Travel Europe Archives - Miss Foodwise

Ghent, the rock ‘n’ roll alternative to Bruges in Belgium

Regula — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 21:47:03 +0000

Nearly everyone I know abroad who visited Belgium tells me they only went to Bruges… Such a shame! I usually exclaim because Ghent is just as beautiful! Don’t get me wrong, I love Bruges but Ghent is Bruges rock’n’roll sister, the badass of the family, full of subcultures, underground music scenes and home to ‘Vooruit’ one of the most incredible music halls located in an old socialist arts centre – the place where I saw my first show at 16. On top of that, Ghent has all Bruges has to offer architecture-wise minus the annoying hordes of tourists and unimaginative souvenirs shops selling lace from anywhere but Flanders.

Ghent is constantly reinventing itself, people are friendly and the atmosphere is relaxed. You can have a good glass of Belgian beer on nearly every street corner but the last few years exciting new places have been opening all over the town. Ghent has been reputed being the vegetarian capital of Europe and that is something I had to be told by a friend who is vegan and visited Ghent a few months ago.

Ghent has been our nearest town for the last 12 years and with our move a few months ago we hardly ever visited because life has just been to busy and we no longer live a 20 minute drive away. But I find I look at Ghent with different eyes now when we do manage to carve out some time to travel there. We no longer pop over for lunch at our favourite Italian (Trattoria Della Mamma), but venture further into the city to try other things, stay longer to have dessert or afternoon tea (Huset), or an ice cold glass of Belgian style.

If shopping is what you are after, Ghent has it all. You have your highstreet chains in de Veldstraat but if small independent shops is your thing – it sure is for me – you have an array of little shops dotted around town.

If you saved all your pennies for the train fare and have not much extra to spend, fear not. On a budget Ghent is still as appealing as if you’ve got an envelope of cash in your purse. Walks around town are of course free and beautiful and a traditional meal of Flemish fries in a paper cone is romantic as well as cheap. Ghent has something for everyone.

Let me share with you my favourite addresses to make your trip the best it can be. And if you’re visiting around this time, Ghent has a shopping on sunday (shops are usually closed on sundays) and next week there is a folk festival in the Patershol quarter (Patershol feesten). This borough is called ‘Coté Culture’ this summer and there are great restaurants, traditional, ethnical and hipster. I love the shops here like Louise & Madeleine for gifts, jewellery and pottery, Maaike kleedt for fashion and an old fashioned wallpaper shop you just have to go and see to be transported back in time.

These shops are all situated on or just off the Kraanlei, a beautiful street by the water where you just have to have a walk even if you don’t feel like shopping. There are plenty of places to keep you watered from tea (Julie’s House), coffee (Jetje) to the more stronger stuff.

Huset, Hoogstraat

Het Lepelblad, Onderbergen

Simon Says

Organic cheese made by Hinkelspel

Cuberdon sweet seller

For shopping (excluding highstreet chains)

I love shops where you can find unique or home made things, these are shops selling those things and if you have prop shopping in mind, some of these will be great for you.

Dille & Kamille (baskets, crockery and props, a larger chain but I still love the fact they sell smaller brands like Doves farm organic products, and did I tell you about the baskets??)
Hoornstraat

Louise & Madeleine
Kraanlei (a very nice street by the water with a few nice places to have a drink and eat)

Maaike Kleedt (fashion)
Kraanlei

Confiserie Temmerman (old fashioned sweet shop, great facade)
Kraanlei

Behangwinkel Priem (vintage wallpaper, this store has been here for decades)
Zuivelbrugstraat

Piet Moodshop
Sint Pieternieuwstraat

Seventy One (Vintage revival shopping)
Brabantdam

Het Paard van Troye (large selection of cookbooks and a café)
Kouter

Food shopping:

Mokabon (old fashioned retro coffee place from the 1930’s)
Donkersteeg

Tierenteyn -Verlent Mustard shop (mustard, pickles and other delicious preserves, a must visit for the old shop interior)
Groentenmarkt

Himschoot Bakery (where you can find traditional local pastries like mastel breads and mattetaart)
Groentenmarkt

Tratoria Della Mamma (Italian take-away)
Sint Pieternieuwstraat

Traditional Cuberdon sweets (purple cones, tastes like violet)
At various stalls in the town

Cheese

Cheese shop
Donkersteeg

Cheese Mekka
Koestraat

Hinkelspel (Organic cheese maker, love the fenugreek one)
Ferdinand Lousbergskaai 33

Restaurants:

Het Lepelblad (sustainable food, great place, great wine and beer)
Onderbergen

De parkiet
Kraanlei

Boon (Vegetarian)
Veerleplein

Komkommertijd (Vegetarian)
Reep

Le petit Botanique (all produce from city farms in Ghent)
Kammerstraat

Eetkaffee De Lieve (Old fashioned Belgian)
Sint-Margrietstraat

Aroy Aroy (Fusion)
Lang Steenstraat

Trattoria Della Mamma (Traditional Italian, just for lunch)
Sint Pieternieuwstraat 36

Huset (breakfast, afternoon tea, coffee and cake, beautiful location)
Hoogstraat

Eat Love Pizza (organic, made with love!)
Ajuinlei

Superette (sourdough bread and pizzas, modern cuisine)
Guldensporenstraat

Simon Says (Great lunch spot)
Sluizeken

San (Bowl food, very elegant)
Brabantdam

Patershol:

Roots (imaginative cuisine)

Karel De Stoute (upmarket cuisine)

Bocca Di Lupo (Italian)

Drinking:

De Brouwbar (Brewbar)
Oudburg

Gruut City Brewery (brewery with pub and guided tour)
Rembert Dodoensdreef

Jazz cafe Otis
Oudburg

Jiggers’ cocktail bar (for perfect cocktails)
Oudburg

Dulle Griet (beer café)
Vrijdagmarkt

Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant (beer café)
Groentenmarkt

Dreupelkot (Jenever)
Groentenmarkt

Trapistenhuis (beer)
Brabantdam

Het Véloke (as seen in my book Belgian Café Culture, a very-very unique place run by hoarder Lieven, go there at your own risk, you’ll see what I mean)

Coffee and cake, or just coffee or tea or afternoon tea

Mokabon (old fashioned coffee place from the 1930’s, a must go even if you don’t drink coffee)
Donkersteeg

Huset (beautiful location, great cakes!)
Hoogstraat

Simon Says
Sluizeken

Julie’s House (afternoon tea, tea and coffee)
Kraanlei

Jetje
Kraanlei

Madame Bakster
Brabantdam

Museums:

Sint-Baafskathedraal (cathedral with exhibition)

http://www.sintbaafskathedraal.be/

Gravensteen (Ghent’s beautiful castle in the middle of town)

https://gravensteen.stad.gent/en

S.M.A.K (museum for temporary art)

Jan Hoetplein

Markets (until noon)

Weekly market on Friday

Vrijdagmarkt

Organic market on Friday

Groentenmarkt

Organic market on Sunday

Sint-Pieters Railway station

The post Ghent, the rock ‘n’ roll alternative to Bruges in Belgium appeared first on Miss Foodwise.

It all starts with fire. How Pure Food Camp in Sweden opened up my eyes to nature

Regula — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 08:50:49 +0000

I didn’t really know what to expect when I stepped on a plane with final destination Sweden in what was possibly one of the most dreadful moments of my life. My heart was pounding in my throat because I just left my gravely ill and much beloved 15 year old cat in the very loving hands of my husband. I sat on the Copenhagen station platform waiting for a train to Malmo in Sweden, I felt utterly alone and I just wanted to be home.

But suddenly I looked up and there I saw the wonderful smile of Sarah from Vienna. Like me she had a huge backpack, accompanied by a small one, dressed in outdoorsy clothing but in a far better mood than I was. Excited she asked if I was traveling to the food camp and we started talking, trying to figure out delayed and cancelled trains and word by word I was letting go of the overpowering sadness and worry.

We boarded a train and then a taxi which brought us to a beech forest in Skane. We were greeted by Lotta Ranert, creator of Pure Food Camp and one of the two women who brought us all together here and Camilla, the owner. There was cheese to welcome us, cheese made by Cecilia Timner, 20 footsteps from where we were standing, made with the milk of the pale creamy fudge-coloured cows we heard mooing in the distance.

Nothing happens in my brain here before I have made sure we have this fire and it’s going and we can make food and tea.

The camp existed out of a couple of yurts and a big mother-yurt which was the heart of the site. In the centre of that yurt was a warming wood fired stove with water boiler that created a spectacular display of steam, there were pots, pans, crockery and a couple of essentials. Each of our own yurts had a sweet little blue door, painted with illustrations. Two little beds with a duvet and woolly blanket in each yurt, a water container, oil lamps, matches, a kerosene fire and a bowl to hold water to wash ourselves. It was a simple set up but yet it felt like luxury.
Our outdoor loo was of the glamorous sort with a see through roof, wooden walls and an actual toilet seat. Much more than I was expecting but very welcome indeed on moments when going behind a big tree wasn’t an option.

After talking us through how to tend to the oil lamps and kerosene fire, loo and a few other practicalities we were expected up a gentle hill where a large table was set with vintage teacups and plates ready for “Fika”. Fika can be compared to a simple afternoon tea yet less formal and it can happen several times a day. One of the Swedes told us in many Swedish companies Fika is even a big thing, Fika is serious business and should not be skipped.

The kanelbullar (cinnamon swirl buns, see my recipe here), almondbullar and chocolatabullar (balls made of butter, cacao and oats) were passed around the table laughing as if we were at day 5 not hour 2 into the camp week. Tea and coffee came from tall sturdy steel teapots who hung from the smoking open fires. It was supposed to be raining I remembered, but instead here we were, outside, drinking hot drinks and eating all kinds of bullar while secretly gazing around us, taking in the details of the forest, savouring this unique moment in our lives.

The sun was lowering on the sky and Camilla, the owner of the Nyrups Naturhotel that was our yurt camp introduced us to the menu of the dinner we would be cooking on the fires. Two vegetable starters, a main and a pudding, each in a basket, just the ingredients and the suggestion of what to do with them. Sarah from Vienna and I teamed up and went for the main. In our basket we found locally caught perch, potatoes, cavollo nero, a selection of forest mushrooms and a couple of carrots. Sarah did potatoes and pickled carrots while I fried the cavollo nero and the mushrooms in plenty of butter and a touch of fire in a pan I’d love to call my own. When it was time for the fish I thought of a recipe I learned to make a week before by a friend in England, cooked in clay, straight onto the embers. Lacking clay we used every bit of newspaper we could find – although it was meant for starting fires – rubbed the fish with lemony wood sorrel we quickly foraged in the last evening light, a bit of thyme, juniper berries and a healthy doze of pepper, salt and a good knob of butter or two. The fish we wrapped in baking parchment because we did not have a large leaf at hand, then we wrapped each parcel in the soaking wet newspaper. Everyone went in to start dinner while a couple of us stayed behind to cover all the open fires with pans of fish parcels.

By the time we had finished our starters: cauliflower, bacon and potato by Gabriella from Spain, Emily from England and Helen from Germany and beetroot & Swedish halloumi by Kerstin also from England we gathered the parcels and removed the now charred newspaper. The perch was to my great amusement perfectly done, not too far, pearly white and very moist. Everyone got a parcel and as a side the kale and mushrooms I had fried on the fire earlier, parts of the kale slightly crisp because fire tends to lick the inside of your pan. Fire adds a seasoning you can’t recreate, because it’s also the smoke in your eyes, the heat on your hands and arms that add to the taste of cooking food in the wild.The wood sorrel is definitely a new favourite leaf to use, I wonder if I can make it grow in my wild garden at home… Fair haired Titti Qvarnström – our other host and the first female head chef in Sweden to receive a Michelin star – was sitting next to me at dinner and she approved of the fish so that’s good enough for me!

Pudding was just that, a delightful cake skilfully baked in a tin on the open fire by former UK Masterchef winner Keri. The darker bits were the best, we had seconds, drowned in a custard she made from scratch and on a temperamental fire, no mean feat.
By now I bless myself and the stars to be here. This is already an unforgettable trip and were only just started our journey. I realise however that we are all so out of touch with nature. When you have no electricity things become simple and difficult at the same time.

Image by Torbjorn Lagerwall edited

After this feast accompanied by excellent local Swedish wine and beer the last ones standing toast with a traditional herb liqueur Sarah kindly brought us from Austria. Then it suddenly it hits me when I go outside to find a big tree… it’s incredibly dark. Kerstin comes with me because I am a wimp. We head back to our yurts, armed with all the oil lamps we can find because I managed to scare the group with my own fears about zombies in the forest. We all have a laugh but secretly hold to that lamp with a passion.
First night in a yurth, in the middle of the woods, with someone we only just met a few hours ago… My yurt-mate Keri and I decided to keep the oil lamp on while we try to sleep… we can’t face the complete darkness just yet.

The next morning my insomniac self awaited dawn eager to cook breakfast on the fires. I looked out of our yurt, the sky is red, beautiful. I decide a simple bun in my hair instead of my intricate hairdos and no make-up are in order, because we don’t have a mirror, and we’re in the middle of a forest, who cares! I do, but still I go with the bun.

Instructions were to arrive for breakfast between 7 and 9, I arrived at 7 which meant I helped make the fires, started to boil the water and kept the fire going, or at least tried to. Although I’m a morning person it does take some time before I’m really my spring chicken self, but not here in the woods. Nothing happens in my brain here before I have made sure we have this fire and it’s going and we can make food and tea. It’s refreshing to feel my brain stop. Gone is all the planning, the work, the worry, the silly day-to-day frustrations. It all just doesn’t matter until you have made sure there is fire. It feels like my head is less foggy here in the woods, I experience a focus I never have this time of day at home. Home is where the electric kettle is, the fridge with milk and yoghurt, everything can be just taken without even thinking about it, on auto-pilot, day after day, after day.

After breakfast we went out into the woods with nature expert Pontus Dowchan to forage for dinner but not before he makes us do some dancing in a circle which takes on a witchcraft feel when I spot the tiny red mushroom in the middle of our circle. After we have made our juices flow by the exercise we begin our walk. Living in the wild means you will spend most of your time gathering food, making fire and cooking the food. We’re going back to this primal situation where modern folly is irrelevant. Pontus tells us it’s always hard to know when you’re going to be done foraging because one day you will find what you need quickly and on other days it will take an hour to find just one chanterelle mushroom.

While foraging we learn how nature likes to deceive us by growing the herb you need next to the herb that can poison you. The details are small, but we learn about them and pick the ones that are safe. One of us has a cut in their finger and the master forager just rubs a green herb in it to stop the bleeding, it works. It also works as aspirine he tells us. For once I wished I had a headache just to try it out.

Pontus teaches us to look at what’s in front of us like an owl does, take everything is, we hear wild boar and then find the tracks of the sow and her piglet, we almost walked over it but are starting to really see while before we were totally blind.

My mind is been taken over by gathering the things we need for dinner and thinking of ways we can also use these leaves in cooking. After we have found enough herbs and leaves for our dinner we do a 40 minute hike up a hill where we are greeted by Cecilia with lunch. Local cheese and cured meats, sea bass carpaccio with crips bread are washed down with ale or juice. I take a moment and take my plate a few steps away from our group, the view is beautiful, the smell of the moss and the decaying leaves enters my nose and I breath in deep, noticing how I never really take deep breaths like these at home. I put my beer and plate down on the soft green moss and take a picture, I want to remember this place, this lunch, this moment. Then I return to the group, still in my head, very quiet which is unusual for me.

After lunch we take the healthy 40 minute hike back down the hill and to our campsite. We enter the mother yurt, light the little candles and snug around the heart of the tent – the stove – in wooden chairs covered with warming sheepskin and blankets. The moment we settle, it starts pissing down outside, we have been very fortunate to have been dry on our walk and lunch. I do wonder though about the wood in the rain… will we be able to light our fires if the wood is soaked…

Titti arrives to start cooking with us and luckily the sky locks are closing and we are in for dry weather tonight. I spot a tin of Surströmming, fermented Baltic herring which is an infamous Swedish delicacy. People with lots of hair on their chest go for older tins which look like they are ready to burst, wimps like us go for a young tin but nevertheless the beast does spit and once I get the hang of the can opener juice squirts out all over Lotta… I made the right choice volunteering to opening that tin it seems! The beast did get me in the end because the fermented herring is not gutted and brave as I was opening the tin, I also volunteer to gut and fillet the little buggers. By now I smell like Surströmming and I start to like the smell. Everyone who comes close to me nearly get sick because of the smell but they want a picture, they’re not looking forward to trying it later on however.

The group is now taking turns to churn the butter in an old green butter churn Titti brought us. She says to add vinegar which is new to me and I must say it is pretty good. Flat breads with the nettle seeds we collected are being fried on the open fire, ready for our starter, the Surströmming. I’ve cut little fillets of the herring enough so everyone has some. The nettleseed flatbread is topped with chopped boiled potato, sour cream and onion followed by the feared Surströmming… Those who are brave take a moment before the first bite… It’s not that bad, it’s intense but not too bad at all.

For our mains we are making beef sausages from scratch and acorn burgers for the vegetarians of the group. Pontus had already brought us acorns because it’s too early in the season for mature acorns and they need to be soaked or leeched to take the bitter flavour away. I wonder how ok it is to eat acorns as I know that for example pigs haven’t eaten acorns for generations they become sick from eating them but Pontus assures me it is fine as long as you soak and boil them. Which we do and after they look like chocolate, they taste of not much.

We’ve been a tad slow with our cooking, we’re having too much fun enjoying the moment so by the time we have to start frying the sausages and burgers and dress the salad it is pitch black. Nature waits for no man, or woman but I think we’re all starting to see better in the dark. I’m not missing light at all, we just have the fires and a couple of oil lamps and candles, it looks pretty, we really have too much lights on normally.

I treat everyone who wants some to an apperitive of Belgian ‘Oude Geuze’ our typical sour beer which is created by spontaneous fermentation, something unique to one region of Belgium. We feast on our foraged and cooked food, again accompanied by good Swedish wine, beer and excellent conversation. I stay up chatting as one of the last ones again, already thinking of breakfast the next morning.

If you haven’t spent a few days tending fires in the middle of a forest with only basic needs, you really haven’t lived.

Up as early as 6 again I make my way to the mother tent. I’m really early, but I’m eager to help make the fires and cook. Once Camilla and I get the fires going I start the pancake batter. We move outside up the hill to cook them on the fire pit, the stove is slow this morning so the teapot joins the pancake pan on the fire. I’m savouring this morning and wish I could be cooking on this fire for a couple more hours. My brain is full of ideas on what to cook, how it would taste, how cool it would be. I learn a lot from Camilla, she shares her knowledge so generously. By the time I have a nice pile of pancakes nearly everyone is up and behind me chatting full of cheer round the large wooden table. I top my pancakes with local yoghurt and fruit puree, I become quiet again, it’s just so good… I loose the conversation of the table and gaze around me… a yorkshire pudding would be nice on that fire…

After breakfast we have to leave our beautiful campsite. Although I know plenty of other and exciting things are coming, I already miss this place. Back by the entrance of the Natur Hotel we all stock up on the beautiful cheese we’ve been eating at Cecilia’s cheese shop and I think how perfect it is to have a campsite or nature hotel like this which has its own cheese shop!

A little bus drives us to Elise Farm where we are told to get a shower. All apart from one of us did not have a shower for two days. We smell of fire, fresh air and Lotta and I also of Surströmming. My room with ensuite bathroom and running hot water suddenly feels very lush. I shower and call home to check on my cat again.

After getting cleaned up and changing is less outdoorsy clothes we were off to visit ‘Bränneriets Gård‘ a pick-your-own berry farm and farmshop with café. We have a fantastic lunch here, a lot of vegetables and the best potato and leek soup I’ve ever tasted. After being outside in the wild since sunday afternoon, this is a very welcome cockles of the heart warming treat. I feel my rosy cheeks burning… we go outside and it feels like summer again. We pick berries, eat possibly more than we put in our punnet and we all have an intense glow about us. Did the forest change us all? Do we all appreciate stuff more at least in this moment in time?

Once we have a decent harvest the owner Margitha Nillson teaches us to make sea buckthorn jam, and two kinds of pickled cucumber. Once we’ve finished that we fill a bottle each with either fruit or herbs to later drown in vodka to create our own Snaps.

We leave this quintessentially Swedish farm to make a short stop at the castle which houses the Purity Vodka distillery where Titti is filming for American television today. Titti is probably the most modest person I’ve met, I realise only now she is quite famous. She is also on the cover of a very trendy yet indie magazine in the UK at the moment but yet she has the air as if all of that worldly silliness is just that, silly. It’s all about the food and doing what she loves, preferably with her husband Andre by her side. They are preparing to open their own place in Titti’s home town Malmo, a town which has been single handedly put on the foodie map by Titti. I need to visit Malmo, I need to come back.

Back at Elise farm Sarah and Emily try to convince me to come down from my room and join them in the outdoor pool. I did bring my bathing suit so although my husband was convinced I would not, I did, went down and had a glass of red in the water. Titti, Andre and Lotta join us with wine, yet not in the pool until suddenly it starts raining and we all rush inside like a bunch of 16-year olds. I shower again (seems extravagant right now) and head down to the kitchen to help Andre with the dinner. I help roll the ‘kottbullar’, you might know them from IKEA but the real deal tastes nothing like them, and far far better. For the vegetarians there is ‘pealafel’ a falafel made with Swedish peas as an ode to Malmo’s multicultural society by still using Swedish ingredients. We have very exceptional wine brought to us by fellow camper Helen who is a sommelier in Berlin. Now I understand why she had two suitcases… one was filled with wine!

The evening is not over because we have to set our traps to catch crayfish! We go out in the dark, something we’ve gotten used to now and threw a basket each in the lake attached to a piece of rope. Now it’s just wait and see.

The next morning we go for our crayfish baskets and everyone has a decent catch. Tonight we are treated to a traditional Swedish crayfish party for which we have to finish our home made Snaps! During the day we work up an appetite accompanying Titti and a couple of local hunters to catch ducks. Titti walks in front of me, clutching her fathers hunting rifle. She later explains us that there are women rifles too but that they give far worse backlash when shooting so a heavy man’s gun is definitely the way forward. We keep hold for a while in the field, Titti in position, calm, in a perfectly elegant pose yet unaware of it. A few ducks land after being shot, the moment they land is an awful sound, the hunters later say they still feel it too, you have to feel it to keep on respecting the animal. After the hunt we get the chance to shoot clay pigeons, I want to feel what this rifle feels like, I’ve shot one before, when I was a teen and shot right in the wooden target and won a chicken. I’m sure it was beginners luck because now I’m miles off the clay pigeon and I nearly dislocate my shoulder because I missed the information that the more you hold on tight, the less it will hurt.

After a lunch of duck, not ours but ones shot a few days earlier we get cleaned up and those who fancy can help prepare for the crayfish party. I have fun helping Andre and Titti, I realise again how much I just love cooking while at home on busy days it’s been feeling more and more a burden rather than a pleasure. When we’re done, the other girls have set the table and decorated it with perfectly kitchy decorations and our crayfish party can begin. The deal is, you eat, then sing a song, drink a shot of Snaps and eat. Typical side dishes to a crayfish party are cheese pies, cold cuts, cheese, cold fish, and salad. With crisp bread of course and toast which Emily has been skilfully toasting at the far end of the table next to the toaster. We laugh, we sing, we drink, Lotta sings a song for us, I even sing a Flemish song for them, we’re like a big family and that is perfect because crayfish party’s are something Swedes only really do at home. Perfect evening I’d say.

The next morning we meet for breakfast and afterwards we each give our feedback to one of the ladies. They want to learn from this experience. This really was a perfect trip but I do give them feedback which could help.

These few days were like a reset button for me, a reality check. I feel as if food these days is more about fashion, more about appearance, numbers, popularity and you know what, it’s refreshing when you’re in a forest without any modern comfort, there really only is one thing and that is make sure there is a fire. Fire means food, warmth and a hot drink, it also means light in the darkness. So from now on I’m going to think more about fire.
Thank you Lotta Ranert and Titti Qvarnström for organising this gathering, Camilla Jonsson for generously sharing her knowledge of the wild, and all my new friends. We bonded over Swedish beer, German wine, Austrian liqueur and Belgian ale. But most of all we bonded over fire.

If you haven’t spent a few days tending fires in the middle of a forest with only basic needs, you really haven’t lived.

Image by Torbjorn Lagerwall

Short
Skåne County or Scania is the Southern part of Sweden. Lotta told us it is Sweden’s larder, a bit like how Kent is the garden of England. Most of the produce is grown in this area making it less touristy than the rest of Sweden. Which is a shame, Skåne is beautiful and I would highly recommend traveling here. Malmö is the capital of Skåne and I haven’t had the chance to visit though it is high on my list.

To get to Skåne you best take a flight to Copenhagen and then take a train in the airport to Malmö or where you want to go. It’s only a trip of just over an hour or so.

Lotta’s business is Pure Food Camp, so if you’d like to spend a few days back to basic, all about food, from 2018 there will be trips available for the public. I can HIGHLY recommend this, in fact I can not wait to see what Lotta comes up with next.

Recipes

Kanelbullar

Since returning home all I could think of when baking were the cinnamon I ate in Sweden and how different they were. I wanted to create my favourite ones at home, and although I have baked them before, they were never how I like them. But now I nailed so follow the link here to my recipe for Kanelbullar.

Green herb snaps
The flavour is very similar to Absinth thanks to the choice of green herbs. The ones I used were Yarrow flower, Spanish Chevril and a little Wormwood. Also one bud of the anisseed flavoured brown things you see in the picture, I forgot the name so if anyone knows!

The Use a good vodka.

Seabucktorn and white currant jam

I assume you all know how to make jam, the seabucktorn need to be boiled then sifted, the white currants are added later so they stay whole. The ingredients of the jam we made are:

1kg white currants (frozen is fine)
500 g puree of seabucktorn
0,75 dl lemon juice
1200 g sugar
1 1/2 tbsp pectin

Address Book
Pure Food Camp on Facebook
Nyrups Natur Hotel

Nyrups Osteria (cheese farm)
Elise Farm

Bränneriets Gård

Nordic Feast London

Pax Citra (one of the beer we tasted and was really really good!)

The Great Nordic Feast

Titti Qvarnströ m’s website

Disclaimer
I went on this trip as a guest of Visit Sweden in light of their Nordic Feast event in London where Titti and Keri will be hosting demo’s. I was however not payed or obligated to write this post and did so on my own account. I only write about what I enjoy and this trips was something very special.

If you’d like to join The Great Nordic Feast in London, they have kindly given me a code to share with my readers, just use FOODIE when booking to receive a 20% off on your ticket price!

The post It all starts with fire. How Pure Food Camp in Sweden opened up my eyes to nature appeared first on Miss Foodwise.

Prague – Reliving my early childhood travels

Regula — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 11:35:17 +0000

In the late 1980’s when I was just a little girl, my parents and I traveled around Hungary and Czechoslovakia just like so many other Belgians did during that time. It was affordable, it was different and there were Balkan travel clubs with meetings where you could get your information much like we get it from Google today. We had the ‘Balkan Club’ bumper sticker and from time to time would bump into people on the road with the same sticker stuck to their car. Travel advise was then exchanged and we would part saying we might meet each other on one of the Balkan Club slideshow evenings. This was pre-internet socializing, using the sticker meant you were from the same group, it opened the door to a conversation.

I have very fond memories of Prague as a child, it was my favourite place in the world before I first visited England. Every holiday I was allowed to choose a day which was all about me. Most children would choose a theme park, I chose to go to Prague. Sometimes we would stay a while, other times we would stop for the day on our way back home. But on all occasions we would eat and drink at the most beautiful Belle Epoque restaurants, for pennies, because the Balkan countries were cheap compared to crazy expensive Belgium.

On one visit we stayed at a fairly modern looking hotel which required us to go for breakfast in town, we would go to the Wenceslas square (Václavské náměstí). I remember feeling nauseous because I’m the kind of person who needs food before anything else in the morning. We walked, me holding my mothers hand, on the narrow cobbled street, pavement on, pavement off to Grand Hotel Evropa. And grand it was… The majestic Art Nouveau hotel that towers high above you on Václavské náměstí was built in 1889 and remodeled into Art Nouveau style around 1903. Its Café Evropa and The Art Nouveau restaurant called ‘Titanic’ are world famous and featured in a number of films. I’ve always wished to actually stay in the hotel, but when I visited Prague 10 years ago with B, our first trip together, we had no internet, so booked through a travel agency (how old fashioned right!) and Hotel Evropa wasn’t on the list. In the years that followed I frequently looked at the hotel’s booking page and was saddened by the negative reviews it received. Scared it was going to scatter a precious childhood memory, I didn’t dare booking, nor did I step inside 10 years ago, something I still regret and will always regret because today the majestic hotel is boarded up and empty.

Like in so many of these Belle Epoque restaurants and hotels, you are greeted in a majestic hall with high ceilings, crystal chandeliers and marble statues. Everything you see is carefully thought out to the tiniest detail. Mirrors reflect the space to make it look even grander. I remember the luxurious feel the breakfasts had there. Marble top tables covered in crisp white cloths matching the waiting staffs shirts and aprons. Silver cutlery and branded crockery. The orange juice and jams served in Bohemian crystal matching the chandeliers. The service stern like a strict teacher but correct. There was also a sense of faded grandeur, the walls crumbling, the paint fading, but I find it added to the feel of times gone by. I like to see places cared for and renovated, but to take away the mark time has left can often result into a strange looking interior. As if it looks less real and forced.

Prague Central Station

10 years ago you could still witness these beautiful relics of the past in the process of fading and crumbling away. The central station of Prague especially was in a very bad state. There at the station cafe under the dome you could have a palacinka (pancake) with pigeons as table companions, the waitress almost trowing your plate at you, not remotely trying to understand any other language than Czech. We sat there wondering why they would not remove the bird shit from the rusty tables and the bannisters, why they weren’t saving such a gem. Today the station hall where the cafe was is fully restored to its former glory, the cafe is now a branded coffee bar.

An old style pancake hatch outside one of the train stations

One of the most epic places where you can still step back in time is at cinema Lucerna (a side street of Václavské náměstí, Vodičkova 704/36). It is a gallery with old style bars and shops, and the cinema cafe is untouched by progress since I last visited in 2006. Prague residents have their wine or coffee here before they go up the stairs to see a movie. They also have English movies if you want to experience this place as a whole. As per tradition I drink a glass of Absinthe when I’m there, something only students really drink in Czech republic I’m told by my friend Sarka. 10 years ago you got it in a nice footed glass, with some sugar but no way to burn it. Today you get a juice glass with a generous portion for a tiny price, the waitress arrives with matches and a spoon and burns the sugar for you. Apart from the rather plain glass it is a nice improvement, and frankly when you are sitting by the window looking into the gallery where a large upside down horse and rider are suspended from the ceiling, you don’t care about the glass. This is perfect. This transports me back 10 years ago, but also right back to my childhood in the 1980’s. The modern shops like H&M are right around the corner, but this seems to be the alternative reality where actual Czech people lead their lives. I ponder a moment over the loss of Hotel Evropa, and yes I have to wipe away a tear. Why is everything changing so much. Why does everything have to be so modern, branded and clean? Why are we copy-pasting the same shopping street in every European town, evicting the small independent businesses that give a town or country its charm and heart. Why does progress often feel like loosing identity and beauty?

There are two other places where you can still taste from olde worlde Prague and one of them is Kolkovna Olympia. This restaurant and bar has been built in 1903 and was renovated in 2003. But the renovation works were done in such a way that it looks like it has always been like it is today. One side of the Olympia is restaurant, the other side is a bar where you – according to our Airbnb landlord – drink the best beer on tap. We had our first lunch there and chose goulash with two kind of dumplings and a side of beer sausage because I wanted to try it and biy was it good. The food was filling and rustic so it was good that we had a long walk ahead of us. Many people complain about the fact that the bread dumplings are like well… bread, so dry like bread, but this is the way they are and the way I have always known them to be. You soak them in the sauce and then they become perfectly soft. But if you detest stodge, even if it is traditional, then stay away from it and order something else. I highly recommend this place if you like to see how Prague was in the late 80’s and 90’s. They speak little English here, but do their best to understand you. Some German also helps if you can speak a few words. Learn to say thank you, hello and good bye in Czech, it really is appreciated everywhere and only natural as it shows you try. (Kolkovna Olympia, Vítězná 7 in Lesser Town, close to train up to Petrin)

Kolkovna Olympia

Pilsner

In the same street and more towards the river you’ll find the fine looking Cafe Savoy. First constructed in 1893 it was completely remodeled in 2001 and part of the Ambiente group that owns most of the now best places in Prague to visit as a gastronome. Sadly, unlike Kolkovna Olympia, their website or menu tells us nothing of the history of Cafe Savoy, which is a shame. We had dinner there, the schnitzel which comes with a sweetbread as well which was great, but my husbands steak tartare (which is supposed to be renowned) was lacking seasoning sadly. The coffee was good (especially my decaf) as was the decor and service. You really feel transported back in time here, if you can ignore the empty tables with drinks of the people sitting outside by the window to smoke their apparently much needed fag or four. If this were my place, I wouldn’t allow people to sit on the window outside. It devalues the place. Takes away it’s luxurious charm and reduces it to a mediocre bar which looks the part. But then again, as a non smoker I get annoyed by these things, others probably wouldn’t even notice.

Café Savoy

When planning a trip to the towns most favourite tourist sights, I can only recommend to go extremely early in the day, and I mean dawn. Or very late, after 6. Or travel mid winter. On weekends it is a popular day or weekend trip from Dresden or Berlin, and it appears to be thé place for a blokes holiday or stag weekend. The drunk men in town are plenty and annoying, so are the hordes of Japanese people with selfie sticks. The astronomical clock on the old town square is beautiful, if you can get a spot to see it and if you look passed the amount of cell phones… I found myself looking at humankind in a very cynical way. We are not looking at things anymore, we are pointing our phones towards it. But hey, smart phones also brought us Google maps, which makes traveling around a town with unpronounceable street names a whole lot easier. So does the public transport app (see information below), because I couldn’t find a single flyer with the routes the trams and metros take.

This was at 6:30 in the morning and ten minutes later it was no longer empty.

During the day you are best traveling away from the tourist congested Karluv Most (Charles Bridge) and central square. We did a trip to Vyšehrad and found it surprisingly quiet for a saturday. We took the metro to Vyšehrad metro C and walked up to the church and park, to then walk down the stairs to the river to pass the dancing house. We were lucky that on this walk we passed the farmers market just in time, it usually ends at 14h but today there was a beer and cider festival going on as well so all stalls stayed the whole day. The stalls have everything from traditional bread to pastries, vegetables, pickles, meat and cheese. You can also have lunch at one of the food stalls. Everything is low key here, no fancy food trucks, just a table and maybe a top to protect it from the sun, which is kinda refreshing. No hipsters here, no beards, thank god. Prices are accordingly, so reasonable to cheap for our western european pockets. I knew the beer was good but was surprised by the many craft breweries that were there. On the other side of the river were the cider stalls and there we tasted the best scrumpy cider in our lives. This was a succes and even got Bruno excited. He’s not that big on the fancy, hipster food truck gatherings of our region.

We had a late lunch at Čestr, another one from the Ambiente Group. Their menu reads that Čestr is a Czech spotted cow which is an abbreviation for the Czech Fleckvieh breed. Not sure they mean abbreviation but the dishes in the restaurant evolve around good meat, matured well, and reminds me of Jamie Oliver’s Barbecoa minus the smoking and grilling. Here you can eat modern traditional Czech food, very meaty and prepared very well. The steak tartare (sense a theme here?) was outstanding and served with traditional cumin seed bread, toasted as I like it – with slightly burnt edges. The vegetables, carrot and humble mashed potatoes were so comforting I wanted to snatch the copper pan of mash and finish it all with the wooden spoon that came with it. Someone is being very caring with his seasoning here, and we approve.
The restaurant is housed in the building of the former Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia so not at all classic. An added bonus is the interior, which is light and full of bull’s heads that also feature on their logo and porcelain. Their butchery has an open window so you can see the meat hanging. I highly recommend this place but stay away if you’re a vegetarian or vegan. (Legerova 75/57 near the Station, Muzeum and Václavské náměstí)

Čestr – great quality meat. Great branding.

Probably the best mash I’ve ever eaten.

Our late dinner that evening was more meat at Nase Maso, the most renowned butcher of Prague and again a part of the Ambiente Group. You go into the shop, where again, you can see the meat hanging, and choose from the menu or the counter whatever you want. Seating is very limited so you have to be lucky. We had wiener sausages, prague ham, some traditional salami, their famous meatloaf and very good Czech wine. If you’re staying in self catering accommodation, you can stock up on meat here. It’s right in the centre and perfect if you are going to see a show or after as it is open late. (Dlouhá 39) In the same street you’ll also find some other restaurants, wine bars and shops that were recommended to me. Some of them are, Local (a modern Czech pub), La Degustation (for special occasions, top price mark, with a taster menu), and traditional Czech open-faced sandwiches, at Sisters (also in Dlouhá). I could eat myself to death here.

Breakfast in Prague
In the centre you can go to Dlouhá street for various options or you can go for the Belle Epoque experience and head for Cafe Savoy.

To get away from the tourists head over to the Karlin district to have a quiet breakfast in the sleepy streets of this unspoiled part of Prague (metro stop Křižíkova). On saturday there is also a small farmers market at the Karlin Square, but mind yourself when you take pictures, some of the people there get really angry if you do and don’t understand you if you ask to take a picture. One lady wanted to charge me 10 euros for a picture, of which I replied that I didn’t think she is very kind. She didn’t understand, all she could say in English was photo 10 euro’s. Especially rude since I was buying kolache (Czech pastries pictured below) from her. But the bluntness is something you have to get used to here. A lot of people are very very brusque and it can shock you at first.

Czech kolache – the huge kind

Czech kolache – the tiny kind.

We had breakfast at Můj šálek kávy (Křižíkova 386/105 a short stroll from the metro) on two occasions and absolutely fell for the place. It was a sunny morning and we were sitting outside, the perfect way to unwind from a busy life. I ordered the 3 types of sausages, and Bruno the omelette. It turns out to be an emotionally charged week with flavours transporting me back to my early childhood. First the fragrant ripe nectarines (see blog here) now this mornings spread. We shared, and I felt tears filling my eyes as I tasted the omelette which sustained me on my travels through Czechoslovakia and Hungary when I was little. I was a picky eater but was crazy about the omelettes which seem to have a more silky consistency and a more subtle flavour. Unlike any other omelette I’ve ever tasted outside of these two countries. A simple omelette, yet such a powerful memory of taste. The artisanal sausages taste of a glorious past when bangers were still made of meat and fat plus herbs, beer, spices or smoke. No nasties. Back was a flavour I have longed to taste again for over two decades since my early years of life. Oh how I love that people are yearning for the tastes of their childhoods, again which require going back to real food rather than industrially produced food. Decent bread, decent eggs and decent meat. This really is a gem. And clearly a favourite with the locals as well as the holidaymakers like us who want to experience the food in the best possible way. The service is friendly and not at all blunt like in so many other places. The coffee is excellent (Doubleshot) and you can choose airopress (as a tea drinker the latter means nothing to me). For those who can not have cafeine like me, they have a good decaf, the fresh lemon and mint lemonade is refreshing, cleansing and doesn’t contain any sugar, or just a tiny bit. You can also get a rohlicek, which is a pastry looking a little like a croissant but made with lard I think, and cinnamon filling with some praline. Oh and the bread, the bread!!!

Simply good (146, Sokolovská) around the corner of the metro station was recommended for the best kolache pastries (tarts with poppyseed, plum jam or curd cheese see pictures above) and they also have great buns and bread. I bought a suitcase full to take home. They are indeed good.

There are a few other places to go for food and drink here, I recommend you read the website of Taste of Prague, or book a foodie tour with them.

A nice thing to see in this district other than the sleepy streets is Lyčkovo Náměstí a square with a beautiful Belle Epoque primary school.

A day away from Prague?

Kutna Hora

Take an early train (from the central station) to Kutna Hora if you want to see the bone church. In order to be able to restore the church they want to get as much tourists as possible which spoils the experience. Of course it is a blessing to the parish who is trying to fund the entire renovation, but the teenage girls posing and pulling faces with skulls for selfies made my stomach turn. This is a burial chamber. These are people, not some attraction in a theme park. Everywhere there are signs asking to be silent. All are ignored. Even adults who should know better, pose with the skulls, big smiles on their faces, hands pointing to a dead man’s skull. When did people get so horribly insensible and disturbed. Upstairs at the exhibition we see a photo of one of the bone displays that fell of the wall, apparently some tourists nearly went home with some of the bones… how is this possible. My husband collects things with skulls, artwork, sculptures, real ones. They sit in our Victorian book case behind glass. They are treated with respect. Like the Victorian Memento Mori (forget me not). People have often commented saying they think it’s weird he’s so fascinated by skulls, that it is disturbed. But those same people would be the ones to stand in an actual burial chamber taking selfies with the skulls as if they were Mickey Mouse in Disneyland. Honestly.

So go early, be there before it opens at 9, we took the train at 8 which arrives just before 9 but already there was a group of Spanish school kids who were loud and obscene. If I had known, I would have taken the train at 7, pack a second breakfast, and respectfully wait at the church for it to open. I hope that in the future when the church has been restored they can change how it is accessed. Maybe only allow 10 people in at a time. You clearly see the parish people love their church, so I’m sure it hurts their eyes as much as mine to see people handle it so disrespectfully.

From the church there is a 2 km walk to the centre of Kutna Hora, the bone church is actually in a small hamlet called Sedlec. The walk is boring, next to the highway, so I would recommend you catch a bus if you have the patience to wait for one. Kutna Hora itself isn’t spoiled with tourism yet, it is a sweet little town and they have invested a lot in restoring the site of the Jesuit college (Jezuitská kolej) which has statues like those on the Charles Bridge in Prague. We first saw this site 10 years ago when all the statues were pitch black, today they are restored and so is the vineyard next to it on the mountain slope. In fact, when you arrive in front of the church, you’ll see a wooden cabin selling wines from Kutna Hora by the glass or by the bottle. A very beautiful setting for a wine tasting, so we spent an hour just sitting on a bench, taking in the view and tasting the wines. It was wonderful.

We had lunch at Restaurace Dačický where we also had lunch 10 years ago. It hasn’t changed and the first language they speak to you other than Czech is still German, like in the olden days. The portions are big, the food filling, no thinking of your waistline when you’re here. It’s the best restaurant in Kutna Hora, and it is a beautiful place with a courtyard terrace. We had spinage pancakes with sour cream and Smažený sýr the traditional fried breaded cheese.

On returning to Prague, take the Kutna Hora station which is another from the one you got out of in the morning, make sure you don’t take the stopping train because that takes over 2 hours, so be informed. Tickets can be purchased at the central train station and ask for a return.

My advise for Prague

When to travel

Winter, or weekdays, otherwise you will be stuck in the hordes of tourists and Brits on stag and hen parties.

Where to get away from tourists during the day

The Karlin district, Vyšehrad or Petrin. Though keep in mind that the railway up the hill is very popular.
Or hop on the train, in an hour you’re in Kutna Hora.

Where to stay

We stayed in ‘Lesser Town’ where Café Savoy is situated. It’s is a short walk from everything but still much quieter than the rest of Prague.

Where to eat

Inform yourself on the website of Taste of Prague or book their foodie tour, I was to late to book us on the tour but the foodie map that they sell on their website is very useful.

How to get around

Install the public transport app, it helped us loads: it’s called IDOS and of course Google maps. In Prague there is free wifi at nearly every bar or restaurant you visit.
Metro tickets can vary from 30 min, 24 hours or 72 hours. You find them at supermarkets, liquor stores and other small shops selling a weird combination of things.

To get from the airport to the town, get a taxi from www.prague-airport-transfers.co.uk – it cost us just under 20 euros one way. It’s a 25 minute drive, the shuttle busses take far longer.

Avoid in my opinion

The Trdelnik or chimney cakes either filled with ice cream or plain you see in the centre are something you didn’t see in Prague 10 years ago, not in the 80’s and according to locals not even 5 years ago. The sickly sweet smell is filling the streets of Prague’s centre of town and tourists queue up for it, thinking it is typical of Prague. It is not. They’ve been very clever making the shops look old and traditional. It’s cool that they are finished off over hot coals, but they’re not made over the coals as is the way with actual chimney cakes. If you have a sweet tooth, then by all means, go for it. But this isn’t a taste of Prague’s past, it’s very much it’s tourist focussed present and basically a scam. As far as my quick research goes, it’s not even from this part of the Czech Republic.

Not everything that looks traditional IS traditional.

The potato chips on a stick, again not traditional at all and a recent fad. They’re fun, that is true, but often not crunchy at all and just flat soggy slices of potato.

Don’t have the sausages in central town kiosks, they are not the best quality. If you want one in the centre go to butchers shop and eathouse Nase Maso (Dlouhá 39) where you can get a decent one to take away or eat there until late at night.

Don’t change money in the street, it’s less now then compared to the past, but be aware. My uncle got his watch stolen this way.
If you need crowns, just get them from the ATM.

Don’t stop a taxi in the street, use Uber or a pre-booked service.

Don’t drink too much Becherovka, you will regret it.

Prague in short

Prague is a beautiful town which is sadly overrun by tourists in large groups, Japanese people taking dramatic wedding photos and irritating stag do’s and hen parties. The small shops and food offerings in the centre are all marketed towards those who only visit once. But on the other hand, a younger generation is taking action and small coffee houses, eateries, restaurants and wine bars are popping up everywhere. Prague is great for food lovers, just make sure you are informed. Go to the places I mentioned, take a food tour with the Taste of Prague guys or download their foodie map.

If you stay away from the central town and venture out there only early morning (dawn!!) or late in the evening, you will be able to see the town in all its glory. In districts like Karlin or parts a little further from the centre like the Lesser town, you will get away from the buzzy streets and you will be able to have a relaxing time. Go to the upper town where the Golden street is and the palace in the evening after 5. The palace grounds where the ancient Golden street is, is open until 21-22h at night and blissfully quiet. Walk around there and enjoy the whole neighbourhood in the dark romantically lit by former gas streetlights. The town is very safe at night, but always be cautious.

I can’t wait to go back, Prague is still one of my favourite towns to visit. But next up is Budapest, watch this space…

Untill next time,

Regula

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