Seafood feast, Swedish caviar and girolle toast

IMG_8610In my family, we don’t need much of an excuse to have an extravagant dinner, but celebrating my belated birthday with my parents we went all out on the stuff we love – seafood.

IMG_8624

Girolles are usually in abundance in August, although the first little ‘shrooms can be found in the woods as early as June. In Sweden we worship girolles as their season coincide with the crayfish parties. The first ones I eat every late summer has to be served like this; fried in butter with garlic and parsley, served on bread also fried in butter (or at least toasted). So delicious!

IMG_8625

Then we went outside to the barbecue to grill some oysters. I love oysters regardless of how they are prepared but my parents prefer them warm.

IMG_8631

Simply place the opened shells on live coal until the juices start to bubble. Remove with a thick glove as they heat up quickly. Add lemon juice and tabasco and eat.

IMG_8641

After that exercise we had löjrom (Swedish caviar; vendace roe from Kalix) served in the classic manner with butter-fried toast, creme fraiche and chopped red onions.

IMG_8615

After that we got started on the seafood. We had smoked cold-water prawns, Swedish crayfish, langoustines and crab claws. All washed down with Taittinger Brut Réserve. Needless to say we did not need any pudding after all that…

Wonderful Skåne!

IMG_8694

I hope you don’t mind me paraphrasing Denmark’s slogan (Wondeful Denmark), but I find it suitable since Skåne (the most southern region in Sweden) was in fact Danish until 1658.  

Anyway, this part of Sweden is where I was born, and although I love London I love coming home to my dear Skåne too. Usually I spend time on the beach in the summer but the weather was just as bad as in the UK (grey, rainy and windy) so I had to occupy myself differently. It was a lot of lunch and fika and excursions to countryside shops and similar. 

Olof Viktors

One Saturday my parents and I drove to the beautiful Österlen, the eastern part of Skåne, where we had fika (coffee and pastries) at Olof Viktors, looked at boats in Skillinge Harbour and went to various antiques shops. We also stopped by Gunnarshögs Gård just before closing to buy some of their wonderful cold-pressed rapeseed oil. 

IMG_8700 2014-08-13 14.08.57

One day I met up with a childhood friend at the fish restaurant Johan P, now also located at Malmö Central station, for a prawn sandwich on Danish rye bread. We were hoping to try Saltimporten Canteen, but we were too late to get a table. Next time. 

2014-08-14 14.37.34

Another day, when Carina and I were on our to the beach, we stopped at Märtas in Höllviken for a egg and prawn salad sandwich and enjoyed it outside in basking sunshine. Half an hour later when we reached the beach it was cloudy and cold again.

2014-08-14 14.46.11

The sandwich was great though, and the shop/café really cute. 

2014-08-17 11.39.40

My last Sunday in Skåne I went to the annual antiques fair at Katrinetorp, like most people. It was incredibly popular, probably partly because of the torrential rain. I bet IKEA was busy too! 

2014-08-17 13.42.11

2014-08-17 13.47.33

For lunch I met up with my bestie Emma at the festival in town; Malmöfestivalen but it was an anticlimax walking around in the rain with soaked shoes. I quickly decided on a langos with sourcream, caviar and red onions while Emma had a chicken wrap. 

2014-08-18 12.34.37

Another day with seriously bad weather (I so picked the wrong week and a half to go) Therèse and I were about to have lunch at the harbour in Smygehamn, the most southern point in the country, but it was so windy we got a takeaway instead. At the fish smokery they have lovely individual sandwich cakes with seafood. They’re quite creamy but really good. 

As you can see I got my seafood sandwich fix during this trip, it’s something very Scandinavian that I can certainly miss in London, although there are a few places offering a decent prawn sandwich there too. 

 

Dinner at Restaurante Rififi, Palma de Mallorca

IMG_6571One evening in Palma both my parents and I were craving fish for dinner, which shouldn’t be that difficult on an Mediterranean island, but we actually found surprisingly few proper fish restaurants in town.

Via Google I found one outside Palma but just a nice walk away, so we walked all the way there only to find it was closed. Such an anticlimax, especially as the sign outside the restaurant said that they should be open. In the same neighbourhood we tried a tapas restaurant but that was full and the only other food on offer was Thai which we weren’t in the mood for; we wanted local fish.

On the walk back to the hotel we walked past a fish restaurant that looked good so we walked in and got a table. It turned out to be a really good restaurant that had been in the same spot since the 1960s and the owner told us all about the beginning of the charter period for the island and how it had changed since then.

IMG_6580We were famished after are walk and were delighted at the sight of amuse bouche, we got crostinis with octopus, lettuce and vinaigrette to start which was really good (the top photo) and we then continued onto our maincourses. Dad and I got carried away at the fish counter with locally sourced fish and seafood, caught only a few hours previously and chose clams, big prawns (gambas) and baby squid to be grilled and served with homemade french fries and lemon. So simple and delicious when the produce is good!

IMG_6581Mummy chose a dish from the menu that was utterly delicious; cod deep-fried to perfection with prawns in a spinach and cream sauce.We had a dry white Rioja to drink and were in the end very pleased with our evening. The extra walk just added to the appetite.

Restaurante Rififi, Avinguda Joan Miró, 182, Palma de Mallorca

Dinner at Randall & Aubin, Soho

RA5

London has plenty of cosy restaurants and one is certainly Randall & Aubin, bang in the middle of bustling Soho.

Randall & Aubin is a French brasserie with a lot of seafood on the menu. It is relaxed yet still a little bit decadent with oysters and shellfish plateaus on the menu. It is first come first served and usually packed with people, but if you get here around 6pm you usually don’t have to wait too long. Alternatively show up for a late supper when the crowd has petered out.

I came here with a group of girls celebrating an engagement. Luckily we got a table straight away and had a relaxed supper with a few bottles of cava, some nibbles and a main course each.

The photo above shows how hungry we all were; reaching out for the food as soon as it was placed on the table. That’s my girls! 🙂  We shared a half pint of shell-on prawns to peel and dip in mayo (that’s how we do it in Sweden too) and a few servings of their zucchini frites with basil mayo that are a-ma-zing!

RA2

Gaby and I were seduced by the specials on the black board and both thoroughly enjoyed the lobster roll in broiche with skinny frites. So fresh and juicy!

RA3

Laura chose the bouillabaisse traditionally served with croûtons and rouille.

RA4

And Jenny had the crab and lemon risotto that looked fab, although the portion was rather small…

We had a great evening here with wine, good food and plenty of fun chat. It is quiet enough to be able to carry a conversation but still bustling enough inside to remind you that you’re in Soho. I would recommend Randall and Aubin for a date, dinner with other couples or just a group of friends.

Randall & Aubin, 14-16 Brewer Street, London W1F 0SG

Dinner at Antika, Stari Grad, Croatia

IMG_5286

One of that last night on the yacht we decided to all eat together in pretty Stari Grad, at the Antika restaurant, recommended by our skipper.

It was a cosy courtyard restaurant full to the brim with guests so it was pretty buzzing, but we also noticed there was some kind of children’s play on at the square just adjacent, which created a bit of extra noise. We could have coped with that but then the spectators thought it was fine to stand around us between the tables to cheer and take photos. Needless to say we were rather unimpressed.

IMG_5304

Eventually the play ended though and we could finally enjoy our dinner conversation. The food however was very good. Most in our group had the breaded and baked feta salad as a starter. It was huge (consisting of a whole block of feta, breaded and baked plus salad items) so although it was very good I was glad I saved myself for my steak.

IMG_5306

From the moment our skipper had mentioned the word steak I knew what I was having and it was probably the best priced piece of fillet steak I’ll ever eat. Very tender too and the creamy gorgonzola sauce with dill was lovely too. Perhaps nor local cuisine, but very good.

IMG_5309

Gaby had the seafood in a white wine and tomato sauce which was also delicious. And we even ‘met’ a new type of mullusc. It looked like a cross between a muscle and an oyster, it was cooked like the mussels but you had to open it yourself (i.e. it didn’t open itself while cooking) but neither the taste nor texture was that nice; it was rather chewy and bland. Fun to try though!

IMG_5303Antika, Duonjo kola, Stari Grad, Croatia