a culinary tour of stockholm

I am missing Jake. He left early this morning, and it was strange and sad to go back to being by myself today.

We ate at some damn good restaurants this week:

+ Kungsholmen, on Norr Mälarstrand, which is the street on the water on the south side of Kungsholmen, a few blocks from my apartment now. We went for Alice's birthday on Wednesday night, and it was delicious. It's part of the F12 restaurant group, and I'm dying to go to F12 and Grill and Restaurangen. I had a strange cocktail called Pumpkin Punch that was very pretty and didn't taste like pumpkin at all, and a really good french onion soup (but not as good as the one at Sturehof, which I noticed leaving Sturebadet today now has a little Michelin sign displayed in the door - well done), and a small Caesar salad, and this chocolate banana cake with yogurt ice cream. The restaurant is big and pretty and right on the water, and they were so nice to us even though we were in a huge and slightly disorganized group with lots of Alice's colleagues. I can't wait to go back.

+ Sturehof, of course. We went on Jake's first night. We drank Skåne and Jake had the five different kinds of herring. We got the 3 assiettes for dessert so Jake could try cloudberries, which are pale yellow, strangely bitter, barely sweet, and weirdly crunchy. But each time I have them I like them more.

+ Bakfickan ("hip pocket") - the one at the Opera, more casual than Opera Källaren. I had been there twice before, once for lunch and once for dinner, but this time I was totally blown away. We had a veritable Swedish feast. Jake had cauliflower soup with salmon hash on toast, and the meatballs (with mashed potatoes, lingonberries, and cucumbers), and I had as much of his cauliflower soup as I could steal and the rimmad lax. For dessert, we had what may be the most bizarre dessert I have ever tasted. I'm in the process of polling Swedes about this dish and so far it doesn't appear to be particularly well-known. It was called Oscar II:s tårta (cake) and the English translation simple said "butter and meringue cake." I guess I didn't think too hard about what that meant, but I envisioned some sort of pound cake or something. It turned out to be literally alternating layers of butter and white meringue. Not like some sort of sweet whipped special butter, but BUTTER. Layers of butter. And meringue. It tasted quite good, except when you simply had a mouthful of butter. There must have been almost a full stick of butter in that one slice of cake. I can't find anything about it in English online, but I'm finding Swedish recipes and descriptions of it. Incidentally, at the Royal Palace the other day among the scepters and crowns and orbs, there was one of Oscar II:s (I don't entirely understand the use of the colon in Swedish - it doesn't just replace the apostrophe in the preceding example, you also see it in things like "S:t Eriks sjukhus") royal capes and it looks like he was really bloody fat. No wonder.

+ Primo Ciao Ciao, an Italian restaurant a few blocks from my on Kungsholmen. We actually ate here twice. It is so, so good.

+ La Dame Noir, also on Kungsholmen. We went here for lunch. As is common, they had a pre-set "dagens meny" or menu of the day for lunch, with three choices. It's a really pretty, sleek place, and the food was delicious and didn't cost a million kronor.

+ Nox. Well, we only intended to drink here, not eat, because we had had dinner at Ilona's earlier in the evening, but after two glasses of wine and a cocktail each, we were hungry and all of my most fervant beliefs and morals went out the window as is wont to happen a few times a year and we ordered the most spectacular dish ever: "Grillad portvinsmarinerad ryggbiff med chevrepotatiskaka och timjanbearnaise," i.e. the most delicious port wine marinated beef with this chevre potato cake and bearnaise sauce. It was unbelievable.

+ Lunch at the Östermalms Saluhall yesterday - Jake had lax pudding which was swimming in butter and seemed a little intense, and I broadened my horizons to try the gravad lax instead of the rimmad lax. By the time I leave Sweden you will probably be able to use me as a thermometer given the amount of mercury-laden fish I am eating. I'm sure my future children will agree that eating lots of cured salmon is more important than potential birth defects...?

+ We had many breakfasts and snacks at Vurma, the cafe downstairs. Jake's favorite was the kardemumma-bullar, and I discovered the very simple but yummy sockerkringlor (a sugar pastry). We also tried a "Vurma Volt" which is a little canister-shaped pastry with marzipan, dark chocolate, and a really strong rum-soaked interior. A little intense.

Speaking of Vurma, I got the apartment on Bergsunds Strand in Södermalm and I will move in December 23! There is another Vurma two blocks away from the new apartment. It's like a miracle. There are only three of them in Stockholm - the one on Kungsholmen, the one on Södermalm, and one in Vasastan. And the one on Bergsunds Strand is even bigger and roomier. I am so excited that I get to move from one Vurma to another - and that I won't be homeless in Sweden. You really can see the water from every room, and I will be able to see all the light and dark and snow and sun all winter and spring along.