Summer holiday and food in Sweden

The beautiful Swedish west coast

 

Back in a hot and sunny London after a fantastic holiday in Sweden. One week full of great times with family and friends, and of course lots of food. Swedish cheeses, sausages, my dad's BBQ pork, crayfish, filmjölk (soured milk, you eat like yoghurt for breakfast), cinnamon and cardamon buns, salty licorice, my mum's citrus aioli, chantarelles, raspberries, fermented herring, licorice ice cream....

I know, it sounds like I did nothing but eat, but in between all meals I also managed to visit the west coast with both my Swedish and Danish family, my home town Uppsala, and Stockholm, and see lots of my friends and their kids, including the newest addition, the tiny 5 day old son of two of my best and oldest friends. Not bad for one week ;)

Here's a couple of pictures from my holiday

Grundsund on the west coast

Reimersholme in Stockholm, where I had ice coffee and cardamon buns with Sofia by the water just outside her flat

Beef cheeks with truffle potato mash at Rolf's kitchen in Stockholm with Sigrid. Read her blog (Swedish only) here

My parents place outside Uppsala

Toast with chantarelles - possibly the best thing ever

Raggmunk - Swedish potato pancakes with bacon and lingon berries

Fermented herring on crisp bread with fresh potatoes and red onion - and of course schnapps

My grandma's beautiful raspberry cake

Glorious food in China

Jingshaling Great Wall of China

I went to China for the second time for three weeks in May. The main reason for the trip was my friend P's wedding in SuZhou, a beautiful city close to Shanghai. The wedding was amazing, with a banquet with 18 dishes including lobster! After SuZhou I first went to HangZhuo and did a walk around the West lake there. The day after, I jumped on the bullet train up to Beijing. I had a great time in Beijing, it's an interesting city with lots to see and experience, including of course trips to the Great Wall. However, it's quite polluted so I decided to go down to Qingdao on the coast for a bit of fresh air and time on the beach. My last stop was in Shanghai, another vibrant city and quite a contrast to the more traditional Beijing.

It was interesting to see another side of China, as the first time I went to China I was mainly in the southwest regions, Sichuan and Yunnan and did lots of trekking in the mountains, this time it was mainly the big cities. The only trekking I did was 2 days on the Great Wall, and let me tell you, that is hard work! It is so incredibly steep and lots of endless steps. But the views are well worth it. All in all, a fantastic trip with great experiences and memories, and of course food. Some of the food I had are below.

Won ton soup

Soup dumplings, a speciality in SuZhou and Shanghai, filled with hot soup and a pork meatball. Delicious, but tricky to eat without scalding yourself....

Sichuan dandan noodles and dry fried green beans

 

Peking duck - a must when you're in Beijing

For something different: Korean bulgogi and kimchi

 

Spicy noodle soup and cool sesame marinated cucumber

Best breakfast with a view: Soup dumplings at People's square in Shanghai

Dim sum

Very spicy Hunan dishes: Pork with green beans, and spicy aubergine

Amazing food in China

Back from an amazing holiday in China! I was planning to continue blogging when I was there but turned out that the blog was blocked and I couldn't access it. Saga - China 1-0.

China was absolutely fantastic, the nature, the people, the culture, and of course the food. I ate so well and so much. Lots of fantastic street food, bbq meats and fish, steamed buns, stuffed pancakes and bread, noodle soups, stir fries.... The variety of food is great, and there is such a difference between the different regions. From the seafood and dim sum in Hong Kong, to spicy hot pots in Sichuan, yak stew in north Yunnan and coconut-flavoured soups in south Yunnan. AMAZING!!! I love lots of the vegetable dishes, stir fried cabbage or salad or green beans with a bit of chili and garlic, so simple, so tasty. Regrettably I didn't manage to take many pictures of the food I had, I blame my greedy and hungry personality, I would devour the food way to quickly to have a chance to take a picture of anything else than an empty plate... Below is a few of the meals I managed to capture with my camera.


Tasty yak stew with potatoes, reminded me of the stews my grandmothers make. With it came a side dish of pickled vegetables, and I had a large glass of ginger tea.


Dan dan noodles in Chengdu, and a side dish of braised salad with chili. Tasty and spicy, like all food I tried in Sichuan.


Streetfood in Chengdu, meat or fish is added to each stick and deep fried and eaten with spicy dips


Street restaurant in Chengdu serving spicy noodles


The best fruit in the world, mangosteen! Gorgeous!

Dragon's back

Today I walked along the Dragon's back trail on the east of Hong kong island, a 2 h hike along the ridge of the low mountains there. It was lovely, with amazing views, but quite steep at times. At the end of trail was Shek O beach, where I stayed a couple of hours, and endulged in lots of watermelon and mango. And some Laughing Cow cheese cubes as snacks on the way... I bought them. all the time when hiking on Borneo, as they're not very sensitive to heat. That taste of processed cheese flavoured with ham and tomatoe also really reminds me of summers camping with my family. Can't go camping etc in Sweden and not bring cheese on tube (crayfish, prawn and ham are some of the flavours)... 

What else have I've been up to? Not much, I was planning to go up to the Peak yesterday, but gave up when I saw the very long que. Instead spent the day walking through markets and relaxing in Kowloon park reading Aijvide's last book (thanks Elisabeth!)

I'm leaving early tomorrow morning to go to Guangzhou in China, from there I hope to be able to get a bus to Yangshuo at 1pm. I get to Guangzhou at 9 am, hopefully that will be enough to find the bus station and buy a ticket... What could possibly go wrong? Except that I'm geographically challenged, not sure where the bus is leaving from, exactly when it's leaving, where I can buy a ticket, and I can't read, speak or understand the language? Fingers crossed all goes as planned!   

A hungry Swede in Hong kong

I've been a worthless food blogger recently, way to busy w work and moving to have time to cook anything remotely intersting.I've left UK yesterday for 6 weeks in hong kong, china and laos. So for now the food blog will be a travel blog. My guess is that it will still be pretty foodcentric.

I got into HKK about 6 h ago, and it feels great being back here. I feel a bit shattered, despite sleeping/slumbering for most of the flight here. Btw, def recommeds air new zealand, great service, seats and food.

I got into the hostel, Yes Inn on Hong kong island, where I've stayed before, had a shower and headed out for dinner. I went to temple street market, where there are lots of street restaurants serving cheapish sea food. I had lovely razor clams w chilli and blackbean sauce, and pak choi w garlic (one of my all time favourite dishes). Got no pictures of the food as forgot to bring a camera (anyhow not sure how to upload images as am blogging from my iPhone). After dinner, a beer, and browsing through the touristy night market looking for new headphones, it was def time to headset back and into a proper bed.

Tomorrow I need to get more info on train/bus tickets to yangshuo, and then I think I might revisit a couple of markets or maybe head to the beach, or maybe up to the Peak. Thinking of doing the Dragon's walking trail on Mon, will see. Looks like it will be nice weather while I'm here, 27C and sunshine. Must rememer sunblock or I'll burn like a crisp, and the lobster look really doesn't suit me....

Asian soups in Vancouver

I came back from a conference in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago. It was a great meeting, with lots of interesting science, and Vancouver was a great city to visit. To be in a city and be surrounded by sea and mountains, fantastic! Vancouver is known to have a big Asian population, and there is lots of Chinese, Korean and Japanese shops and restaurants. I've really indulged in great, and cheap, Asian food. In particular lovely soups, like the won ton soup above that I had at Hon's wun tun house in Vancouver's Chinatown, or the udon noodle soup with spicy pork and kimchi below that I had at small Korean restaurant, Donburiya, on Robson street in downtown Vancouver.


Here is a couple of pictures of beautiful Vancouver, with the view of the mountains from Stanley park and from the harbour and seawalk around the city.