Smoking a Fish in Finland!
The whole family went for a short little vacation to Finland this past week. A friend of ours named Daniel is dating a Finnish girl named Elina. They have actually been dating for several years (they spent more time at my parents’ house then I do), but we have never managed to go see them in Finland, they have come over to Sweden a couple of times. So it was finally time to make the trip over.
Elina actually grew up on the Finnish side of the Russian border, but has been living in Turku (Åbo in Swedish) for several years. Turku, from what we saw of it, is a nice town. It felt a lot like Uppsala in the sense that it is a student town. Apparently it is also one of the world’s largest producers of cruise ships. It is a good sized town at 175,000 people. It has a pretty lively center with a market that you can find coffee cheese, mushrooms, berries, and fresh fish (among other things).
It is the fish that is the important thing here. Daniel got the crazy idea that he wanted to smoke a fish for our last night in Finland. Now, this gave us two different options- a fire in the parking lot or one of the bags for the oven. Of course we picked the fire in the parking lot. Was there ever another choice to be made? No, of course not!
One has to understand what all is involved in smoking a fish. First you have an open fire. Not a big one, just one large enough to warm the smoke box. If the fire is too big, the fish will end up being dry. If the fire is too small, there is a chance the fish will not be fully cooked (thus it will have worms).
Before we actually started to smoke the fish, we called the fire department to make sure that we would not be breaking any laws. The way I saw it, it was no different from grilling. The fire department assured us that we were in fact breaking no laws as long as we were there- which of course we were.
So we started our fire and just sat there drinking beer waiting for the fish to finish. It took about 55 minutes to complete and when it was done, it was beautiful fish. I was always under the impression that smoking a fish was difficult. It was pretty darn easy to be honest with you.
Though the neighbors were not impressed with the idea at all, to say the very least. One of them came out right as we were starting and said that he thought that it was a very bad idea. We ignored him (well, that was actually when we called the fire department to make sure we would not be arrested). Then a lady, right as we were finished and had started to clean up, came out and said that we had to stop right that minute. Of course we were already done, so that was not a problem. Part of me wanted to continue just so we did not give the lady the satisfaction of thinking that she was the one that convinced us to stop, but it was raining. So we did not. It felt as though the Finnish people were a bit anal, even more then the Swedish.
The final result: The fish was wonderful. Not to mention that it was super easy to do. Daniel and Elina did a great job hosting us. A nice little adventure for the family!
Monday, August 28, 2006
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Traveling with Children!
As time passes, travel is going to become more and more 2nd nature. My niece and nephew live in California with my sister while my folks live in Texas. The thing is, they already not comprehend what it is to fly or to travel. My niece will call my Mother and ask, “Grandma I want to visit you, can I come on Thursday?”, and if it is possible, it will happen. These days taking a flight across the country is no different then taking a long car journey.
That was not the case for me, far from it. I can remember the first time I flew. It was between Minnesota and Illinois. The idea that I was flying was exciting- and I was older then they are. Maybe it is just showing my age, probably.
M and I are parents now. We know that we have responsibilities as parents, but we do not have any interest in stopping traveling. That has been a major part of our childhood/adult life. So N will be traveling with us, and in fact she has already started to travel with us. Just to give a rough idea of what type of traveling she has experienced. N turned 8 months last month. She has already seen a decent amount of Sweden. In my humble opinion, that is impressive, but that is not all. She has already traveled to 9 different countries (future blog will be how we count countries, but one actually has to sleep in the country, not just travel through it). She has two different passports (a Swedish one and an American one). I did not leave the US until I was 16 years old- going into Mexico across the border does not count. Plus she has traveled a decent amount in the US while we were there. By the time her first birthday comes around, she will have traveled to 12 countries. I know, it is hard to believe!
The point of saying this is not for you to go “Wow, that is freaking amazing!” Though, lets be honest it is pretty freaking amazing. The point of it is to address the question, “What does a parent have to do to unsure that travel does not just become a second thought for the child?”
I really do not have the answer to the question. M and I have already planned on several large and several small trips which will absolutely include N. We will be going to Mexico and Cuba, Australia and New Zealand, trips through out Sweden, and I am sure other trips within the next two to three years.
With that in mind, there are two different sides to look at. The first is that as a traveler from my generation, if they will encourage travel in their children, will not succeed in assisting the child in understanding the actual act of travel. For the child, traveling throughout the world will become what traveling across the US is for my niece and nephew- nothing more then getting in the plane rather then getting into a car.
The other option is to make each trip special. Now this is a whole lot harder then the other option. This option requires the parent to plan things for the child. On a travel forum that I am a member of, it has been recommended that the parent find children books about the country that the family will be traveling too.
Another recommendation was to have a map in the child’s room of the world so the child can mark what countries they have traveled through. This gives the child a perspective on where they have traveled to and how far they have traveled.
If you have any other ideas, make a comment. I will make another post later on with all the different ideas that people have given!
As time passes, travel is going to become more and more 2nd nature. My niece and nephew live in California with my sister while my folks live in Texas. The thing is, they already not comprehend what it is to fly or to travel. My niece will call my Mother and ask, “Grandma I want to visit you, can I come on Thursday?”, and if it is possible, it will happen. These days taking a flight across the country is no different then taking a long car journey.
That was not the case for me, far from it. I can remember the first time I flew. It was between Minnesota and Illinois. The idea that I was flying was exciting- and I was older then they are. Maybe it is just showing my age, probably.
M and I are parents now. We know that we have responsibilities as parents, but we do not have any interest in stopping traveling. That has been a major part of our childhood/adult life. So N will be traveling with us, and in fact she has already started to travel with us. Just to give a rough idea of what type of traveling she has experienced. N turned 8 months last month. She has already seen a decent amount of Sweden. In my humble opinion, that is impressive, but that is not all. She has already traveled to 9 different countries (future blog will be how we count countries, but one actually has to sleep in the country, not just travel through it). She has two different passports (a Swedish one and an American one). I did not leave the US until I was 16 years old- going into Mexico across the border does not count. Plus she has traveled a decent amount in the US while we were there. By the time her first birthday comes around, she will have traveled to 12 countries. I know, it is hard to believe!
The point of saying this is not for you to go “Wow, that is freaking amazing!” Though, lets be honest it is pretty freaking amazing. The point of it is to address the question, “What does a parent have to do to unsure that travel does not just become a second thought for the child?”
I really do not have the answer to the question. M and I have already planned on several large and several small trips which will absolutely include N. We will be going to Mexico and Cuba, Australia and New Zealand, trips through out Sweden, and I am sure other trips within the next two to three years.
With that in mind, there are two different sides to look at. The first is that as a traveler from my generation, if they will encourage travel in their children, will not succeed in assisting the child in understanding the actual act of travel. For the child, traveling throughout the world will become what traveling across the US is for my niece and nephew- nothing more then getting in the plane rather then getting into a car.
The other option is to make each trip special. Now this is a whole lot harder then the other option. This option requires the parent to plan things for the child. On a travel forum that I am a member of, it has been recommended that the parent find children books about the country that the family will be traveling too.
Another recommendation was to have a map in the child’s room of the world so the child can mark what countries they have traveled through. This gives the child a perspective on where they have traveled to and how far they have traveled.
If you have any other ideas, make a comment. I will make another post later on with all the different ideas that people have given!
Saturday, August 12, 2006
A Cuban in Prague
Traveling is always more fun when you get to do it with someone that you care about. That is especially true with me and M. Before we met, we both had done a fair bit of traveling. I had traveled Europe for about 4 months on my own and M had of course traveled Europe as well. Even from the very first trip we did together, we got along perfect (the only minor difference was/is that I am perhaps more willing to spend a little money).
So when I travel with work, it can be exciting and all, but it is not necessarily fun. Make sense? This past week I had to travel to Prague for a couple of days. Now we had traveled to Prague together a couple of times. So it was not like it was a new place. In fact, work had sent me there a couple of months ago and M and N got to come with (it was N’s first country that she traveled to). While we were there, a guy that I was working with suggested a couple of different restaurants. Because of the hours that I was working, we only got to eat out once during the entire week.
This time I was there only 2 nights and once again I only got to eat out once. It was one of the other restaurants that my work mate suggested. Sounds kind of weird to suggest this placed to anyone who might be traveling to Prague because it is not Czech, it is Cuban. The name of the place is La Bodeguita del Medio. It is located in the center of town, thus fairly easy to find.
Since I was by myself and I knew that I would not really get the opportunity to eat the next day (which was a reality, since I started work at 5.30 and finished up at 20.30 without much of a break the entire day), I decided to take advantage of the opportunity given and get the works.
I start with a goat cheese appetizer. The large piece of goat cheese was lightly breaded with a flaky crust. Then it was fried till the cheese was warm. Served with a baby spinach salad topped with thick homemade bacon bits, pine nuts (which surprisingly has been a new discovery in my food life and I do not understand how I missed them) and a balsamic vinegar dressing. The combination was fantastic, but then again, goat cheese is one of my favorite dishes.
For the main course I had the filet mignon, a 400gram filet mignon (which is about three quarters of a pound). I ordered it, somewhat skeptical, medium rare. I like my steaks medium rare, but I think that is a very difficult way to cook it. Either it is too rare or it is over cooked. Neither of which is a good thing. Plus, the outside of the steak is usually hard, which has the ability to ruin a steak (sadly, this is usually how my steaks end up when I grill). This steak though was none of that. It was grilled to perfection. It was the perfect pink, without being bloody. The outer edge of the steak was tender and not black at all. All of that palled to the taste of the steak. It was by far the best steak I have ever had. The flavor was amazing, it melted in my mouth. The steak was so tender that it could be cut with a fork. My mouth is starting to water just thinking about it. I considered going back there the second night just to have the same meal again. In reality, I should have, but I contained myself.
Since it is a Cuban restaurant, rum had to be served for the drink. Not just rum, but Havana Club rum. Even though I am not the biggest rum drinker in the world, I had two rum drinks with my dinner. The first was the house specialty, a Mint Julep with rum instead of the whiskey. Pretty much every single person in the restaurant was drinking this. It was ok, nothing spectacular. The other drink that I had was a Bloody Mary, just with rum instead of vodka. Had they put in a little Tabasco, then I would almost say that it was a better Bloody Mary than with vodka.
The atmosphere of the place was almost as good as the food. After I was done eating, I sat around and watched the people come in and go while I sipped my Espresso- of which I have become addicted to. They had a live band playing salsa music. The whole place was happening. An amazing amount of trendy people walked in and out of the restaurant. If you like people watching, then this is your type of place. To give it an authentic Cuban feel, they had an older Cuban lady walking around selling cigars. Not just cigars, but the good stuff. If you bought it, she would cut it for you and then light a match for you. Just watching it made me want to go to Cuba.
When M and I travel, we usually do not stay at the nicest places in the world. Far from it actually, we usually stay at the cheap dumps (I should say that we look for a good value, but they really are dumps). Though when work pays for it, that is a different story. Our Prague office has a deal set up with a hotel called Hotel Josef (http://www.hoteljosef.com/). This is one of the nicest hotels I have stayed at before. The room itself has all the amenities, but it is the staff that make the place. They were friendly and very helpful, but not overly. I could whole heartily recommend the Hotel Josef to anyone (the sister hotel- Hotel Maximilian is not near as nice and is not worth the money).
If you go to Prague, a couple of things that you should do. The Charles Bridge, the top tourist destination, is stunning at night. Also, you should catch a show. Point to note, none of the theatres have air conditioning and it gets miserably hot in there. The Opera House, which is less expensive, is air conditioned and has fewer tourists. If you want to buy one of the puppets that Prague is famous for and quality is important, then you should get your puppet at the store located by Charles Bridge on the castle side. The prices are much higher, but the difference in the craftsmanship is astounding. Lastly, the same coworker who suggested La Bodeguita del Medio also game me a name of a true Czech restaurant which the locals eat at. It is called Peklo. I was unable to try it this time, but it is on my list to eat at the next time I am in Prague. He says that a reservation is a must.
Traveling is always more fun when you get to do it with someone that you care about. That is especially true with me and M. Before we met, we both had done a fair bit of traveling. I had traveled Europe for about 4 months on my own and M had of course traveled Europe as well. Even from the very first trip we did together, we got along perfect (the only minor difference was/is that I am perhaps more willing to spend a little money).
So when I travel with work, it can be exciting and all, but it is not necessarily fun. Make sense? This past week I had to travel to Prague for a couple of days. Now we had traveled to Prague together a couple of times. So it was not like it was a new place. In fact, work had sent me there a couple of months ago and M and N got to come with (it was N’s first country that she traveled to). While we were there, a guy that I was working with suggested a couple of different restaurants. Because of the hours that I was working, we only got to eat out once during the entire week.
This time I was there only 2 nights and once again I only got to eat out once. It was one of the other restaurants that my work mate suggested. Sounds kind of weird to suggest this placed to anyone who might be traveling to Prague because it is not Czech, it is Cuban. The name of the place is La Bodeguita del Medio. It is located in the center of town, thus fairly easy to find.
Since I was by myself and I knew that I would not really get the opportunity to eat the next day (which was a reality, since I started work at 5.30 and finished up at 20.30 without much of a break the entire day), I decided to take advantage of the opportunity given and get the works.
I start with a goat cheese appetizer. The large piece of goat cheese was lightly breaded with a flaky crust. Then it was fried till the cheese was warm. Served with a baby spinach salad topped with thick homemade bacon bits, pine nuts (which surprisingly has been a new discovery in my food life and I do not understand how I missed them) and a balsamic vinegar dressing. The combination was fantastic, but then again, goat cheese is one of my favorite dishes.
For the main course I had the filet mignon, a 400gram filet mignon (which is about three quarters of a pound). I ordered it, somewhat skeptical, medium rare. I like my steaks medium rare, but I think that is a very difficult way to cook it. Either it is too rare or it is over cooked. Neither of which is a good thing. Plus, the outside of the steak is usually hard, which has the ability to ruin a steak (sadly, this is usually how my steaks end up when I grill). This steak though was none of that. It was grilled to perfection. It was the perfect pink, without being bloody. The outer edge of the steak was tender and not black at all. All of that palled to the taste of the steak. It was by far the best steak I have ever had. The flavor was amazing, it melted in my mouth. The steak was so tender that it could be cut with a fork. My mouth is starting to water just thinking about it. I considered going back there the second night just to have the same meal again. In reality, I should have, but I contained myself.
Since it is a Cuban restaurant, rum had to be served for the drink. Not just rum, but Havana Club rum. Even though I am not the biggest rum drinker in the world, I had two rum drinks with my dinner. The first was the house specialty, a Mint Julep with rum instead of the whiskey. Pretty much every single person in the restaurant was drinking this. It was ok, nothing spectacular. The other drink that I had was a Bloody Mary, just with rum instead of vodka. Had they put in a little Tabasco, then I would almost say that it was a better Bloody Mary than with vodka.
The atmosphere of the place was almost as good as the food. After I was done eating, I sat around and watched the people come in and go while I sipped my Espresso- of which I have become addicted to. They had a live band playing salsa music. The whole place was happening. An amazing amount of trendy people walked in and out of the restaurant. If you like people watching, then this is your type of place. To give it an authentic Cuban feel, they had an older Cuban lady walking around selling cigars. Not just cigars, but the good stuff. If you bought it, she would cut it for you and then light a match for you. Just watching it made me want to go to Cuba.
When M and I travel, we usually do not stay at the nicest places in the world. Far from it actually, we usually stay at the cheap dumps (I should say that we look for a good value, but they really are dumps). Though when work pays for it, that is a different story. Our Prague office has a deal set up with a hotel called Hotel Josef (http://www.hoteljosef.com/). This is one of the nicest hotels I have stayed at before. The room itself has all the amenities, but it is the staff that make the place. They were friendly and very helpful, but not overly. I could whole heartily recommend the Hotel Josef to anyone (the sister hotel- Hotel Maximilian is not near as nice and is not worth the money).
If you go to Prague, a couple of things that you should do. The Charles Bridge, the top tourist destination, is stunning at night. Also, you should catch a show. Point to note, none of the theatres have air conditioning and it gets miserably hot in there. The Opera House, which is less expensive, is air conditioned and has fewer tourists. If you want to buy one of the puppets that Prague is famous for and quality is important, then you should get your puppet at the store located by Charles Bridge on the castle side. The prices are much higher, but the difference in the craftsmanship is astounding. Lastly, the same coworker who suggested La Bodeguita del Medio also game me a name of a true Czech restaurant which the locals eat at. It is called Peklo. I was unable to try it this time, but it is on my list to eat at the next time I am in Prague. He says that a reservation is a must.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Grythyttans Gästgivaregård
M and I finally did it. We dropped N off at the babysitters (the grandparents) for her first over the night visit. More importantly though was the fact that it was the first night/evening/pretty much minute we have had alone in the past 7 months. So the evening had both an exciting edge to it along with being a little frightening. Leaving N was actually a small part of it. So I will just go ahead and say that she was fine, as to be expected. She actually had 4 babysitters, M’s brother and girlfriend stayed home to help.
For our anniversary in June (the 7th, if you are wondering), I had given M a weekend away. It was actually my 2nd choice. I won’t mention what the first choice was going to be, since Christmas is just around the corner. For my birthday (31st, yes I am getting old) she gave me a weekend away as well. Since N was born, we have decided that it is important to do things together, not just sit around. So this was a perfect opportunity. When we started to talk about it, we learned that the two of us had given each other the exact same thing. I know what you are thinking, “Duh, a weekend away!” The thing is, it was the exact same weekend. Same hotel, same restaurant, same everything- like they say, great minds think alike!
The premise to the gifts were a night away in a nice hotel and restaurant, the location was Grythyttans Gästgivaregård (or we will just call it GG for short). GG is part of the Countryside Hotels in Sweden (http://www.countrysidehotels.se/) which include old estates and palaces. GG is more famous for its restaurant then anything else. Though the hotel part has been around for a very long time, the oldest sections are from the 1600’s.
We arrive and check into our room. The hotel is not just one building, it is actually several different buildings dating back to the 1600´s. Each room is decorated differently and no two rooms are supposed to be alike. Normally I might find this hard to believe, but considering we had an original Anders Zorn in our room, I choose to believe it. The room itself was ok, nothing spectacular. It was clean and good sized, but it did not have the “wow” factor. Originally we talked about bringing N with us, so the 2 of us were in this building all by ourselves. So perhaps the other rooms have the “wow” factor. The fact that it did not just stop me in my tracks is ok. We were not there for the hotel per say, we were there for the food.
I had been saving myself all day. I had a very small breakfast and lunch. So by the time we checked in, my stomach was already growling. Good thing we started with a little fika (fika is a Swedish tradition. It is mainly just coffee/tea with something sweet). It was two different types of cakes. The first was a chocolate one and the other was a lemon pound cake. Not sure what the deal was, but I really liked the chocolate one and M liked the lemon one. By all normal accounts, the opposite should be true. This was at 3ish. Our dinner reservations were not until 7.15.
You could decide if you wanted to go with the 4 course dinner or the 7 course dinner. We went for the 7 course meal. Even though it was a lot more expensive, we determined that the experience would be worth it. Besides, at this point we were starving! In the end it would actually be a 9 course meal, since they always bring a couple of extras.
The meals went as followed:
Pre course sampler- A small crab pie thing (M and I disagree a little on this. I say that it was cold, she says hot)
Course #1- White asparagus soup with a small rolled up piece of Swedish pancake (think thin) and served with a brochette topped with freshly diced tomatoes
Course #2- Cold duck breast served with two different types of sauces, a pea sauce which was excellent with the duck and a goat cheese sauce which was just fabulous. The duck was accompanied with a warm red beat salad topped with a homemade balsam vinegar
Course #3- This was the first of the main courses, the seafood plate. Catfish (which I had only ever had served deep fried), a sea crawfish, a crawfish sauce along with potatoes
Mid-course course- Another little extra. This was a white wine pineapple slush
Course #4- Veal wrapped in Italian ham, wild sausage, lamb sausage and potatoes
Course #5- The cheese plate. Four cheeses, three of which were French and the 4th was Swedish. The idea was to start at the far left with a brie and work your way over to the far right which was a Bredsjöost (which they say is the most expensive cheese in Sweden). This would allow the person to taste the different strengths of the cheeses. It was also served with walnuts covered with honey and balsam vinegar and apricots
Course #6- The first dessert. A lemon tart with marinated strawberries on top. The strawberries have been marinated in the same fashion as they are for the royal family
Course #7- The final course! This was the second dessert, a chocolate muffin (no it was not actually a muffin, but it looked like one in shape) filled with fresh strawberries and raspberries on one side of the plate. On the other side was homemade chocolate ice-cream. Then all of it was covered in a curry sauce (yes, that is correct, it was a curry sauce which actually complimented the chocolate and fruits amazingly well I think)
Two wines were served. A Riesling, which was not sweet at all, but rather dry (a nice change to the normal Rieslings I have had) and a French red wine which complimented the veal and cheeses.
I have to say that nothing we had at dinner was anything but excellent. When we left the restaurant, we had to go for a walk because I was so full, I thought that I was going to explode! Needless to say, I did not, though I did have dreams about me trying to sell curry milkshakes to a couple of little kids.
In the morning, we took a walk before breakfast. I was still too full to think about eating anything. My thought was that I would just have a piece of dry bread and a little coffee. The breakfast spread was amazing. In fact, I went on to stuff myself even more (I ended up not eating much lunch, birthday cake or dinner later in the day). My father would have loved the selection of different sausages, as did I. We walked over to the chef school (which also has activities if you are interested) and to an art gallery which focused on art which was created with the local slate.
Overall, I would give GG a rating of 5 out of 5. It is located about 2.5 hrs out of Stockholm/Uppsala and about 30 minutes out of Örebro. So in other words it is in the middle of nowhere. That is about the only negative. Though perhaps it is only one of the positives, if it was in Stockholm then we probably could not get a table to it or it would not be as special.
M and I finally did it. We dropped N off at the babysitters (the grandparents) for her first over the night visit. More importantly though was the fact that it was the first night/evening/pretty much minute we have had alone in the past 7 months. So the evening had both an exciting edge to it along with being a little frightening. Leaving N was actually a small part of it. So I will just go ahead and say that she was fine, as to be expected. She actually had 4 babysitters, M’s brother and girlfriend stayed home to help.
For our anniversary in June (the 7th, if you are wondering), I had given M a weekend away. It was actually my 2nd choice. I won’t mention what the first choice was going to be, since Christmas is just around the corner. For my birthday (31st, yes I am getting old) she gave me a weekend away as well. Since N was born, we have decided that it is important to do things together, not just sit around. So this was a perfect opportunity. When we started to talk about it, we learned that the two of us had given each other the exact same thing. I know what you are thinking, “Duh, a weekend away!” The thing is, it was the exact same weekend. Same hotel, same restaurant, same everything- like they say, great minds think alike!
The premise to the gifts were a night away in a nice hotel and restaurant, the location was Grythyttans Gästgivaregård (or we will just call it GG for short). GG is part of the Countryside Hotels in Sweden (http://www.countrysidehotels.se/) which include old estates and palaces. GG is more famous for its restaurant then anything else. Though the hotel part has been around for a very long time, the oldest sections are from the 1600’s.
We arrive and check into our room. The hotel is not just one building, it is actually several different buildings dating back to the 1600´s. Each room is decorated differently and no two rooms are supposed to be alike. Normally I might find this hard to believe, but considering we had an original Anders Zorn in our room, I choose to believe it. The room itself was ok, nothing spectacular. It was clean and good sized, but it did not have the “wow” factor. Originally we talked about bringing N with us, so the 2 of us were in this building all by ourselves. So perhaps the other rooms have the “wow” factor. The fact that it did not just stop me in my tracks is ok. We were not there for the hotel per say, we were there for the food.
I had been saving myself all day. I had a very small breakfast and lunch. So by the time we checked in, my stomach was already growling. Good thing we started with a little fika (fika is a Swedish tradition. It is mainly just coffee/tea with something sweet). It was two different types of cakes. The first was a chocolate one and the other was a lemon pound cake. Not sure what the deal was, but I really liked the chocolate one and M liked the lemon one. By all normal accounts, the opposite should be true. This was at 3ish. Our dinner reservations were not until 7.15.
You could decide if you wanted to go with the 4 course dinner or the 7 course dinner. We went for the 7 course meal. Even though it was a lot more expensive, we determined that the experience would be worth it. Besides, at this point we were starving! In the end it would actually be a 9 course meal, since they always bring a couple of extras.
The meals went as followed:
Pre course sampler- A small crab pie thing (M and I disagree a little on this. I say that it was cold, she says hot)
Course #1- White asparagus soup with a small rolled up piece of Swedish pancake (think thin) and served with a brochette topped with freshly diced tomatoes
Course #2- Cold duck breast served with two different types of sauces, a pea sauce which was excellent with the duck and a goat cheese sauce which was just fabulous. The duck was accompanied with a warm red beat salad topped with a homemade balsam vinegar
Course #3- This was the first of the main courses, the seafood plate. Catfish (which I had only ever had served deep fried), a sea crawfish, a crawfish sauce along with potatoes
Mid-course course- Another little extra. This was a white wine pineapple slush
Course #4- Veal wrapped in Italian ham, wild sausage, lamb sausage and potatoes
Course #5- The cheese plate. Four cheeses, three of which were French and the 4th was Swedish. The idea was to start at the far left with a brie and work your way over to the far right which was a Bredsjöost (which they say is the most expensive cheese in Sweden). This would allow the person to taste the different strengths of the cheeses. It was also served with walnuts covered with honey and balsam vinegar and apricots
Course #6- The first dessert. A lemon tart with marinated strawberries on top. The strawberries have been marinated in the same fashion as they are for the royal family
Course #7- The final course! This was the second dessert, a chocolate muffin (no it was not actually a muffin, but it looked like one in shape) filled with fresh strawberries and raspberries on one side of the plate. On the other side was homemade chocolate ice-cream. Then all of it was covered in a curry sauce (yes, that is correct, it was a curry sauce which actually complimented the chocolate and fruits amazingly well I think)
Two wines were served. A Riesling, which was not sweet at all, but rather dry (a nice change to the normal Rieslings I have had) and a French red wine which complimented the veal and cheeses.
I have to say that nothing we had at dinner was anything but excellent. When we left the restaurant, we had to go for a walk because I was so full, I thought that I was going to explode! Needless to say, I did not, though I did have dreams about me trying to sell curry milkshakes to a couple of little kids.
In the morning, we took a walk before breakfast. I was still too full to think about eating anything. My thought was that I would just have a piece of dry bread and a little coffee. The breakfast spread was amazing. In fact, I went on to stuff myself even more (I ended up not eating much lunch, birthday cake or dinner later in the day). My father would have loved the selection of different sausages, as did I. We walked over to the chef school (which also has activities if you are interested) and to an art gallery which focused on art which was created with the local slate.
Overall, I would give GG a rating of 5 out of 5. It is located about 2.5 hrs out of Stockholm/Uppsala and about 30 minutes out of Örebro. So in other words it is in the middle of nowhere. That is about the only negative. Though perhaps it is only one of the positives, if it was in Stockholm then we probably could not get a table to it or it would not be as special.
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