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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Swedish food Part I

Falukorv

On our excursion to the IKEA we found a Coop-Forum (a supermarket similar to Pick-and-Pay). While browsing we came across a traditional Swedish sausage named: Falukorv, which means 'Sausage from Falun'. These sausages are traditionally made from ground pork and beef with potato-flower and mild spices. They date back to the 16th century where were made at the Falun copper mine from the meat remaining after slaughtering the oxen for their hides (to make ropes).


The slices are fried and usually eaten with mash and lingonberry jam. It tastes like a hybrid of viennas and russians.


Mushrooms and Berries

In addition, Swedish forests are rich in wild foods commonly consumed here. So we needed to try some of these delicacies starting with mushrooms. We therefore went straight to the city to get some of the local produce gathered by experts (every year a number of people die from mushroom poisoning - Wikipedia)

Here is the stall where we found the chanterelle.


Some close-ups of the fungi.



Sauteing them in butter (real butter).



Once cooked these beautiful yellow fungi tastes real great on buttered toast.

Being a bit more daring (and seeing someone else eating these) we went to the woods to gather billberries. Following is a short video of our expedition (note: 3.7 Mb, 59 seconds and narrated in Afrikaans).




These berries are apparently good for your eyes. They are easy to find as they grow in large patches in the forest undergrowth and they taste a bit like mulberries.

Nyponsoppa (rose hip soup)

Another Swedish classic is rose hip soup. It is made from the fruit of the rose plant. Wild rose plants occurs along many of the paths and are currently in fruit. We decided to try and make rose hip soup from a recipe on the internet. So off we went and picked these fruits from the thorny plants (we stopped at about 300g after some thorn related bleeding).


After picking the fruits need to be cleaned, the stems and flower heads removed, soaked in water and then boiled to a pulp and strained through a sieve.


Afterwards you add lime juice and sugar. The following picture indicates our result: on the left, after the whole afternoon's toiling we generated half a glass; on the right, you can buy 1l of rose hip soup for about R8 at the local ICA-store. It tastes delicious either way.



We will keep you updated on our culinary adventures.
R&C

p.s. for more photos on food and other things in Sweden see Carina's face-book profile.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Born to Rune

Here is a rune-stone in memory of Sven. We found this artifact while exploring our surroundings. Apparently the Swedes where runeing Sweden since the 11th century.


R&C

Electric fence in Sweden


From all our research about Sweden we gathered that it is very safe compared to South Africa. As such we were very surprised, during a stroll through the surrounding woods, to see the all too familiar sign indicating an electric fence.

On closer inspection we were even more surprised as the electric fencing consisted of only 2 wires, so far apart that even an amateur criminal from South Africa would be able to negotiate this obstacle.

This is probably because the individuals they want to keep enclosed have the IQ of a large ungulate.

R&C

Friday, September 4, 2009

New apartment in Sweden

We moved into our apartment in Sweden with very little trouble. The address is: Malma Backe 3C, 75647, Uppsala, Sweden. It is located about 7km from the city center in an area called Valsatra. The following video is a tour of our new house (please note that it is about 31Mb, 8min and narrated in Afrikaans)