Tag: fika

January 16, 2020

2019 – the Food Stuff

There’s a weekend to be planned here – nothing that couldn’t be achieved with the services of a private jet, and perhaps a bit of time travel.

You could have breakfast in Paris, take a coffee in Stockholm, then lunch on Torcello, or Borough Market in London if you prefer.

Dinner? Back to Paris, on to Amsterdam? Or (my choice) Stockholm again for a magnificent steak.

I’ll let you take in an hour’s TV to recover, then if you still have the stamina, we’ll head over to Venice for a nightcap.

Best Breakfast of 2019?

It has to be The French Bastards, for ‘A croissant worth crossing Paris for’

https://wp.me/p7AW4i-Kj

Best croissant in Paris?

Mid morning coffee

A seriously good cup of coffee is one of life’s great pleasures for me, and they don’t get much better than at Robert’s Coffee, in the Saluhall market, Stockholm.

The cinnamon buns are a bonus. (They take cards only, not cash, so you won’t even have to bother buying kronor).

Fika at Robert’s Coffee, Stockholm

What have the Swedes ever done for us?

https://wp.me/p7AW4i-Cv

Lunch in the Lagoon….

Osteria al Ponte del Diavolo on the island of Torcello; all the better for being unexpected.

Torcello is about an hour from Venice; you can reach it on a scheduled service, changing at Burano, using your vaporetto pass.

Osteria al Ponte del Diavolo, Torcello

The ancient basilica on Torcello predates the city of Venice. To reach it from the quay, you walk along the side of a canal. The most famous restaurant on the island is the Locanda Cipriani nearby, but you pass three others on the way.

We weren’t looking for a grand lunch, but something to fortify us for the basilica.

The first place looked fun, but was packed with families queuing for pizza.

The second was a fairly standard Trattoria. We walked on.

The third had a big dining room with a covered terrace at the back, opening onto a garden. The menu looked as if we could find something suitable, so we went in and were greeted with smiles and shown to a table.

It was a good decision, even the bread basket was exceptional. We had a pretty antipasto of colourful steamed vegetables, all tasting intensely of themselves, served warm to bring out the fruitiness of the olive oil dressing.

Then black squid ink pasta, with crab, samphire and rosemary; orecchiette with turbot and cherry tomatoes.

We drank Arneis, a white from Piemonte.

After lunch we wandered round the garden and may have dropped off on a bench in the pergola. Just for a moment….

Osteria al Ponte del Diavolo is open for lunch Tuesday to Sunday, and dinner on Friday and Saturday.

Contatti

….and at Borough Market

Closer to home but equally unexpected was discovering the new Brindisa Kitchen at Borough Market. It’s inspired by the bars in Spanish markets.

I saw it had opened the day before I’d arranged to meet a friend for a day of shopping and sustenance (Instagram has its uses).

A perfect scallop

A glass of Manzanilla with a single perfect scallop.

Hake & mussels.

I love watching chefs happy in their work, interacting with their customers, and the bar staff were charming.

The head chef, Brindisa Kitchen

Hake & mussels

https://boroughmarket.org.uk/traders/brindisa-kitchen

Dinner?

Honourable mention for the Sweetbreads at Frenchie’s Wine Bar, Paris.

So good, I ate them twice.

https://wp.me/p7AW4i-Kh

‘Everything, I want to eat everything’

Caffé Toscanini in Amsterdam for the whole experience of food and hospitality; a perfect aperitif followed by an accomplished Italian meal, delivered with good humour and expertise.

https://wp.me/p7AW4i-Kh

The bar at Caffe Toscanini, Amserdam

The prize goes to A.G. for the best steak of 2019. I’ll be lucky to find one as good in 2020.

Most of the tables were occupied by groups of men sharing massive steaks.

There were also a few couples on date nights, sharing massive steaks.

‘Vegetarians, look away now’.

https://wp.me/p7AW4i-Oh

A.G. – ‘vegetarians, look away now’

TV Show: Remarkable places to eat, Episode 1, in which chef Angela Hartnett takes Maitre d’ Fred Siriex to her favourites in Venice.

It’s a full hour of television, so they have time to show you the dedication and hard work that goes into delivering the best ingredients and food experiences in the city. These are not cynical tourist traps. Nothing is done without effort: wading chest deep in the lagoon to harvest seafood; delivering vegetables by boat and trolley to Bruno Gavagnin, the quietly spoken but demanding chef at Alle Testiere; walking half a kilometre over bridges carrying boxes of perfect patisserie to Caffe Florian, from their production kitchen to Piazza San Marco – several times throughout the day.

At the time of writing it’s not available on BBC iPlayer, but it’s sure to turn up on your TV sooner or later.

Here are the fishermen:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006vw3

Here’s a clip:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07g3dkl

FANCY A NIGHTCAP?

Let’s head back to Venice, for a glass of wine at Vino Vero.

You’ll find it here, on my page ‘And to drink?’

https://wp.me/P7AW4i-aV

January 24, 2019

Swedish food, Part One: “what have the Swedes ever done for us?”

In her Reith Lecture in 2018, Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan said this about the Swedish people:

“Think of the Swedes”

“I mean we think of the Swedes now today as making
expeditions to Ikea, assembling furniture quietly, not getting cross at it. We
think of them going to the woods and picking berries. I mean they are a peaceful people.

If you lived in the 17th century, you would not want a Swedish army anywhere near you. They were notorious…. they were known throughout the Thirty Years’ War as some of the most vicious and dangerous soldiers around”.

So, besides rape and pillage – “What have the Swedes ever done for us?”

IKEA. The safety match. Björn Borg.

Electrolux, Ericsson, Hasselblad cameras, H & M, Saab, Skagen salad, Spotify, Volvo.

Abba….

Add food to that list:

Gravlax, Meatballs, Lingonberries, Fika, and what seems like….

A Hundred Ways with Herring *

So what better place to start a search for Swedish food in Stockholm than a city market?

The handsome 19th century Östermalms Market Hall is undergoing extensive renovation, and activity has been rehoused in a temporary structure opposite.

It was late morning, and the traders seemed less busy than I expected, but I realised they were using their time well. As well as retail, most businesses have an on-site restaurant or takeaway offer, so the staff were calmly working as they prepared for the lunchtime rush.

All markets are best explored after coffee. Fika is the Swedish custom of lingering over coffee with something to eat, usually sweet; Robert’s Coffee fitted the bill perfectly.

FIKA – Cortado with buns; cinnamon and cardamom

Robert’s Coffee

Everything in the market is immaculately presented.

King Crab legs, with whole lobsters for scale

Japanese Wagyu Beef

You can have a sociable meal….

Tysta Mari for seafood

….or a quiet business lunch.

Do Not Disturb

A word of caution: many retail outlets in Stockholm do not accept cash. Take cards, not Kronor!

Tysta Mari in the market provided a splendid lunch – and they take cash!

A typical open sandwich

An open sandwich: avocado, prawns & mild pickled onions on rye bread.

“Fisksoppen” with Aioli

“Fisksoppen” was a wonderful soup – the broth spicy with cardamom, chunks of fish and whole plum tomatoes swimming beneath a shoal of prawns, all pulled together by a rich, garlicky Aoli.

ÖSTERMALMS SALUHALL

Östermalmstorg, 114 39 Stockholm

https://www.ostermalmshallen.se/

Monday – Friday 9.30 – 19.00, Saturday 9.30 – 17.00

But I still hadn’t eaten Gravlax, Herring, Skagen or Meatballs.

I would have to take to the water!

* for more tips on Swedish cuisine, look no further than The Nordic Cook Book, where chef Magnus Nilsson helpfully and definitively describes how to deal with such delicacies as guillemot, reindeer heart, moose, pilot whale and puffin.

https://uk.phaidon.com/store/food-cook/the-nordic-cookbook-9780714868721/

Nordic Fusion in Gamla Stan, the old city centre

January 17, 2019

A taste for Nordic Noir in Stockholm

I’ve read the novels of Henning Mankell; on TV I’ve seen both the Swedish version, and Kenneth Branagh’s interpretation of the world-weary detective Kurt Wallander. (Perhaps he was just weary of the insistent ringtone on his mobile that goes off at the most inopportune moments).

Stockholm: cold, dark and deep water?

I was an avid follower of ‘Arne Dahl’ on BBC 4, with its mature female chief leading an elite squad of detectives, facing the problems of investigating crime in contemporary Stockholm.

I came late to ‘The Bridge’, I missed ‘The Killing’, and Stieg Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series was a step too far into the dark for me, but they all reinforced my prejudice that Stockholm might not be a safe place to wander in at night.

Night scene, Stockholm, with vulnerable pedestrian

I arrived in the city for the first time with a guilty thrill of anticipation that at some point over the coming weekend I might hear of the discovery of a corpse, brutally murdered and horribly mutilated, in a dark corner somewhere near the hotel.

“The woman was walking her terrier, Garbo, in the park behind the National Library of Sweden. So as not to lose her dog in the dark, she had attached a flashing blue light to its collar. As she let the dog run free, the woman wondered why it was scrabbling in the undergrowth, under the light dusting of snow…..”

No. I couldn’t unleash my inner Wallander.

All I can report is that the Swedes wear a lot of black.

Quilted coats, black suits, leggings, stout boots, that sort of thing.

A mysterious man in black, posing as a shopper, but what was in his bag?

There’s a custom called Fika, which roughly translates as sharing time with a friend over a sweet pastry and a coffee, which is usually strong and…. black.

But then, on day two, I saw this:

“No! Don’t go with her…..” (not in that coat)

A man in a red plaid coat, carefully coordinated with yellow trousers and gloves; clearly a foreigner. Picked up on CCTV, the Swedish police might surmise he was being lured to his death by a Swedish woman in a black coat and boots. How could they possibly find her?

It was a race against time. Eager to help, and with a cover story of exploring Nordic food, for the rest of the weekend I was surreptitiously on the lookout for suspects.