Saveur de l'année

Look what I found at my local supermarket on Sunday? Some cherry tomatoes. What's so special about cherry tomatoes you might wonder... nothing special, it's true. But check the language on the packaging. Nothing wrong with a packaging in French, it's true. But you are in Sweden and you see those tomatoes. With a packaging in French. With a sticker saying it was voted "Saveur de l'année 2011" (2011's best flavour)... well that starts to be a little surreal, right? 

Happiness in a box

A couple of days ago I was in London to spend some time with my mother, my sister and my cousin who lives there. We met a her workplace and just around the corner, there is a Ladurée mini store. I remembered reading on vogue.fr that Ladurée was to launch a special box designed by Matthew Williamson so I ran there and oh joy! There was just a couple left and I got one! Isn't it amazing? 

And look at what's inside? Pure pleasure... pistachio, coconut, apple+cinnamon, rose, salted caramel, heaven!

And I love that when the box is empty (it isn't yet, I still have two or three!) then I can use to put jewels, hairpins or stuff like that.

Happiness in a box, happiness is the box!

Food!

I most of the time do my grocery shopping at the supermarket closest to my home (who doesn't?). But the other day I decided to change and go to Lidl, a German rather lowcost chain store. What a good idea it turned out to be. I found lots of French food there! Not only the Maille mustard or Le Rustique camembert cheese. No, Lots of food and local dishes. 

Not too difficult to identify as French right? Now, I didn't know this brand before, you can't find it in France but I checked the packaging and every product is produced in the right region so I believe it is a brand focusing on exporting outside the hexagon and working/buying from local producers. 

But the best that day was this cheese. My sister and brother and my cousin will grasp the magicness of it.

Mars and Venus

Last week I had some friends visiting from France, my dear Fanny and her friends/colleagues. When I opened my cupboard and Benoit saw that (see picture), he started to laugh.

He clearly doesn't know what it is:
- to be a girl
- addicted to chocolate
- who lives abroad
- where you can't buy Côte d'Or or Poulain
- And no Bonne Maman jam!!!!

Otherwise he would definitely not laugh... ;-)

Tea for two

I don't like coffee, don't like the taste, don't like the smell and certainly don't like people's loud slurp when they drink it although it's boiling hot.

Tea however I like. A lot. As you can see. There are unfortunately a couple of flavors on the pic that I don't like (my sister bought them when she was still living here) so I don't know what to do with them.


Will probably take them to the office some day. Have you already done that? Taken to the office some stuff you didn't want but couldn't bear to throw away?

Anyway, next time you come to my place for a cup of tea, you know you'll have the choice! :)

It's in the blood

I usually don't eat much cheese when I'm in Sweden. It's not because of the lack of choice, no. There's a lot of choice, even in the supermarket; and there's a lot of French cheese among these. I don't know, I just don't feel like it. However when I'm in France I eat more cheese (in fact I eat more of everything there, hehe).

But lately... There's always a bit of camembert or creamy blue cheese in my fridge! Do you think it's a sign from my body? A way of saying: time to go home now! Either way, I'm listening and on Saturday I'm flying to France for three longly awaited weeks. And I'll probably eat a bite of cheese!

Midsummer

This week-end, or Friday to be more exact, we celebrated Midsummer, one of the most important day of the year in Sweden.

And yet, no Swedish friend that day, just a small group of Mexican and French people.

Program: spend the day in the archipelago, having a pic-nic, enjoying the sun and attend the celebration with the danses around the pole and traditional songs. Check!


Have a nice meal with sill, fresh potatoes, meatballs, cheese, sallad, a strawberry cake + more strawberries. All this accompanied with some snaps and songs. Check!


Result: a great great day! And now headache in order to enjoy the rest of the week-end as the sun continued to shine (and still does).

Good people

Today is my sister's last day to write her thesis, she has until midnight to send it to her teacher. Everyone who has ever written a thesis knows the last days are stressful, full of this feeling you will never have time to finish in time, that you should skip sleeping and showering and eating to earn a few but precious extra hours. Who needs sleeping and showering anyway?

Gratianne is calm. She's struggling and just taking pauses from time to time when necessary.

This morning when I woke up, I checked my facebook on my iPhone and the first post in the newsfeed was a post from Maite to Gratianne to check outside our door. As Gratianne was writing and I guess hadn't check her FB, I went and here is what I found outside our door:


There were two more bagels in the bag. Maite lives in our neighborhood, above an american dinner called egg&milk. One of Gratianne's favourite place here in Gothenburg, for their pancakes and bagels and all the good things of an american breakfast.

To this I have to add that Maite is studying a lot this week-end too: she has her last exam for the year tomorrow as well as a home exam to hand in. And yet, this morning, when she went down to grab a bagel for herself, she thought of buying a couple for Gratianne and came to our place to drop them in front of the door. How good a person has to be?

Just as good a my best friend Matthieu who has sent me another package.


You remember two years ago? That was Matthieu already And now he has done it again. For my bday. Before I went and collect the package, he said to me "it's just a small thing you know". Well no, it's a big thing to me! He thought of me, bought some French products I love that I can't find here: pâté, saucisson, chocolate and BRIOOOOCHE! He put them in a box together with a nice note and sent them to me. Matthieu you're the best!


Another best person is my friend Fanny who packed my Easter shopping like a professionnal and sent me the package the other week.


All this in May, my month. May is ending tomorrow but this year May will have been a great month. And I feel truly blessed that I have such goodhearted friends.

Vardagslyx

Det där mina vänner, det där är vardagslyx. Terrine de campagne aux cêpes från mina hemtrakter. Egen import. Med ljuvlig bröd från Gunnebo Slott.

Bon appétit!

Advent: Julöl

For those who haven't followed since the beginning of December, I am writing my own kind of Advent calendar by trying to tell about Advent & Christmas traditions in Sweden and in France. You can scroll down to see the previous posts.




For those who have been following you will know already that Jul means Christmas. And öl means beer. Christmas beer then. Indeed, Sweden as well as Denmark or even France are brewing special beers for Christmas. I haven't tried many, just he Tuborg I think but I remember it was more bitter than a normal beer.




I am not a big beer drinker and I don't know if that is because of that or if that is because I don't like julöl but I don't really see the point of a drinking a different beer at this time of the year.

Anyone liking julöl or Christmas beer or bière de Noël that could explain, please?

Advent: St Nicolas

Today is St Nicolas' day. This day is not much celebrated in Sweden but in many countries in Europe: Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria, UK, some Eastern Europe countries and in the northern parts of France. And especially in the Lorraine region because St Nicolas is the Patron Saint for Lorraine.

My name as you know is Lorraine and I was named so by my parents as an homage to my grand-father because our family (on my dad's side) comes from Nancy in Lorraine. As a result, although I grew up in the South of France, we celebrated St Nicolas when we were kids.

Celebrations can be slightly different from one country to another but in Lorraine St Nicolas is coming with his donkey to distribute sweets and oranges to kids that behaved well during the year. Some families even give presents as a complement or instead of Christmas.


At home we didn't do much and didn't get any presents but we got a special gingerbread shaped as St Nicolas as on the picture. Oh I loved it! I remember how happy I got every year. Those gingerbreads have a taste that is very representative of northern France and even northern Europe I would say. It can be compared to some tastes I have encountered here in Sweden. But it was very different from all the food we have in the South of France. It really was something different, something that made me travel far away to a region I had never been to. I loved it!

Advent: Chocolate

As you will be able to read here this month, Christmas in Sweden is not only about giving presents but a lot about food. And there is a lot of food that is special to the Christmas time (ham, bear, bread, cookies...).

Swedes are very proud of their traditions and are keeping them year after year and I love that. Unfortunately in France, we are loosing these traditions and it seems now, nothing is happening during the whole month and people are waking up on the 23rd and are forced to go and buy all the presents at once and because everyone is doing the same, it results in a nightmare with overcrowded shops. When it comes to the food, turkey is a traditional meal for Christmas in France but not everyone is cooking it. Some families are just buying "expensive" food, things you may not be able to afford during the year: smoked salmon, foie gras, oysters, lobster, etc...



But Chocolate is equally important in Sweden and in France I think. In both countries you have several kinds of boxes but with some favourites.


In Sweden, people's favourite chocolates are without a doubt, Aladdin. It was created in 1939 and is now so popular that it sells a box per household during the Christmas time. That's around 6 millions boxes for 9.3 millions inhabitants. It is distributed by Marabou/Kraft foods.





This year they have a campaign called "Rädda julen", Save Christmas. They are planning to introduce a new pralin next year and therefore they have to take away one existing, one in = one out. And instead of chosing themselves, they ask the Swedish people to go and vote for the ones they want to keep. And of course, they are doing it right now, a way to advertise both for this year and for next year. Smart!



In France we also have many sorts of chocolate boxes such as the escargots de Lanvin, belgian chocolates (shaped as sea food) and more but my favourites are the Pyrénéens by Lindt. I admit it's a bit chauvinistic as it comes from my region and the factory is only a couple of kms from where I grew up (was about to write from where I live).

Advent: Julskinka

If you read yesterday's post, you know Jul means Christmas. Skinka means ham. Julskinka is a special kind of ham cooked with mustard.


Julskinka is considered a must for Christmas Eve (the most important day) and lies on the tables both on this day and the days before. Every year, 7000 tons of julskinka are sold.

Source: Wikipedia.

This year, the situation might be a bit different and some people may want to break the traditions though. A couple of days ago, a big scandal happened here with consequences still today. Many farms with pigs have been accused of bad treatment on the animals: too little hay on the floor, not enough space and the most disgusting: leaving dead pigs to be eaten by the others. Usch! Consequence: people want to buy ecological julskinka this year.

Advent: Julmust

Is there anything more Swedish that julmust? I am not sure. Jul means Christmas and Must is a soda. Julmust is the Christmas version of it (for Easter they have Påskmust). It belongs to the Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola family. Personally I hate it. My syster loves it.

And the Swedes? Ah they love it! Yesterday my friend Andreas saif we should get married because he had always dreamt of someone who would let him drink all the julmust.

Coca-Cola started to produce their own at the beginning of the 00's but it didn't really work. There's several brand, mostly small local brands but if you listen to people in Göteborg, there's only one brand: Apotekarnes. Right Andreas? ;-)

If you want to read more about it: Wikipedia of course!

Food & Flags II

Here are the results of the game I posted last week here. Above is the poster for the food festival and as you can see there are a couple of new countries but nothing too hard.

1/ France, number 1 of course. Chauvinistic me? Nah... ;-)
2/ Korea
3/ Vietnam
4/ China
5/ Japan
6/ India
7/ Italy
8/ Lebanon
9/ Monaco (although I find it strange... or am I wrong?)
10/ Australia
11/ Brasil
12/ Greece
13/ Switzerland
14/ Spain
15/ Korea again.

How many rights did you have?

Gunnebo

Vendredi midi, je suis allée déjeuner avec mes deux collègues préférés, Gunilla et Daniel au chateau de Gunnebo. C'était la deuxième fois que j'y allais mais les conditions climatiques étaient diamétralement opposées par rapport à la première fois. En effet, la première fois était un 14 juillet et je m'y étais rendue avec ma mère pour participer aux "célebrations" du XIV juillet organisées par le consulat. A savoir, un cocktail avec champagne et marseillaise pour tous les francais de la région. Il faisait tres beau et chaud ce jour-là.


Je ne peux pas en dire autant de vendredi où le froid était mordant, qui m'a fait regretter mon choix de ballerines + mi-bas du matin même. Des moonboots, quoique immondissimes et digne d'avertissement par la police du bon gout, auraient été plus appropriés.


Mais cela valait le coup, compte tenu du repas qui nous attendait. Le cadre est superbe, une vieille maison, déco à l'ancienne, murs en bois peints dans les gris bleu, cuisine délicieuse, thé maison, pain bio maison à tomber à la renverse. Pain que nous avons pu acheter pour ramener chez nous notre découverte du jour (voire de l'année en terme de pain). Daniel a pris un pain au Lingon (airelles) et Gunilla et moi, un pain aux noisettes entières et raisins. Du pain bon comme en France. Ce qui n'est pas courant ici malheureusement. La boutique attenante au restaurant était... ah! Comme d'une autre époque, on y aurait bien passé des heures s'il n'avait pas fallu retourner au bureau...


Pendant le déjeuner, nous avons regardé par la fenêtre pour constater que des petites choses blanches tombaient du ciel. La veille au soir, j'avais rigolé quand Alexandra m'avait demandé au téléphone depuis Paris si nous avions de la neige. "Mais non pas si tôt! On n'est que mi-novembre!" Et bien voila, même si vendredi n'était que mi-novembre, il neigeait! Ah c'était super!!!


Malheureusement, temps typique de Göteborg, les flocons se sont trop rapidement transformés en pluie pour avoir quelques heures plus tard un temps typique de novembre, gris, pluie, froid et ennuyeux.

Nous avons tellement été emballés que nous avons décidé d'y retourner dès jeudi. Le jeudi en Suède, il y a une tradition qui est de manger de la soupe de pois et des pancakes. C'est une tradition qui date depuis plusieurs décennies et les gens ne s'en lassent pas. Certaines personnes pourraient manger ca tous les jeudis depuis l'enfance jusqu'a l'age adulte. Variation? Mmmh, je ne vois pas ce que vous voulez dire.

Food & Flags

A little game today. To start the week. I found these posters a while ago but never took the time to post them.

Can you identify each country?

COUNTRY 1 COUNTRY 2 COUNTRY 3 COUNTRY 4 COUNTRY 5 COUNTRY 6 COUNTRY 7 COUNTRY 8 COUNTRY 9 COUNTRY 10 COUNTRY 11 COUNTRY 12
Tips: look at the actual food, it comes from the country it is supposed to represent. It can help you in some cases.

This advertising campaign was realised in Australia for a food festival and I think it very well made. It engages the reader and make you want to know more about it. If I lived in Australia, I would have liked to go to the fair. For the food but also for the fast that it can make you travel in a way. Food and travel. Two of my favourite interests.

Source: http://www.ibelieveinadv.com/2009/09/sydney-international-food-festival-flags/

Already?

Yesterday I saw some of these at the supermarket:


And I bought a bottle of this (for my sister, I don't like it):


What are this stuff you wonder? Some Swedish weird things. Swedish, yes. Weird, no. Very common even at this time of the year. Well, not exactly. It's actually a bit early. 'cause it's typical Christmas food. I loooove all the Christmas food here in Sweden, the pepparkakor, the julskinka, the glögg and the lussekatter, ah! The lussekatter! These are small saffron buns. If you go back to this post two years ago, you can see that I both buy them and bake them.

But as much as I love all this. It just feels like it's too early. These last weeks, we've had typical autumn weathers. Yes plural because there were two categories. Either grey, rain and wind. Or Blue sky, green grass and yellow leaves. Oh that was beautiful! It came very sudently and within just a few days all the leaves are now on the ground. It went so fast! Anyway, it's still autumn and it getting colder but not thaaaaat cold. It's not winter yet, it's not Christmas yet. It's October, not November yet (well almost ok).

The risk is, if you start eating this food too early. If you start buying all the Christmas decorations. If you start buying your Christmas gifts too early. The risk is that you will get bored when Christmas actually comes. But I discovered lussekatter only 4 years ago and I have many years of lussekatte-eating to catch up! I might wait a couple of days/week tough. Let's see how long I resist.

What about you, any special Christmas food you're looking forward to?

Buena Vista Social Club

Last Saturday I was invited for dinner at my friend Ann-Sofie's place (the one who gave me this book, post in Swedish only). In her invitation, it said something about mojito and I found it a little odd I must say.

When I came in; I was served a mojito and I suddenly realised. We would have a cuban dinner! Indeed they went to Cuba for 2 weeks in January and we hadn't meet each other since.

The menu was Cuban (except the dessert) and we were served:
- Calamares con limón y chili (Shrimps with lemon and chili and roasted bread croutons): really good!
- Pollo con arroz y chorizo (Chicken with risotto with chorizo): really good!!
- Crème caramel (wonder where this dessert comes from... hehe!): really good!!

Ann-Sofie was scared that we wouldn't like the food and had even thought of a plan B with pizza. Are you kidding? It was really tasty and simple yet unusual compared to hwat we usually eat here. And it seems easy to make so I think I will try some of the dishes, especially the starter with the shrimps.

After that we smoked some cigar. I normally don't fancy cigar as it reminds me of my dad smoking every Sunday these huuuuge cigars that smell really strong! Yuck! But these were small, didn't smell much and taste quite good actually! And then we watch their pictures sipping more mojitos and with some cuban music (from Buena Vista Social Club among others) in the background.

A great great night!!! Thanks Ann-Sofie!

Breakfast

Breakfast/brunch is my favourite lunch of the day. And this week-end I'll have two extra good ones that I am looking forward to.

Tomorrow Iris is going to show me a French bakery here in Göteborg, wohoooo! The owner is a French man who has had it in 7 years so it can't be closer to what we have in France. There are some bakeries like "Le Pain Francais" or Pour Bon that I have been writing about earlier, but it's not the same, they're not really close to it. So I have very high expectations. And you know the best part of it? It's very close to home!!!


And on Sunday, we'll have an American brunch to celebrate my good friend Ann-Sofie (who actually bought the book in my previous post!). I've been there only once with my syster, the first week-end she arrived here. It's one of her favourite place in town and I love it too! The style is very "American diner in the 50's" with bright colours such as blue on the walls or pink for the girls' outfits (see pic).

(The pictures were taken by Charlotte, for the magazine Hennes, see her blog here)