tongues BURNED for a good long while after tasting it. It is stupidly hot and it incapacitated some of my colleagues. I picture it more as a sauce to add a bit of to a chilli con carne to give it heat or one just to buy if you feel you need to prove something.

• Owwww! My tongue! It delivers the desired effect.
• OMG! Crazy spicy.
• Well eating a healthy dose of this certainly changed the course of my morning for the worse.
• It has no flavour – it’s just hot.
• I thought the flavour was fire.

The five sent turned out to be a great range with four definitely usable sauces and one um… jokey one? I know it’s the Christmas season and you’d probably expect to hear that hot sauces are great as stocking fillers (each bottle is about £4 with the exception of the 357 which is about £7) and all that jazz but you know what, if I received a selection like this for my birthday (in the summer), I’d be quite thrilled!

Do you like hot sauces? What’s your favourite and what do you put it on or in?

It’s too simple for a proper recipe. Scoop the flesh from four ripe Hass avocados (use what you have), squeeze in the juice of about half a lemon and season liberally (salt, black pepper and Tabasco/chili flakes). A splash of extra virgin olive oil also really brings it all together, not something I expected. Mash it all up and spread the mixture liberally on hot toast.

Fried or poached eggs seem to be a popular pairing with avocado toast and while we did try it, I didn’t think it worked so well. There was no textural contrast between the silky egg yolk and the creamy avocado.

Much better was the avocado toast with canned sardine fillets: we’re very partial to the Waitrose ones that come packed with lemon or chilli.

Oh boy, I need some avocados now.

Rachel had already preordered a few things (the crab and the Hokkien mee) and we perused the rest of the menu (full of Chinese, Malaysian and Singaporean dishes) and picked out a few things (ok, all from South East Asia) that caught our fancy. Those “few” things turned out to be quite a lot more than we thought…

The main star of the meal came out first. Rachel had ordered three Fried Crabs with sambal belachan. Wow. That dish below was just one and a half crabs and was replenished when we demolished it. The crab was sweet and meaty and the pungent, salty, freaking delicious chilli and fermented shrimp paste sauce was utterly addictive. We licked the sauce off the shells and then spooned it onto white rice and dabbed it up with steamed buns.

A few other dishes came out while we were sucking on the crab shells (I did wish that these had come after just so we could have paid proper attention to the gorgeous crab). A Teochew Ngoh Hiang (Minced Pork & Prawns Wrapped in Beancurd Skin) (two orders pictured here) was quite tasty and was served with chilli sauce only (I missed the gloopy brown sauce that usually comes with it). Not a bad version.

Their Poh Pia (Crepe Roll with Vegetable & Egg with Sweet Chilli Sauce) (again, two orders here) was also alright but again I missed the crab and Chinese sausage that my mother added when she made it at home for us!

I quite enjoyed the Tauhu Goreng (Crispy fried Tofu/Beancurd with Beansprout & Cucumber) which came in a prawn paste dressing (the same as you’d use in rojak). A spicy peanut dressing (like satay sauce) was also available.

At this point, our table was cleared and we had a bit of a breather before the main courses arrived. The main courses did take a while but the previously empty restaurant had filled to bursting while we were on our starters.

Rojak (Fruit & Vegetable Salad with Shrimp Sauce & Chopped Peanut) was nice but the dressing was a bit thin – I like my shrimp paste sauce dark and thick.

The Steamed St. Peter in spicy bean sauce (Wikipedia told us that a St. Peter is a type of tilapia) was a monster. But oh goodness, what a delicious monster. I’ve never come across the spicy bean sauce before (made from preserved soy beans) but it went so well with the white fish.

The Fried Baby Squid with house spicy chilli sauce was alright…tender but the sauce was too strong and salty.

The Malaysian Spicy Buttered King Prawns were also alright…and yes, quite buttery and flavoured with all those curry leaves.

The Fried Kangkong with belachan was very good; I can never turn down a good plateful of this. I love kangkong (water convolvulus) fried with chili and fermented shrimp paste.

This platter of goodness was what I had really been looking forward to – Hokkien Fried Noodle (Braised Broad Noodle in Dark Soya Sauce with Seafood & Chicken) (three orders on that one platter). This is in the Kuala Lumpur (KL) style – asking for Hokkien mee in Singapore will result in something different altogether. (Just to confuse things even more, there’s another Hokkien mee that’s a soupy prawn noodle dish.) Anyway, wow. This was pretty brilliant – the sweet and salty dark sauce coating every thick noodle and you see that scattering of golden brown cubes on top? Fried pork lard, just as there should be.

A bowl of Singapore Laksa (Rice Vermicelli in Spicy Coconut Soup with Prawns & Chicken) was also ordered for sampling purposes. It was very tasty and while the noodles weren’t the thicker vermicelli you find in Singapore, I still enjoyed it as I actually prefer this thinner version (what we call beehoon). Beehoon does tend to suck up soup quite rapidly though and this bowl was full of noodles and stuff and just didn’t have enough soup…making for quite a dry laksa if left too long. Best to slurp it up quickly.

By now, my stomach was about to explode. Somehow, I activated my dessert stomach and put away a whole order of Tofu Fa, a soft set tofu served with sweet syrup. It’s homemade and was warm and delicious. This was the most popular dessert on the table but a sago gula melaka (tapioca pearls with Malaysian brown sugar) also looked very good.

The damage? Only £26 per person including drinks (quite a few homemade soy bean milks and beers – we cleaned them out of both the soy milk and Tiger beer) and service. It might be a little out of the way but it’s a great little place and while all the food was good, there were some dishes that really shone. Thanks again for organising the dinner and introducing us to the restaurant, Rachel!

Gourmet Garden
59 Watford Way
Hendon Central
London NW4 3AX

From the specials menu chalked up daily on the blackboard, Roxanne chose the Baby clams and Girolles steamed in sake (£8.20). Being quick to cook, these arrived first and we dripped the clammy juices down our arms while slurping them down. An extra spoon wouldn’t have gone amiss here as we were sharing.

I wanted to try their tempura and so ordered their Yasai Ten Mori, assorted vegetable tempura (£8.30). It may not have been cheap but it was excellent – light, non-greasy and crisp.

I was very pleased with my Buta Miso (Atsu-Atsu – hot udon in hot broth) (£9.40) – the thick brown paste dolloped on top of my noodles was porky bits in a salty, savoury miso paste. I stirred this through and it made for a most comforting bowl of noodles. The udon noodles had that wonderful bite that you only seem to get from being freshly made and were just amazing.

Roxanne also enjoyed her Tempura (Atsu-Atsu) (£9.90), which came with a large tempura prawn. If I have this next time, I’d ask for the prawn to be served on the side, keeping it as crisp as possible.

An Onsen Tamago (£1.80) (hot spring egg) on the side was beautiful and surprisingly reminded me of the soft boiled eggs of my childhood. I had expected it to be slightly more cooked but it was still good.

It was quite a bit of food between us and we could have ordered one less side dish and still have been comfortably full. I don’t regret overeating that day however – it really was all excellent. What in the world had been stopping me from visiting before though?! Oh yes, that queue but you can show up just as they open, like we did, and avoid it altogether. I’ll be back (I can’t wait to have the cold noodles next time!).

Koya
49 Frith Street
London W1D 4SG

They’re quite popular in Sweden and especially at children’s parties though I see no reason why adults wouldn’t like them. In addition to the chocolatey sweetness, oatmeal gives these balls a pleasant chew and it’s hard to stop at just one. They’re perfect too with a cup of hot coffee or tea and there’s certainly nothing kiddy about that.

Chokladbollar
adapted from this recipe.
makes 15-20.

100g unsalted butter, softened
100g sugar
2 tbsps cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsps cold strong coffee
just a little under 1.5 cups of rolled oats
unsweetened, dessicated coconut

In a food processor or mini chopper (that’s what I have), pulse the rolled oats a few times until you end up with a coarse grind but not so fine that you have powder.

Mix together the butter and sugar until well combined. Add the cocoa powder, vanilla and coffee and again mix to incorporate. Add the ground oats and mix thoroughly. Take lumps of the mixture and form into 1 inch diameter balls. Roll in the coconut to coat and place them in a covered container. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

This all day eatery was absolutely packed when we arrived (usually a good sign) and as we didn’t have a booking, we sat at the bar when a couple seats freed up. After perusal of the Sunday menu, we decided to split a few small plates as well as a brunch dish between us.

The first small plate was Salt Cod Fritters, Red Pepper Aioli (£5). I can’t say I was particularly thrilled to see that all my fiver got me was three overly salty fritters, each the size of my thumb. And I have small hands.

From the cheapest price bracket came the Smoked Mackerel Pate, Horseradish, Keta (£3). This was alright, a mild smoked mackerel paste with no horseradish flavour whatsoever. I learned something new though – keta is the salmon roe on top (I think).

A Braised Rabbit, Soft Polenta, Parmesan (£5) rounded off our small plate selection and was the best of the lot with the tender, flavourful rabbit pairing well with the bland polenta. But once again, the size of the portion…

My verdict on the small plates – yeah, way too expensive for what they were. They should be called tiny plates.

Our brunch dish of Chorizo Hash Brown, Mushroom, Poached Eggs (£10.50) fared better. The giant hash brown was delicious, all studded with chunks of chorizo and I was really looking forward to the poached eggs on top. Unfortunately, our first eggs were sadly overcooked but when our attentive waitress checked how we were doing, I pointed them out to her and she swiftly replaced them for two perfectly cooked ones. It was nice to have the green spinach on the side and it had been dressed but just a little too saltily for me.

Knowing that the day wasn’t going to be particularly healthy, consumption-wise, I insisted on getting us some greens as well. The Autumn Greens, Chestnut Butter (£3.50) were fine though while I could see the chestnut bits, I couldn’t taste them.

We had our eye on one dessert (I think it was a chocolate fondant) but learned that the restaurant had run out of a few of the options including the one we wanted. I found this quite surprising – it’s a big place and surely they could have anticipated that a number of desserts were needed. We decided to skip it and have it elsewhere.

So, Riding House Café…sadly, food-wise, you were quite underwhelming. If you’re going, I’d stay away from the small plates and order the main meals instead. I like the space though and I could see myself rocking up to meet someone for a drink there.

The Riding House Café
43-51 Great Titchfield Street
London W1W 7PQ

This recipe for lentils with chorizo is easy – if you didn’t want to mess up both a pot and a pan, you could fry the onion, garlic and chorizo in the pot and then chuck everything else in and set it to simmer. I wanted to get my lentils on first to save time that chilly weekday. It makes for a budget meal too as I reckon it costs about £1 a serving. You can bulk it out a bit more by adding potatoes too.

Poor Blai though! Just the look and smell of these triggered memories of terrible school lunch lentils; he admitted to feeling despair when presented with a bowl of them. Luckily (for him and me), he did proclaim enjoyment of the dish after a few spoonfuls! Hurrah!

Lentils with Chorizo
serves 3-4.

250g green lentils
150g chorizo
1 carrot
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp tomato paste
olive oil
1 onion
1 clove garlic
a large pinch of dried chilli flakes
a large splash of dry sherry
1-2 tsp pimentón
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pick through your lentils (you’re checking for stones), wash them thoroughly and cover them with plenty of water and set to boil. When it comes to a boil, reduce the heat till it’s at a strong simmer. Stir occasionally.

Peel and cut the carrot into large chunks and throw them, the tomato paste, and the bay leaf in with the lentils. Cut the chorizo into large chunks. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and throw in the chorizo and let fry in its own oil until the cut surfaces are golden. Stir the chorizo and its oil into the lentil pot.

Finely chop the onion. Place the frying pan back over the heat, add some olive oil and add the chopped onion and a large pinch of dried chilli flakes. Fry until the onion is golden. At this point, mince or chop the garlic and add it to the pan and fry until fragrant. Deglaze with the dry sherry and once all the alcohol has bubbled away, scrape everything into the lentil pot too.

Stir in the pimentón and continue simmering lentils until done – about 45 minutes altogether. Add more water if required during the simmering time – how thin you wish to have it is up to you. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with some bread on the side.

The soup itself has a phenomenally simple recipe and it only gets involved once you’re putting together the bowls of noodle soup. The list of ingredients does seem long but if you normally cook Chinese food at home, you’ll have most of it in your cupboards. They’re pretty much just dumped into a large pot and left to simmer for about 4 hours – what results is a hearty, beefy soup that’s eminently slurpable and tender, melt-in-the mouth chunks of beef. All that’s required is a bit of greenery and a tangle of wheat noodles. If you’d like it spicier, add some chilli oil.

Feeling a little restless while the soup was on the simmer, I put my hand to making hand pulled noodles. The idea had been on my mind after I read a recent blog post on Pulled Noodles, Lady Style on Life on Nanchang Lu (I also found this very good explanation of the technique.) This method takes up less space and less mess than the regular hand pulled noodles (lamian or laghman in Uygher) you see made by men pulling the dough to an arm aching degree and dusting flour all over the place and I believe is made at home in Xinjiang by women. I can’t say I was incredibly proficient on my first go but as you can see, I did manage to produce enough to feed the two of us!

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
adapted from a recipe from The Newlywed Cookbook (on Gapey’s Grub)
serves 4.

500g beef shin
500g oxtail
2 tbsps sunflower oil
6 cloves garlic, smashed
4 slices ginger, bruised
4 spring onions, cut in half crosswise
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder
2 star anise
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
2 dried red chilies
1 fresh red chili
2 tbsps Shaoxing rice wine
2 tbsps light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 heaped tbsps chili bean paste
2 tbsps sugar
7 cups water (2.25l)

To serve:
wheat noodles for four
spinach or pak choy
chopped spring onions
chopped coriander

This first step is optional but makes things a little easier at the end. Take a square of muslin/cheesecloth and bundle up the star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, dried chilies and fresh chili.

Heat a large stock pot over medium-high heat and add the sunflower oil. Brown the oxtail and beef shin on all sides before adding the garlic, ginger and spring onions. Stir and fry until fragrant. Add the five spice powder, the spice bundle, the chili bean paste, the Shaoxing rice wine, the light and dark soy sauces and the sugar and pour over the water. Bring it to a boil and then turn down the heat and leave to simmer, half covered, for 4 hours.

At the end of the simmering time, take the meat out and separate it from any bones and cut into large chunks. Set it aside. Strain the soup (I used a Chinese spider), skim any fat if there looks to be too much, and keep hot.

Boil water in another pot and boil your noodles until cooked. Drain and place in a bowl. Top with some beef. Bring the broth to a simmer and add the vegetables. When cooked, drain the vegetables and place on top of the noodles also. Pour some broth over the noodles and sprinkle it all with the chopped spring onions and coriander. Serve immediately.

This restaurant isn’t actually near Clapham Junction but rather Clapham Old Town, about a half hour walk through Clapham Common. That brisk autumn walk through the common was just what we needed to build up an appetite and at 1pm on the dot, we sat down, ravenous, in the restaurant.

We were first brought an amuse of fresh radishes and cod roe dip. We dipped and crunched our way through the plate and then when there were no more radishes, we kept the salty cod roe dip for our bread.

Sourdough buns were warm, crusty and deliciously chewy within – we snarfled down our first ones and they swiftly brought more over.

The radishes and the bread and butter and both still or sparkling water are all covered by a very reasonable cover charge in addition to the cost of the set lunch.

To start the menu proper, we had all opted for the Livers on Toast, Chanterelles, Fried Burford Brown (this was originally supposed to be a slow cooked egg but we were informed it was going to be fried). It was a generous serving and just a bit too much liver for me (I find it very very rich). Still, that’s just my own personal quibble – if you like liver, you’d love this.

Blai’s main course was a Hare Hot Pot, Bartlett Belle Carrots. The hare had been cooked and deboned and layered with breadcrumbs and nuts in the little pot – it was gorgeous.

My and my brother’s Grilled Plaice, Clams, Champ, Butter Sauce turned out to be a humongous portion of fresh seafood and mashed potatoes. That piece of fish in the photo was at least 4cm thick. I already feel full looking at the photo again!

Desserts were equally generous in size. Our Apple Crumble, Cinnamon Ice Cream was again a big serving of hot and nutty apple crumble. Like most apple crumbles I come across though, I just wish the apples were cooked longer for them to be softer.

Blai’s Plum Fool was the winner for me – all that “light” whipped cream and plum sauce went down a treat after the heavy meal.

We ordered tea and coffee to end the meal – needless to say, they were not included in the set lunch price. Jasmine was beautifully fragrant but oversteeped to bitterness.

Sadly, the espressos we had were also not very good, again too bitter. They came with generous pile of dark chocolate chunks though.

It’s a shame – these were a disappointment after the meal.

I still can’t believe it was £20 for three courses though and three very generous courses they were too. They may not have been the most refined dishes (gosh, did I mention the size of the portions?) but it was very good value for very good modern British food. It was a lovely long lunch and service was exemplary throughout. Definitely recommended when you’re in Clapham!

Trinity
4 The Polygon
Clapham
London SW4 0JG

What one tends to get if ordering congee in London is the very thick Cantonese style ones with some sort of flavouring cooked in: fish, century egg, pork, etc. My mother used to cook a Teochew style porridge (much more watery and the rice grains are still whole) with pork and we’d down bowlfuls of it seasoned to taste with soy sauce, white pepper, garlic oil and chopped spring onions. If you were to go out in Malaysia and Singapore and have Teochew porridge, you’d get a number of small, strongly flavoured dishes served alongside a bowl of plain Teochew style rice porridge. This was exactly what I wanted.

I’d never made a small batch of rice porridge before as I’d always cooked it for 2 or 3 (it doesn’t keep very well). But in a small pot, why not? And yes, I discovered it can certainly be cooked in small quantities – kitchen tigress gives a handy table for the ratio of rice to water required. I found that the amount I cooked (recipe below) provided me with two rice bowls of porridge, the perfect amount for my dinner.

Can’t forget about the dishes! As the Teochew porridge is unseasoned, the side dishes are usually quite salty. I made sauteed green beans, a chai poh (salted radish) omelette and cooked some minced pork with a chili black bean sauce. Looking around our kitchen, I found a few extras too that went well on the side: salted peanuts, half a hard boiled salted duck egg and some leftover dried prawn sambal. If it’s strongly flavoured, it’ll go well with the porridge! A bite of pork, a spoonful of porridge (actually, pros are able to push the top layer of porridge into one’s mouth with chopsticks), a nibble of salted egg, more porridge – I think it’s rather a fine supper on a cold night.

Teochew Porridge for One

Wash 1/4 cup of jasmine rice (or a regular long grained rice), drain, and then add 650ml water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 15 minutes until the grains are soft but still whole. You don’t want them to end up as mush. It should be somewhere between thick and thin, still with liquid left. See this photo for reference.

Chai Poh Omelette

Beat 2 eggs together with a few dashes of fish sauce. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add 1 tbsp of sunflower oil. When hot, add 1 finely chopped clove of garlic and two pieces of chai poh (Chinese salted radish), chopped, and fry together for a couple of minutes. Pour the eggs over and fry as you would a flat omelette.

Fried Green Beans

This shows up quite often when I have no idea what vegetable dish to make; if you can get long beans, then all the better. Trim your green beans and cut into approximately 3cm segments. Heat a little sunflower oil over medium-low heat and then add a smashed garlic clove to slowly cook in the oil. Discard the garlic and then add the beans. Fry, turning often, until the green beans are all wrinkly. Salt to taste.

Minced Pork with Chilli Black Bean Sauce

Rinse 1.5 tsp preserved black beans and chop roughly. Mix them together with 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp light soy sauce, a dash of Chinese black vinegar, 1/4-1/2 tsp sugar and 50 ml water.

Finely chop one clove of garlic and saute in 1 tbsp sunflower oil. Add about 200g minced pork and fry until cooked. Add about 1 tsp chilli paste and continue frying for another couple minutes. Pour in the sauce mixture, stir well and let simmer for a few minutes. Stir again and thicken with a little cornstarch/water mixture.

The photo below shows the two main jams I’ve been producing – strawberry jam and plum jam. There seem to have been gluts of both fruits this summer and punnets could be bought at knock down prices at the end of the day at most markets. It seemed like a good year to finally learn to make jam and to get over my fear of preserving (was convinced I’d make something that would kill us). It was easy – much easier than I expected! And I like a softer set in my jams and I like that I can control this when making my own. Sure, I overcooked the jam on my very first attempt but then a small batch meant that I wasn’t wasting very much.

I’ve been using this article as a general guide but instead of just storing the jars in the fridge, I’ve been processing them properly so that I can store them in the cupboard for fruity goodness all through the year. Of course, due to the excitement of having homemade jam in the flat, we’re currently only left with one jar.

Next summer, there will certainly be more jam but what else do you think I should make please? (Apricot for sure. Oh, and raspberry.)

And we saw a seal – how thrilling! This was an adult sunning itself on a rock; it seemed very unimpressed by us.

About an hour after we started (with stops to see the seal and to see a couple of traditional fishing villages on the way), we arrived at this boathouse – Everts Sjöbod (Evert’s Boathouse), owned and run by brothers Per and Lars Karlsson. It was they who picked us up that morning.

Inside, it’s decorated exactly how I’d expect a Swedish boathouse to be decorated – it was gorgeous and, y’know, nautical (and warm). While the downstairs was comfy but practical, upstairs was bright and spacious and apparently can be hired out for parties.

To give us a moment to catch our breath and rest, we were brought coffee and cake upstairs – our last fika in Sweden. I miss this custom already.

After, we descended back down the stairs to take part in our Oyster Experience. Per had already started raking up oysters from underneath the boathouse while we were partaking in fika and he had quite a collection already when we went down to join him. There’s a small net attached to the rake and every scoop he brought up had at least a few oysters in it. He later explained that he harvests them all around Grebbestad but brings them back to under his boathouse where the oysters love to live.

The native Swedish oysters are easily identified – round and rather pretty. See that mutant in the top right of the pile in the photo below? OK, it’s not a mutant but just a different kind of oyster – a Japanese species. As I may have mentioned before, I like the meatiness of the native oysters over the creaminess of other oysters that I’ve tried in the past: the Japanese oyster looked like a creamy one.

They were brought inside to a demonstration table already setup for us. We learned to shuck oysters (interestingly, it’s a different oyster knife used for the natives versus the Japanese one) and I even had a go at it. It’s trickier than it looks (especially when demonstrated by a man who takes part in Grebbestad’s annual Nordic Oyster Opening Championship) but I got it open in the end.

After we had a go, he shucked the remaining ones and we gathered round the table and feasted. Ah, nothing like an early morning oyster or two.

Alas, there was no photo of the oyster I shucked as that went straight down my gullet!

While we were still digesting our oysters, there was no rest for Per and Lars. They immediately started setting up their other boat, Tuffa, pictured below, a gorgeous wooden boat built in the 50s.

And why were we going out on the water again? Well, to make up for the lobster safari that did not go as planned the day before, we were going out on another! They leave their lobster traps close by and so it was only a short trip out to see what lay in store for us. Per had even brought a bucket of salted herring bait to refill the traps.

The first trap pulled up had two crabs inside. A lovely catch but they ain’t no lobster.

And then with the second trap – success! A lobster! And even another crab or two, making for what I consider a pretty good haul from only two traps.

We came back to a seafood lunch set out for us. This was our last meal in Sweden for we were heading for the airport straight after.

Boiled langoustines (what the Swedish call saltwater crayfish, as opposed to freshwater crayfish) and crabs were the bulk of our meal and we spent a jolly hour cracking and slurping and gnawing away at those shells.

One cannot forget the cheese! That cheese and sauces and breads and crackers rounded out our meal.

I’m just sorry for Per and Lars for the mess we left! Their oyster tasting and lobster safari packages can all be booked on the West Sweden website as part of the Shellfish Journey promotion.

A dozy bus ride later and we were again at Gothenburg airport to catch our flight back to London. Gosh, I miss all that seafood and fresh air and fikas. It’s still surprising to me how close West Sweden is from London and it is doable in a weekend. While we were driven around in a hired minibus for our weekend, I did notice that public transportation is very good and there’s a whole network of buses that can get you from Gothenburg to Grebbested, Strömstad or Lysekil.

My fellow food bloggers’ posts on this trip can be found here: Jeanne of Cook Sister, Chris of Cheese and Biscuits, Helen of Food Stories, Lizzie of Hollow Legs and Nadia of Food Fanatic (though if you don’t read Danish, you’ll need Google Translate for Nadia’s posts!). And as usual, all my photos from this trip can be seen in this Flickr photoset.

Thank you again to the West Sweden Tourist Board (Facebook page, Twitter, Blog) and Visit Sweden (Facebook, Twitter) for this amazing Shellfish Journey. Thank you also to Stephanie, Malin and Ann-Charlotte who arranged the trip and accompanied us there – they were great.

Helena von Bothmer met us at the ferry stop and walked us the five minutes to Sydkoster Hotell Ekenäs, our hotel for the night. We dumped our bags and then went off to choose a bicycle from a whole field full of them. Yes, we were taking a bicycle tour of the island – bicycles are very popular, as you’d imagine, when cars are banned. Other popular modes of transport (apart from walking, which is definitely possible as the island is only about 8 square kilometres) include the golf cart and a particular three wheeled vehicle with space for cargo whose name I’ve forgotten.

And then off we went! We cycled all round that island and passed houses, forests, and beaches. Here’s Helena telling us about the island and its residents.

We were joined by a cat who wove in and out amongst the bicycles; he was quite a friendly little fellow though he did run the risk of being run over!

Later, we stopped at the boundary of Sweden’s first Marine National Park, Kosterhavet, right on the coast of South Koster Island. Apparently there are 200 plant and animal species that cannot be found anywhere else in Sweden; as explained to us, it’s quite a deep and unique environment created, I think, by the meeting of two tectonic plates.

After further stops at the main fishing port and at the highest point on the island, well, we were hungry. At midday, we cycled to Kosters Trädgårdar (the gardens, nursery centre, farm shop, cafe/restaurant owned by Helena and her husband) for lunch. I was starving; my bicycle had decided to act up (sticking brakes) and it felt like I was cycling up a hill for most of the morning. Food was required!

We demolished a large bowl of leaf salad with peppers and toasted pumpkin seeds and cleared a platter of a wholemeal bread full of seeds.

Big bowls of a hearty fish stew were then brought out. The tomato based stew with fish, golden beetroot, potatoes, and kale was topped with a generous dollop of aioli (the amount of garlic used in Swedish cuisine surprised me) and it hit the spot. You could tell how tired we were by the silence that overcame the table as we slurped it down.

We were let loose on the spread of cakes after we finished our stews. A few of us shared a variety of them and my favourite was the traditional kanelbulle, the Swedish cinnamon roll.

After lunch, we cycled back to the hotel where we prepared for the main event of the day – a lobster safari with Johan Andersson from the hotel. Sadly, I don’t have many photos from this trip as we were very unsuccessful – 2.5m waves prevented us from getting anywhere near the lobster pots and so this safari amounted to mainly pottering around the Koster Islands. I think most fishermen would laugh at 2.5m swells but for us, they sounded deadly!

Back on land, we did get to see a few lobsters that were caught previously…but it’s not the same thing…

We did, however, learn how to cook the beasts in the manner we’d have them that night: dill-poached. 20L of water and 800g of salt and lots of dill stalks make up the poaching liquid (though I’d learn later that night that perhaps 800g is a bit too much) and the lobsters were unceremoniously dumped in. When fully cooked, they were taken off the heat but kept in their poaching liquid until dinnertime.

We also now know how to tell a lady lobster from a gentleman lobster – it’s all in the hips apparently (wider = female).

If you’d like to try a lobster safari from South Koster Island, there are two packages available here – the small package is quite similar to what we did…but y’know, we didn’t get that hot tub. I hope you have better luck with the lobstering than we did!

As we still had an hour and a half to dinner, I set out on a short walk while there was still light. I made it to a nearby beach and just sat there for a bit – it is amazingly quiet and peaceful there and I already started imagining returning with Blai!

I made it back with lots of time to spare for dinner. The dining room was already half full when I went down and had quite a jolly atmosphere. And how can you resist a fireplace like this one we found in the restaurant?

All the tables were set with dishes of lobster popcorn (tossed with lobster powder made from lobster oil and topped with lobster chips) and regular butter and goat’s milk butter. Goat’s milk butter is indeed goaty. And those lobster chips? They melted in one’s mouth and had a fabulously strong shellfish flavour.

We started with a creamy lobster soup served on lobster semolina and artichokes. The flavour of the soup had obviously come from boiling lots of lobster shells, a great way to get the most out of the crustaceans.

Here’s my dill poached lobster paired with a sliced of cheese quiche. And just in case that wasn’t enough cheese for you, there was even more on the side along with a red pepper mayonnaise and an aioli. The lobster was lovely but if you wanted to dill-poach it at home, I’d recommend reducing that salt amount – woooo, it was salty!

And then we were presented with more cheese! This was Himmelsraften, a washed hard cheese from Jämtland served with seabuckthorn and smoked rapeseed oil. The cheese was lovely but I had trouble with the tart seabuckthorn jelly with it.

Finally, poached Clara Friis pears with vanilla ice cream and pear cognac zabaglione for dessert. I would have liked a bit more of the pear and cake but from what I understand, desserts aren’t so big in Swedish culture. It sounds like most of the sweets are eaten at fika.

Full and needing rest, I retired to my room (yup, another early morning for the last day) to the sounds of a rock band at the bar. South Koster Island might only have 300 residents but they sure know how to party.

An early morning trip to Heathrow on Friday was softened by an invitation to visit the Star Alliance lounge before boarding our short SAS flight to Gothenburg. No time in Gothenburg though as we boarded a minibus at the airport and were driven further north for our journey.

First things first, we needed feeding: our first stop was Villa Sjötorp in Ljungskile. This beautiful and grand summer house with the most beautiful view out back is now a hotel and restaurant. There’s a Shellfish Journey package available through the hotel (accommodation and seafood dinner) but we were just there for a meal that day.

Our lunch was a beautifully tender chicken breast in an apple-based sauce with chanterelles and beetroot, all accompanied by a leaf salad with cauliflower and cheese and a bread basket filled with a varied assortment of buns, rye breads and crackers. The chef came out after our meal to explain that all the ingredients were sourced locally and were all organic too; it seems that the local food movement is currently very big in Sweden though I’m of the impression that it’s been popular here for a while.

We finished with coffee and tea and little melty mint chocolates. I’d always pictured Sweden to be a big coffee drinking country (cf. Wallander novels) and this just strengthened that picture; this was to be the first of many cups of joe I’d consume while there. I quite love the whole fika (a break for coffee and cake) concept!

We continued our drive up to Lysekil on the coast, where we were taking part in our main activity that day, a Mussel Safari. We hopped out of the bus almost directly onto a pier where we pulled on bright oversized jumpsuits that would both keep us warm and keep us alive if we were to accidentally fall into the sea; they wouldn’t please the fashion-conscious but better safe than sorry! Hopped onto a little boat and off we went.

That’s Adrian van der Plasse in the big woolen fisherman’s jumper. He owns Orust Shellfish and he was a brilliant guide, showing us the 20 minute route we were going to take from Lysekil and teaching us about the ways to grow mussels used in the waters around the town: the barrel and rope method versus the net method. I myself preferred the net method only because it was more aesthetically pleasing on the surface of the water. We cooed over little baby mussels and larger teenage mussels pulled up from the sea – it takes 18 months to 2 years until they reach edible maturity.

We pulled up onto a rocky island inhabited by Adrian’s two sheep and a small wooden shack…and a bucket of oysters. Lars Marstone (he runs Lysekil Ostron & Musslor and operates the mussel safaris with Adrian) started explaining that these oysters were harvested just in the waters surrounding us and started shucking them. We slurped them down as quickly as he could shuck them.

While our attention was distracted by the oysters, I didn’t realise that so much activity was taking place near the shack. Adrian had got a gas burner on and was cooking up the largest pot of mussels I had ever seen – it wasn’t long before they were ready to eat. I want to state that these weren’t mussels that were harvested while we were out on the water – that day (week? month?), those mussels could not be eaten due to a toxin in the waters (the oysters aren’t affected). We were fed safe mussels!

Armed with bowls of hot mussels, we perched anywhere we could on that rock island and took in the peacefulness of it all, the silence only punctuated by little splashes where we hurled mussel shells back into the sea.

After getting our fill of the black shellfish, the last thing I expected was even more food – it was fika time again! Here’s Lars with the coffee and an excellent carrot cake.

After an hour or so of utter calm (and digestion) on that rock, we again boarded our trusty steed…

… and rode off into the sunset, back to Lysekil where we were having dinner that night.

(A bit of a surprise – I was interviewed about the shellfish journey the next day for Bohusläningen, a local newspaper, and the article with photos from the day is available online.)

The mussel safari (actually a longer version of what we experienced and costing 795 SEK) can be booked through hotels such as the Strandflickorna Havshotellet, where we stayed that night.

Quite amusingly, we all discovered that each of our rooms were themed in some way. Mine was decorated with the bizarre belongings of a sailor now long gone. Still, I slept well later that night, thankfully.

After freshening up, we headed down to Cafe Ferdinand in Gamla Stan, the old town of Lysekil. All the buildings up north here are built of wood, making for an old town that looked relatively new; only the cobblestones were a giveaway of the town’s age.

We were presented with a seafood buffet! Banish all thoughts of grim budget buffets in the UK and even the grandiose buffets at Asian hotels – this was an intimate spread of freshly prepared seafood all sourced locally. Nothing came from further than an hour away.

And cheese! That day, I thought this was for afters but I discovered later that nope, cheese is eaten with seafood in Sweden. I’m still not used to this combination.

Needless to say, we stuffed ourselves silly.

This here was my first plate and well… I lost count after my second one and the bowl of creamy mussel soup and the salad with the giant scallop and the amazing gratinated oysters (garlic butter and breadcrumbs)… well, yeah.

It’s not possible to walk in off the street to have dinner at this cafe though. This must be booked as part of a package such as this one. It’s impossible for them to keep so much seafood available at any time – it’s a small town and we can’t have any of that glorious seafood go to waste!

It was hard to believe that we’d only been in West Sweden for a day, having packed in so much activity. It was off to bed for us as we had an early morning start the next day.

I knew nothing about the cafe and even less so about Jamie Kennedy, the chef-owner. From what I can gather online, he’s quite a star chef in Toronto and he cares very much about where all the food he uses is sourced. I knew nothing of this when we entered Gilead Café for brunch that Sunday morning. The space is big and bright and I loved the walls lined with homemade preserves. Do come relatively early as we did and get seated immediately – there was a small queue as we were eating.

Three of us opted for the Hash with Sunny Side Up Eggs and Greens. The hash changes on a regular basis and the chalkboard indicated that today’s was going to be with succotash and bacon. Large chunks of potato were fried together with the corn and bacon mixture and served in a piping hot cast iron frying pan. It was a delicious start to the morning but I have a small quibble – I just wished the potatoes were cubed smaller, increasing the amount of fried surface area.

One colleague ordered the Howdy Pard’ner, an open faced Sloppy Joe with a poached egg served with fries. He seemed pleased with it.

And of course, the main reason I was there, a Poutine which I ordered for the table. A bowlful of well-browned fries (the way I like it) came out topped with cheese and the same meat topping as in the Howdy Pard’ner (actually they had layered the ingredients, ensuring that you always get something good with your fries). A big dollop of sour cream topped it all. It wasn’t a classic poutine by any means but it was certainly very good.

As you can see from this Flickr search, the toppings seem to change regularly. The pork confit version looks amazing.

I couldn’t leave without trying one of their sweets and so bought a little butter tart to split between the four of us. It really was a very small one and so divvying it up did look a bit silly but I’m glad of just partaking in a single bite – it was ludicrously sweet.

I’ve heard good things about their French toast for dessert though so that might be something to try if you’re there. The place is open for breakfast and lunch and turns into a bistro at night for dinner.

Gilead Café
4 Gilead Pl
Toronto, ON
M5A 3C9

And that ends my short roundup of Toronto eats – as usual, all my photos of my trip can be found in this Flickr photoset. It was a fun trip – apart from the conference I attended, I also went up the CN Tower, visited Niagara Falls (not to be missed!), and was privileged to be invited to dinner at Shayma’s (the beautiful Shayma of The Spice Spoon). And of course, the St Lawrence Market is not to be missed, especially on a Saturday when the farmers all set up stands too. I enjoyed a delicious peameal bacon sandwich from Carousel Bakery, bought mustard from Kozliks, and shared a gorgeous wild blueberry strudel from Oodles of Strudels. Toronto is yummy.