It’s Sunday, though of course nobody in this house is going to church! I’m not used to relaxing on the weekends, or rising past 5 a.m., so I’m greatly enjoying a week in the country with amiable company, good weather, and luscious noms.
Speaking of noms, here’s Gosia, the lodger at my hosts’ house, bringing me a nice present: a jar of homemade wild mushroom soup made by her aunt. This is a traditional Polish dish, and was absolutely delicious as a first course last night.
Dinner: chicken, Swedish potatoes, cauliflower, and wine. (Malgorzata and Andrzej lived in Sweden for many years, and still cook Swedish food). Emma the d*g looks on.
A plate of Polish sunflower-seed and sesame-seed cookies is just the ticket for an afternoon treat, especially when washed down with a glass of pure cherry juice:
Yesterday Hili got a special treat, too: a saucer of milk. She works up quite an appetite during her days roaming the cherry orchard. And her white nose stripe looks as if she’d dipped her face in the milk.
Sarah, a family friend, took a picture of Hili when she was a kitten (about a year ago) and had it put onto a mug. Even as a baby she showed her penchant for climbing.
Talk to the paw!
Last night, while ensconced in my room, Hili suddenly leapt off the bed and ran to the door. I thought she wanted out, but she had spotted a cricket clinging to the doorframe about two meters off the floor. Without any hesitation she leapt up and batted it onto the floor with her paw. She didn’t attack it, but simply followed it as it hopped about the room.
I then picked her up and held her while I captured the cricket and put it outside. When I let her go, she ran right back to the spot where the cricket had been and looked puzzled. Not finding it there, she then ran back to the door and looked up exactly where the cricket had been originally. Conclusion: cats have a short-term spatial memory that lasts at least several minutes.
That two-meter leap was something to see.
Hili longing to write a post for Racjonalista. “Hili,” by the way, means “she’s mine” in Hebrew.
The weather has been perfect as long as I’ve been here: blue skies and temperatures in the lower 20s (C). Andrzej and I went for a walk to the Vistula this morning:
This is the house where I’m staying. Above the door is its name on a board: “Smultronstället”. Does anybody recognize that, and what it denotes?
And the yard (note the apple tree), beyond which is the very large orchard that runs down to the bluffs overlooking the Vistula:
“Smultronstället” is Swedish for “the wild strawberry patch”. Also the title of one of Ingmar Bergman’s films (international title: “Wild Strawberries”).
My first hunch was that it is a Swedish word.
Google confirmed that and it means “wild strawberry patch.”
“Smultronstället” is also a movie by Ingmar Bergman.
You beat me to it! I speak Swedish. Smultron is the name of those delicious little wild strawberries, and stället basically means place or stead. Instead in Swedish is “i stället”.
With regard to Bergman’s film, you can watch it on YouTube at /watch?v=9anlOTzIrkM
I can confirm this 🙂
I also think “smultronstället” can be used in a more allegorical sense, and denote a “magical”, or “special” place, since “smultron” is something of the absolutely best swedish summers have to give, and if you find a such a place, you guard that secret ferociously 😉
Being Swedish, I can confirm this: a ‘smultronställe’ is a very special, magical, peaceful, restful place. Definitely the kind of place where you want to live. The word refers to this kind of special place; the meaning of the word is figurative, as so.
Recognized the literal meaning, but not that it was a Bergman film (since I saw it before learning Swedish)). Also not the idiomatic meaning, but that makes sense given that wild strawberries come early, when the land awakens from a long winter, and also that they are tiny delights themselves.
The name of the house has something to do with
wild strawberries, I think.
Good food, good people, sunny sky and a lazy cat. What more can one wish for.
These posts are making me exceedingly jealous. What a bucolic paradise!
This is how life should be 🙂
Assume the mushroom soup in Poland is much like that in Slovenia, which is at the top of my (+ my girlfriend’s) list of favorite foods there.
BTW, any impressions on the landscape where you’re staying – if it’s particularly reminiscent of anywhere in the US?
Slovakia’s mushroom soup is similar to Polish. Not sure about Slovenia – south of Austria with Balkan/Mediterranean influences. In Poland, the prize mushroom is the prawdziwek (Boletus edulis), in Italy it is called the porcino. So truth in Poland, piglet in Italy. Dried mushrooms are used to make soup. The intensity of the flavor is incredible.
Warsaw is 52 degrees north, Chicago is 41. Not sure what area of the US is comparable. At one time, this was covered by the primeval forest which covered all of Northern Europe. The only piece left is in Bialowieza Forest on the Polish-Belarussian border. They have bison there – what we incorrectly call buffalo in the US.
Thanks – Slovenian cuisine seemed far more Northern European influenced, so I expect they’re very similar.
In Sweden, B. edulis is called Karl Johan, in honor of Karl XIV Johan, the founder of the current (Bernadotte) royal house, for reasons that are unclear to me. I wanted to name my son Karl Johan, after the mushroom, but had to compromise on John Karl.
I admire you photographs. Rotating to keep in the feet of your subject is good technique. Helps you connect with the subject/person. Cats, on the other hand typically don’t require the extra effort. They are naturally in landscape mode.
“Conclusion: cats have a short-term spatial memory that lasts at least several minutes.”
My kitty, The Bantam Menace, which we shorten to Bantam, cornered a squirrel on our back porch. The squirrel quickly ascended the screen and used the rolled-up blinds to protect itself. Hearing the commotion on the porch I opened the back door, grabbed Bantam and sequestered him inside. Meanwhile the squirrel was able to safely exit the porch.
But Bantam, being a relentless hunter, sprinted for the cat door at the opposite end of the house, and made an equally hard charge for the back porch, where he promptly focused his full attention on the squirrel’s last seen position.
So they not only have short-term spatial memory, but clearly they have some ability to plan. I remain astonished at Bantam’s ability to sprint in the opposite direction of his “prey” with the intention of circling back for another attack.
Why don’t I have a picture of this cat?
It’s the savanna, man. That shit stays with you forever.
Are you sure plasticity and kitty kat kulture aren’t involved?
Could be, although I’m convinced that all felines suffer from some kind of grand delusions about themselves.
But then again it’s hardly delusional considering their ability to control their humans.
At the risk of being jumped on, pilloried, lambasted, admonished, etc, etc, what the heck is “Swedish Food?”
Oh man. Swedish meatballs! In the white sauce scented with Angostura bitters. Love those. And cardamom cookies.
And don’t get me started about lutefisk. Oh, the translucent, gelatinous, caustic culinary ecstasy that is lutefisk!
It is traditional in places, but it is AFAIK actually a norwegian invention of how to prepare dried fish for consumption.
Me, I like the swedish counter-tradition of surströmming (fermented instead of dried fish).
But it is food for traditional feasts, not swedish kitchen as such. Also not something foreigners would want to try I think. =D
Well, Gustav I referred to it in a 1540 letter.
My Swedish grandparents were big on it, so it’s always seemed Swedish, or at least generically Scandinavian to me.
I’ve heard about that surströmming stuff. I’ve also heard it makes lutfisk smell like a rose garden in comparison.
I may just have to try it sometime.
And “lutefisk” _is_ the norwegian term. It is “lutfisk” in swedish.
Actually, I’d rather you didn’t start on it anyway. I live in an area that saw heavy Norwegian (and Swedish) immigration i the 1800s so I know and have tried lutefisk (or lutfisk). I think Mr Larsson is correct, most will not want to try it! I thought it, …, interesting?
PS, I don’t know if your use of the word “caustic” was intentional and knowing but NaOH is used to make the stuff (gelatinous). That in itself should steer the discerning palate away from it?
Very intentional. Lye is a huge part of its “allure”, dont you think?
😉
Amazing. Lutefisk was described to me once as a cross between vodka and soap. Is that at all accurate?
I’m considered by most people that know me to be quite adventureous when it comes to food and drink, and I’ll go out of my way to try stuff I’ve never had before. But for some reason I’m just not very curious about lutefisk.
no reasonable person would get you started with the lutefisk.
One summer in Stockholm my aunt and uncle tried to kill me with the lutefisk. They meant well.
I almost died.
Off the top of my head (I left sweden in 1978): köttbullar (Swedish style meatballs), pitt i panna (Swedish hash), nyponsöppa (rosehip soup), Blåbärsoppa (bilberry soup), smoked reindeer (goes great with horseradish cream), fresh reindeer, moose meat, saffron buns, princess cake, blodpudding (a usually sweet form of black pudding), various kinds of fermented milk, a wide variety of cheeses, and much, much more.
Not to forget many kinds of fish and various preparations of herrings. Also, gravad laks (marinated salmon served with dill), and, in August, räkor (prawns) orgies. Then, of course, there is the inevitable and delicious smörgåsbord.
Don’t forget the korv!
Don’t forget smoked fish, especially herring: böckling!!
It depends.
Traditional swedish foods are a mix of stout simple foods for heavy work (farming) – think potatoes, pork, fish, vegetables; samish and hunting kitchens – think game and reindeer meats; and brittish, german, french et cetera influences from many invasive wars of the former superpower. (That is why we love coffee – Karl XII fled to Turkey and later introduced the potent drink.)
But today, after a long delay for outreach, it is quite the international cuisine – swedish kooks place well in international games and among New York’s fancier restaurants – with a strength in planning & simplification (I think).
A popular swedish kitchen is balancing meat and sweats – reindeer & lingonberry jam is the archetype.
“Swedish kooks”
That’s gotta be intentional, right? 😉
No, actually, I messed up. Thanks.
I was gonna say. America is the place to go if you’re looking for kooks.
This is a Swedish kook!
Oops, forgot the link…
http://imageshack.us/a/img703/5826/uqc9.jpg
Thanks for that. My question was actually serious, no matter how ill-presented. It stems partly from the lack of opportunity to try it as we don’t exactly trip over the vast array of Swedish restaurants as we travel the world. Even in Sweden, I didn’t really get a “flavour” for the cuisine; however, I stayed only a couple of days.
Didn’t you ever pay attention to this guy? 😉
I posted a link to that character’s image a while ago, but since the moderation of my posts sometimes take extremely long… I posted that image saying “This is a Swedish kook!”
Nope, blew that opportunity. It’ll teach me to hit “The Google” before posting next time!
Thees is joost tuu mooch foon!
Oups! I furgut tu tell yuoo thet yuoo hefe-a tu cleeck zee Deeelectize-a! boottun. Bork bork bork!
Funny, it did the comments too!
Mmmmm… Stomachless sticky cake!
That looks effin delicious! ARRRGHH!
Henceforth my preferred method of softening ingredients will be to yell at them.
Just be careful with the moosemeat. You’ve got to be very gentle with it… just like the Swedish ladies.
Don’t forget step 2 or they’ll be lumpy.
That guy might be the best thing to happen for the home cooking scene since Julia Child.
Yes. It is plainly evident by the fan mail he gets. What an excellent cooking style for those long Swedish winters.
This is difficult to explain – suffice to say that because of the success of the Chicago Blackhawks, Malort is popular in Chicago – specifically –
“Jeppson’s Malört, a distilled beverage, is a brand of bäsk brännvin produced by the Carl Jeppson Company of Chicago. Jeppson’s Malört is the only brand of bäsk made in the United States and is named after Carl Jeppson, the Swedish immigrant who first popularized and sold the liquor in Chicago. Malört is the Swedish word for wormwood,which is the key ingredient in a bäsk brännvin.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeppson's_Mal%C3%B6rt
http://www.jeppsonsmalort.com/
It has been called “The Most Disgusting Liquor of All Time.”
http://io9.com/5980080/malort-the-most-disgusting-liquor-of-all-time
Swedish Pancakes like my grandmother used to make!
Awww the paw picture with the furry feet & pretty whiskers is adorable!
I’ve never heard of “Swedish potatoes” before, so thanks!
Though googling it, what comes up is not potato wedges (“klyftpotatis”) but sliced baked potatoes (“Hasselbackspotatis”, from hotel Hasselbacken I believe).
“Klyftpotatis” is the swedish take on “pommes château”. So yeah, swedish.
Maybe the influence of a long swedish stay is why the indoor architecture looked swedish to me. (Lots of wood.)
You might find this link informative: http://www.ifood.tv/network/swedish_potato
Maybe you just call them potatoes. When I first moved to the States, people kept talking about “Canadian bacon” which turned out to be back bacon.
Or American cheese which turned out to be just “plastic cheese”.
Hmm, ‘…In Canada, exactly the same product, often by the same manufacturer with the same label design, used to be sold as “Canadian cheese” or “Canadian slices”…'[*]
Really? I knew them just as sliced cheese, processed cheese and the nick name “plastic cheese”. Maybe it’s because I’m just so damn youthful. 🙂
Get it right people. That stuff is “Cheese Food.”
Cheese has to eat too ya know.
LOL!
Poland must do a lot with soups. A Polish restaurant near me, always did a New Year’s Day soup-fest, where they offered seven or eight different soups with wonderful breads. I never missed it, but sadly they are gone.
Here are 17 Polish soups:
http://www.tastingpoland.com/food/polish_food_soups.html
I live in Chicago so it is easy for me to get all the things Jerry is eating. Best sausage – as well as other Polish foodstuff – is:
Kurowski’s Sausage Shop
2976 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60618
Northern countries like Poland and Sweden were not trying to develop delicacies – just tried to use everything available so they would not starve. Now they have developed into delicacies.
Anyone else notice the book on the desk? It’s “The World Turned Upside Down” by Melanie Phillips. The book argues against evolution and global warming, amongst other things.
I noticed it.
I saw the title The World Turned Upside Down and immediately thought of the book by Christopher Hill on the English Revolution. When I saw that Hill wasn’t the author I Googled the book by Phillips. I haven’t read it but noticed an endorsement from prominent AGW denier/skeptic Richard S. Lindzen. I didn’t know she was denying evolution.
Melanie Phillips is a rather notorious figure the UK. She writes a column for the Daily Mail. She has written numerous articles denying global warming and evolution. At one time she was a champion of the idea that the MMR vaccine causes autism, although she has quietly dropped that one now. She also seems to think that most of the world’s ills are caused by feminism.
Know your enemies.
You’re a lucky, lucky man, Jerry.
What species is the cricket!?
http://www.ortheur.org/get?site=orthoptera
Male Pholidoptera griseoaptera -?
So good to hear that you are taking time out to relax. 🙂