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Mimolette: A Dutch cheese disguised as a French cheese?
Filed under: Dairy, Cheese, Northern Europe, The History of..., France, Artisan Foods  I am fascinated by Mimolette. This bright orange French cheese is the size of a bowling ball. Its appearance is breathtaking. It looks like a giant cantaloupe. After I first tried Mimolette, I was struck by its firm texture and sweet caramel-like taste. In addition, I was intrigued by its remarkable similarities with many of the aged Dutch cheeses I've tried in the past. And so, after looking into its history, I was not surprised that it was first produced to model a Dutch cheese,...
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A kebab shop in the Arctic Circle? Talk about frozen food
Filed under: Northern Europe, Newspapers, Comfort Food  I hate the cold, so I have a hard time seeing why anyone would want to move to the island of Spitsbergen, about 300 miles from the northern tip of Norway. However, that is exactly what Kazem Ariaiwand did, and he had a very good reason for making the move.
Mr. Ariaiwand is an Iranian who had been seeking asylum in Norway. His family had been accepted, however, he was denied. As it turns out, Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago, doesn't require pesky paperwork or residency status to live there. So Mr....
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Full-fat dairy linked to lower weight
Filed under: Science, Dairy, Cheese, Northern Europe, Health & Medical  According to a Swedish study that was just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it may be better for you to drink whole milk and eat full-fat cheese than to avoid them if you want to avoid excess weight gain. It also found that there was no benefit, in terms of the size of the waistline, to drinking low fat milk instead. This appears to be especially true if you are a woman, because the study looked at the eating habits of over 19,000 middle-aged Swedish women over the course of 9 years.
The...
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'Tis the season for lutefisk
Filed under: Fish, Northern Europe, Food Oddities, Spirit of Christmas  Lutefisk is one traditional Christmas food that often gets short shrift during a season when visions of gingerbread and fruitcake dance in the heads of foodies and nonfoodies alike. And perhaps with good reason. Who on earth would eat preserved fish that has a jelly-like consistency, much less reserve it for a holiday treat?
Norwegians and other Scandinavians, that's who. Lutefisk takes its name not from the Medieval stringed instrument, but from lye. Honest, it translates to "lye fish." This venerable holiday "treat" is prepared by adding lye to air-dried cod or other white fish. After the fish...
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Caribou and reindeer too, for dinner that is
Filed under: Northern Europe, North America, Meat  In Alaska those famous flying reindeer are being served up for dinner. You can get Caribou steaks, roasts, and reindeer jerky and sausage- in mild and hot versions. Reindeer hot dogs are a summer time treat, as well as being served during the start of the Iditarod dog sled race every year in March. Caribou, also called reindeer, have a very flavorful and lean, healthy meat. To make sausage with it, you actually have to add fat from other sources such as beef and pork. It is sometimes hard to find but Ikea sells it all across Europe. So how about...
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On the menu at the Nobel Prize banquet
Filed under: Parties, Dinner, Northern Europe  The 2006 Nobel Prize Award Ceremony was held on December 10th at the Stockholm Concert Hall in Sweden. The event is, of course, one of the most well-recognized celebrations of achievement in the world and prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology/Medicine, Economics and Literature were officially awarded.
In addition to the ceremony, there is a huge banquet - and we always look forward to hearing about what was served. This year, the three-course menu included a mosaic of salmon and scallops with Kalix bleak roe; herb-baked saddle of lamb, mashed potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes, olive oil-glazed vegetables and port wine sauce; and pineapple parfait with...
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Beer report: Reissdorf Kölsch
Filed under: Beer, Northern Europe, Raves & Reviews  Kölsch is a German beer style that I began to explore late in my long and checkered career as a beer geek. Real late, as in a few weeks ago.
I'm not sure what took me so long. I'd tasted it before. My brewcrastination may be largely due to the fact that so many other big, flavorful German beers just shouldered the gentle beer from Cologne out of my palate's way.
My first real experience with kölsch was at a birthday party for my dear friend and fellow carnivore Josh Ozersky. Much meat and many...
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Valuable wine collection stolen!
Filed under: Wine, Restaurants, Northern Europe, On the Blogs  While one would expect that diamonds are a big draw for thieves, wines seem like a much less likely target. Luxist reports that one of the top restaurants in Sweden had its entire collection of French Bordeaux wines stolen - over 600 bottles of wine. The reason that this particular collection is so significant is that it holds the Guinness World Record for the most unique wine collection in the world. It included bottles from the six Grand Cru vineyards: Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Haut Brion, Chateau d'Yquem and Chateau Latour....
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The "go list" and finding good eats
Filed under: West Coast, British Isles, Mediterranean, Restaurants, Asia, South Asia, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Magazines, Australia, South Africa, Northern Africa, Central Africa, Southern States, New Zealand, Middle East, Europe, North America  Planning on doing some traveling this summer? Looking for a list of the dining hot spots that you should stop
by for a memorable meal? Start with the go list from Food and
Wine magazine, which picks out 376 restaurants chosen by "plugged in correspondents" from 50 cities around
the world. They have...
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First Swedish Malt Whisky
Filed under: Whisky, Northern Europe, New Products  The only Swedish whisky distiller, Mackmyra, has released a single malt. Coming from the countries only distiller
means it is also the only Swedish malt whisky.
Preludium:01 is a blend of the premier casks of whisky made
in the small-scale distillery in 1999, when it was founded, and the first ones from the new distillery, opened in 2002.
Although, like scotch whisky the producers use ex-bourbon casks and ex-sherry butts, they have an added local feel by
utilising new casks made of Swedish Oak.
They took the first first-fill sherry cask, the first first-fill
bourbon cask, the first Swedish oak cask, and mixed it together...
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