12x8 = 2:a gången gillt av Christina Unic

 Un voyage gastronomique Mars 23, 2013

Som passiv food AND wine junkie har jag varit en passionerad medresenär till min make under flera år. Numer befinner sig min man till stora delen på andra sidan köket och tar endast del av det färdiga resultatet på antingnen en restaurang eller vid en tävlingsarena någonstans i världen. Dragans växande behov och önskan av att få laga mat under press igen har tilltagit och efter en del funderade föddes följdaktligen idén: 12x8.

12x8 innebär egentligen att vi bjuder in, och vid varje tillfälle får 12 personer plats runt bordet (först till kvarn tillämpas). Under kvällen bjuds dessa gäster på 8 rätter. Lördagen den 23 mars genomfördes den andra kvällen. Dragan är vid rodret i vårt allt för lilla kök och skapar magi på det som känns minuter och sekunder. Jag försöker enligt alla novisers rädsla ha kontroll på gästerna ute i vår “matsal”. Runt bordet sitter 12 personer som egentligen inte känner varandra särskilt mycket, men lämnar bordet i slutet på kvällen med många nya bekantskaper. Jag vill inte här avslöja för mycket av menyerna om det är så att du skulle vilja bli vår nästa gäst utan låter några bilder visa lite av underhållningen från denna kväll.

Jag hoppas och tror att vi med små “babysteps” snart kan lyckas att sätta Viken på Skånes gourmetkarta.
Hjärtligt tack till alla som deltagit tills nu och you rock darling!

Food from Serbia

I was visiting Belgrade the capital of Serbia during the Easter holydays for some chef training in moneculär gastronomy with my friend Douglas but I will get back to that later, lets talk about Serbian food instead.

The traditional cuisine in Serbia must be some of the more refined in the eastern world, a great mix of Arabic, Byzantine, Slavic and Greek background with a typical twist of its own, way to go.

Food is refined in its own way, not at all European is sense of plating’s and decoration, instead very simple and old fashion but my god let me tell you about the packet flavours instead, you cant beat this, I promise.

Everybody who travels to Serbia is always amazed of the produce in the markets (especially in season) and it is a rich land of goody’s that grows here, the problem is still the meat, due to the traditions of not to hang the beef long enough to make it tender, try not to eat the steak in restaurants (kafanas)  I hope that this will change and we hade some great talks about this.

The rich wine and drinking culture are some of the finest with rakija, Loza or Sljivovica with and before every meal and the Serbian wines need some writing of its own, let me get back to that.

I will sum up to invite you all to visit some of the most fantastic countries in Europe and If you need some advise or guidance do not hesitate to contact me.

Let’s end up with some food pictures and party as there is no tomorrow the Serbian way.

Are wine buyers stupid?

The latest thing on the Swedish monopoly seems to be realising crap wines with so called famous people on the label.

Who the hell are letting this stupidity to go on! No normal person or wine buyer will fall for this cheep trick but this is how the Swedish monopoly treats its customers,

Selling shit wines in nice card box/plastic bags forces the Swedes to buy this, the average price on 1 litre of wine is about 5 € how strange is that?

Cheep wine in box makes people drink more due to fact that you do not notice how much you consume, is this a way to make people drink less? I don’t think so.

What is your opinion out there?

 

PS. this picture is from my favo cava

Why to buy cheep Cava? no reason

Selling cheap Spanish Cava is not doing anything good for all the great producers in the DO CAVA and I understand the frustration among the high quality producers whose aim is to on top of the bubbly world.

One of the leading producers Raventos who started the uprising among the producers says that he wants the cava to change its appellation guidelines to favour quality, but my question are, is his cava great and of best quality? I do not thing so.

The new name would be Conca Del Rui Anoia and forms a very small area in Penedes, will you remember this name?

All the new ideas is not bad at all and one of the things is To increase the period on the lees from today’s 9 months to minimum 18 months is great and well needed for better result.

To lower the yield and to set this to 10 000 kg /ha is good but why not keep the chardonnay and pinot noir as a grape varieties? This I do not get.

I wish Mr Albet who is the current chairman of the DO Penedes the best of luck to solve this issue.

If you want good Cava you should try Cavas Torello (do not confuse it with Agusti Torello)

Recaredo all the wines, some of Gramona top wines and also Castell D`Age who make fantastic cava.

Ten years and still in Love

Some great things have happened to me in the last few weeks, first of all I meet my wife Christina 10 years ago and we will celebrate this in a special way (secret)

The second thing is that my sommelier buddy’s in Sweden voted me in as their vice president of the Swedish sommelier association, thanks guys for your trust in me.

Serbia will have a visit soon from me and my chef friend Douglas, we will do workshop in molecular gastronomy for chefs at Metro centar in Belgrade.

 

My love in life Christina

I would like to thank you for being so understanding with me and all the patience that you show to me everyday even on my dark days.

Without you I am nothing and we are a great couple that can achieve anything that we want.

You are truly the moon in my universe, the star on my sky and I will love you forever.

//D

Customer service experience & Stockholm syndrome

The lovely high heel lady and friend of mine Grace ”Hot lips” Fitzgerald is this posts guest blogger, and please check out her webpage’s, Thanks Grace Xo Xo

 

Customer service experience & Stockholm syndrome

Today, I went into a specialist Coffee shop that sells and also serves coffee. But the lady who served me was so unfriendly it was actually awkward. When I tried to meet her where she was at psychologically (because that's just what I do), I mentioned in a casual way that I hoped her week was going better than mine, and I smiled. (I have been having a week full of hope balanced by blatant rejection on all fronts).

She turned around swiftly, stared at me John Wayne style (without the irony), and said; "THIS is just my face ... SORRY".

Holy mother. Someone got out on the wrong side of the bed today.

What I found particularly funny, though, was that in this transaction, I was in her shop, to give her money in exchange for something she was offering the public, A most intricate situation?

Stockholm. Where it is OK to be rude to the customer? Please say it aint so. I love Stockholm. But sometimes? It's hard.

 

Grace Fitzgerald

A member of Generation XOXO ...

Hire me: Grace Fitzgerald AB

Call me! +46 (0)70 87 58 007

Where to send the flowers: Grace Fitzgerald AB, Artillerigatan 22, 114 57 Stockholm

See the Creative Portfolio because I do not have a non-creative one. Sorry.  https://gracefitzgerald.contently.com/

Or start investigating for yourself:

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I Just love Paris

Paris is one of my favourite places to go when I just have some extra days and need to get some cultural and big city feel.

Exploring the food scene is always a must and here are some of my latest treats I can recommend to you and also some great places to stay at.

The Asian restaurant in the store CFOC (compagnie Francaise de L`Orient et de la Chine) is very sleek and well hidden among great homeware collections from the far east

Just renovated with help of Sarah Lavoine and Francois Schmidt with beautiful elegance, worth looking up at Boulevard Haussmann.

 

The  Le Reservoir are a fun and trendy bar-club-restaurant owned by the sisters de Vivo the food is delicious and the music is great with Jazzy tones.

Try the crispy hot goat's cheese appetizer drizzled in honey, scallops in orange butter, jumbo shrimp, and remarkable tiramisu.

Saturday and Sunday, enjoy brunch (jazz and gospel) situated on rue de la Forge Royal in the 11:th

 

Happy wine days

The nice things when you try many wines is that sometimes you can stumble on something very special like this from Tokara and also some amazing Portuguese Touriga Nacional SÒ and some excellent mature Riesling from Germany, some days things just happened without any special expectations in forehand, lovely days.

 

Horse meat, why not!

The big thing in Europe seems to be the issue around Findus having horse meat in the lasagne, its wrong not to declare this but horse taste delicious and is very nutritious meat as long as it not comes from a premedical racehorse full of hormones and shit.

I have hade horsemeat so many times and I just love the texture and the meaty taste and you can treat it as any beef with actually better result.

Tender, juicy and tastier meat is hard to find so enjoy your pony.

 

 

yiiihhaaa

Champagne with Food

To have dinner and to drink Champagne with every dish is an fantastic experience and a great way to realize the great effect that Champagne have to balance the food in the best way.

There are so many great bottles around and my suggestion is to pick the bottles first and the ad up the food.

These bottles where my favourites

The strange Semlabulle

All the Swedes are celebrating the Fat Semla day today, this is an old tradition to eat fatty food some weeks before Easter so you can starve yourself during those days, Christianity is sometimes strange but all the wonderful food around the world are awesome.

This traditional Semla bulle ( whole-wheat bun flavoured with ground cardamom, almond paste spread and some heavy cram on top) can be eaten just as it is or up north in a deep dish with warm milk poured over it ( äkligt)

This year I have tried 21 different producers of Semla and there are some more to try before I announce this years Semla winner.

 

Fortified wines with Gerard Basset

Gerard Basset must be one of the most knowledgeable lectures of wine in the world today, his CV is incredible listen to this..---Master of Wine, MBA in Wine, Master Sommelier Worldwide Vice President at the Court of Master Sommeliers and is Director of the Academy of Food and Wine Service, and Worlds best Sommelier who can beat that?

To receive a guy like this in Malmo for a master class in fortified wines for two days is a challenge and a amazing treat, thanks to Gustibus wine education who manage to get Gerard here.

Two full days of Port, Madeira and Sherry, who could ask fore more, many things was for me not new but a great repetition that was needed and much appreciated especially the Madeira section.

Madeira wines is amazing and not very known in the world, thank you very much for that J my knowledge of Madeira where very limited to a few brands and the cheap stuff that you use for cooking, It has now all changed for rest of my life, fantastic wines with perfect balance of oxidation, maturity, different levels of sweetness and great acidity that works very well with food.

Port of all the types from ruby to vintage are great and full of adventures, I guess that this is the most well known fortified wine in the world with no comparison well deserved, all the types that we tried was well picked and nicely mixed.

The Sherry part is as usual my favourite with wonderful wines selected for five flight of wines, what a day this was, I was smiling all the way home.

Thanks to all people attending this great master class and especially Anders and Fredrik for organizing, keep up the good work guys.

Here are some pictures from all the wines tasted.

 

 

Natural wines! why?

This years Millesime Bio fair in Montpellier France was the first time for me and a special treat with all the wines on display.

Languedoc Roussillon region is for me a unknown ground and there is many great wines to discover and I meet some amazing winemakers and people who really cares about out environment and the planets future without being to fanatic or strange in any way.

Biodynamic & Ecological wines is something that we all have to learn more about and I am pleased to have the chance to talk to so many producers here for 5 days, thanks guys.

The “vin nature” phenomena is something totally different without rules and regulations its more of a hippie movement that I personally can not understand, unstable and cloudy wines with defect is not something that I want to serve my guests.

Sulphite is the big thing here but many of the IT sommeliers do not really understand the significant of what and when sulphite are used and how much, all wines whatever you call it have natural sulphites in them, the other thing is how much extra winemakers at to it.

When we talk about all the big wines produced in the world today they all contains sulphite more or less but they all do, does this make them bad wines? I do not think so, do you?

I like when people care about the environment and how we manage our planet but we do not need to drink bad and poorly made wines.

Here are some of the best on the fair that all make fantastic wines with care.