December '16 - Winter Sunrises and Dog Sleds

This picture was taken 8am.

There are advantages to a late sunrise in this Northern hemisphere winter.

  

It was freezing and the park was unnaturally empty.

I have shown these parakeets that escaped London zoo in the 1960's and they hang about the London royal parks.  
They are spoiled as they get people who stick apples on the branches for them to snack on.

I normally am not into cross country skiing but we had an afternoon before dinner at Faviken. 



There was early snowfall so the crowds hadn't gone up yet and it was midweek so we had the trails to ourselves.



We did hear howling in the middle of at least one of my mates falling down and in the distance we saw a dog sled.



This image was worth the trip to Sweden alone.

There are these peculiar stores in Sweden that sell tobacco 
( cigars, cigarettes, and loose ) and then on the other side...

They sell every variety of chocolates and sweets.

I have a feeling that they smoke more than tobacco.

I hadn't seen this much Mountain Dew since I was at a Walmart in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

The lodge we were staying at in Are had original drawings from the late 1800's.

Signs reflect so much that assume innate local culture such as this.

There are always theories and counter theories and conspiracies.

One of the more prevailing ones of late - 
especially since Prince's death when he made it "pop culture" - pardon the pun.

Whatever you may think, I gotta wonder why the hell there are so many in the middle of the day in central London?  Prince William does fly over often but his helicopter doesn't leave chemtrails.

In other things going on above us, these are this year's decorations on Regent Street.

Went to a preview at Sotheby's that was basically Christmas shopping on another level.

I did like this 17th century panel as a coffee table.

Always an oasis of calm.

It does get busy but only if there is a name recall auction preview that gets tons of press.

I am not particularly religious but I adore Sassoferrato.

There is one similar hanging at the National Gallery.

I thought installation art was a modern concept but like everything else, they have been doing it for ages.

Hope you have a great weekend x

Faviken's tasting menu - yes, the one from Chef's Table on Netflix

I have a confession to make.

Thing is...I'm a foodie.

No, no, no, not that kind.

I was a foodie since the 70's when only chefs and bulimics would obsess about food.

Apparently my first documented sentence was in Korean and translated literally was,

"My stomach is so full I could die."

( It means that one had a lot to eat minus the dramatics.)

I was the sort of kid that would get free meals at restaurants because the owner or manager would be amazed at how much I was enjoying my food and asking questions about where the food was from.

I had told this to a karmic astrologer who was also a Wicca witch in the ley lines of the west country and she explained the reason why I was obsessed with food was because I had starved in a previous life due to having been a refugee due to a bad politically based arranged marriage.

Either way, I love food.

I loved food so much that when I had a chance, my friend from law school 
( the one I mentioned in my previous post where I had a friend divorce and she got the hairdresser ) and I opened a cafe in London.

Long story short, I became disillusioned and after the cafe closed, 
I just went back to watching cooking shows.

Then the past decade and a half or so, 
there was a glut of people who were self proclaimed foodies.

"Oh, don't you just love dark chocolate?
Gosh, I'm such a foodie I can't eat hershey's or cadbury's chocolate."

"Gosh, I am craving Ethiopian food.
I just need my monthly injera fix." 
says the bearded yet shaved bald bloke.

"I never, like, use margarine, like totally, only butter.
Am I right? Seriously, right? "

*eye roll* x 3

Going to the latest trendy restaurant in London does nothing for me at all anymore. 
It might be a sign of age of course.
But I don't appreciate, 
though understand, 
the 2 hour limit on table reservations.

But by the time you greet your friends, 
sit down, 
look at the menu, 
keep telling every other waiter that checks on "if everything is okay" during and between every course, 
you hardly have time to catch up with people you chose to spend the evening with.

Long time readers will remember I went to Noma 2 years ago and was underwhelmed.

I tried to write a fair review not based on my personal palette.

But equally I am not an anti-snob foodie either.
I don't sneer at Michelin restaurants but I don't like food tokenism by forcing some feral surrounding while eating for hipsters.

But it has been a long time since a fine dining restaurant has inspired me.

Until last week.

For me, Faviken has reignited enthusiasm.

The view as we got out of the taxi and the windows of the kitchen were lit.

In the spotlight

Faviken maybe familiar to those of you who have watched 
The Chef's Table on Netflix.

It is a restaurant just below the Arctic Circle in Sweden run by a talented chef, Magnus Nilsson, who is also a local boy from the region of Jamtland.



The restaurant is like a Viking's home and anywhere else this lighting and decor would be most pretentious but considering I took two planes and had a one and half hour drive to the nearest town that still was 30 minutes away from Faviken, 
this is pretty authentic.

Local sausage that tasted like mortadella with semi pickled carrots

I must encourage you to watch the chef's table if you are interested in travel and food.

Linseed and local beer based vinegar crackers and blue mussel mayonaise

I am sharing the menu with you as the website doesn't publish their tasting menu - there is no a la carte option - though they take into consideration food allergies etc if you notify them.

Taste is subjective so what I love you may not and vice versa.

The taste of the linseed was pure as it was made of some cellulose without any cracker taste

However, this was the best paced tasting menu I have ever tried anywhere since the beginning of my tasting menu experiences.
Hands down.

wholegrain wheat cracker with carrot salad

They would do a quick flurry of about 3 to 5 dishes with a breather to digest in all manners.

Fresh curd with crowberries underneath

Normally after one of these evenings, I am in such a food glut that I temporarily lose my mind and think I might not eat for days.

broth of smoked and dried reindeer that was like a japanese kombu poured onto the fresh curd above

Not so with this menu.

wild trout roe served in a crust of dried pigs blood

The dishes were sourced locally and if not in season were pickled when they were in season.

Pig's head dipped in sourdough an deep fried, gooseberry, tarragon salt

The tone of the dishes - though Nordic - were on a completely different key that that of Noma.

Bird's liver custard, malted cabbage, rowan berries and parsley stems

I am not sure if this was the chef's interpretation or if it was a Danish / Swedish difference.

Slices of cured pork that was aged for months

But one of the standouts for me was the butter that is made from a local farm.

I used to eat so much butter in my early twenties that my local store thought I was a baker.



I know my butter.

No wonder bread and butter was a course.

It tasted in its natural raw state like a thickened beurre blanc with herbs and minus any vinegar.

Scallop cooked over burning juniper branches

In fact, my friends are thinking of going again in the summer to try out the summer menu even though it took almost as long to get there as it would from London to Seoul.

We had a wine pairing and this was good old fashioned mead
like the Vikings and other Saxons would have drunk

The lighting inside the restaurant

King crab and almost burnt cream - the best crab everyone at the table had ever tasted
Deserves this close up

Cod steamed with spruce needles, fermented jerusalem artichoke

sourdough pancake, seaweed, beef butter

lupin curd gratin whatever that is but it tasted like pizza minus the dough

Razor clam - my least favourite dish -
not due to the chef but just because I am not keen on razor clams

small egg coated in ash, sauce made from dried trout and pickled marigold
based on an Icelandic dish

Above eggs dipped in this sauce made from dried trout and pickled marigold

Pagan decor as the Vikings would have done
Flaunting your wealth by showing off your dried fish.

Steamed cabbage with very good cream and Finnish fish eggs

Wild Duck

Set broth, truffles, and  beer cream

liver on toast

colostrum with meadowsweet

Raw jerusalem artichoke, dark roasted cereals

Potato dream - simulating a famous Swedish biscuit but made of potatoes and barley

Egg yolk preserved in sugar syrup on a pile of crumbs made from pine tree bark,
a type of make your own cookie dough

paired with ice cream with spruce syrup

red clover tea

Raspberry ice

bone marrow pudding

meat and birch pie

wooden box filled with tar pastilles, meadowsweet candy, dried rowanberries, smoked caramel, sunflower seed nougat,
dried black currants

This was different seeds coated in sugars or syrups based on Indian after dinner mints

The various drinks served with the menu ( non alcoholic option ) which it seems they serve to people who had the wine pairing at the dessert section

This was snus ( snuff in English ) fermented in used bitters barrel
Basically - it is moist powder tobacco and you put in your mouth
This is very popular in Sweden.

The menu in English

Post dinner cigars

They had a teepee with a firepit

Hope those of you who are interested in cooking and different types of food enjoyed the tour x