Nobel Week Lights 2025

9 December 2025

After dinner at Tradition, we continued with our evening to look for the lights set up for Nobel Week Lights. That was the reason we met up today. A much-welcomed event by everyone as it is very dark and cold in December. Not to mention, raining almost everyday. No snow either. The lights installations at the Town Hall (Stadshuset) was the most mesmerising of all. The first two stops were boring.

First one are benches lit up and there were recorded talkings in the background. Honestly, I don't think anyone pays much attention to the talkings. Many sat and took a picture. Or just walked pass by. 

Second stop - a giant screen with a video. We did not stop to watch it. There is nothing exciting for me to see a giant outdoor screen. It is like a cinema.

Then, we saw the Town Hall from a distance. The photos from my phone do not give them enough justice.

We walked towards the Town Hall and saw these signboards. I thought they were signs for roadworks but they turn out to be motivational words.

There are many photos on the lights set up at the Town Hall but nothing beats the real experience. It was accompanied by music and the light show changed to various moving motives. 

I was very surprised to see Buddha and Goddess of Mercy.

I love the flying folded cranes.

Last one is a giant tree with falling leaves. 

Then, we had dessert at Wayne's Cafe. A cup of coffee latte SEK49 and a slice of chocolate cake SEK48. Big mistake in having coffee at night as I could not sleep well. My friend wanted whipped cream with her cake. I am not a fan of whipped cream. I don't know why most locals like whipped cream with almost every dessert. Something wet to balance the dry cake? 

Tastebud : Tradition

9 December 2025

Today, we had a fancy dinner at Tradition. I was here in 2019 to celebrate my 2-year anniversary in Sweden but it was lunch. I had salmon pudding (laxpudding) SEK245 as I don't usually have fish very often that came with a bit of browned butter and a slice of lemon. I did not realise it was butter and thought it was a cheese bit. Haha! We were served complimentary bread and hard bread that we had with cottage cheese and butter. Really good appetisers. I was quite full after my meal.

Salmon pudding is an oven-baked dish that is layered with slices of boiled potatoes.

I look really happy in this picture. Haha!

Tastebud : Le Kebab Södermalm

7 December 2025

After watching the musical play A Christmas Carol, we had a late lunch at Le Kebab Södermalm. Initially, we wanted to have hotdogs which is the restaurant next door but it was packed. The space is small but it does look people prefer giant hotdogs stuffed in a baguette.

I was fine having kebab and I did not want to queue. Not in the rain! It was full inside and one has to queue outside. So, I had my kebab chicken on a plate SEK157. Kebab chicken was the top layer and lots of salad and beans underneath.

Musical Play - A Christmas Carol 2025

7 December 2025

Today, I had the opportunity to watch my favourite Christmas musical play - A Christmas Carol, a story on Ebenezer Scrooge who disliked Christmas and was visited by Christmas spirits, past, present and future. I watched this last year and I left the theatre with a happy feeling. Today, I felt the same too. The Christmas songs are joyous. The play was in English and I really loved it. I am also a volunteer this year, similar to last year, for Kompis Sverige to bring the participants to watch the show.

This year, I took a picture with the stage as my background. I did it after everyone left. Too bad none of the actors were around. I would have liked to take a photo with Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim. 

Tastebud : Crave Cafe

7 December 2025

After a long morning walk towards Folkoperan to see a Christmas Carol, we stopped at this cafe to have a light lunch before the musical play. I had a bowl of lentil soup that came with a slice of bread and some croutons SEK75. It is not sourdough bread. Lentil soup was bland to me. It would have been nice with some vinegar, maybe a little more salt and for me, I like chilli but of course, it is not for everyone. I was surprised that the brewed coffee costs SEK40. The owner told me that it includes a second mug. 

Almost as expensive as the one at Ulriksdal Slottsträdgården that I went in 2023 and a mug costs SEK45. Ulriksdal cafe is part of a mansion and so, the price is expected to be expensive. But here, at this random cafe made me wondered if we were in an expensive area. SEK40 is a price for a discounted 450g coffee packet. The reasons why I rarely eat and drnk outside unless it is a new place. 

Tastebud : Renard Bistro

27 November 2025

Dinner at a French restaurant as a belated birthday treat to me. I can count the number of times I ate at a French restaurant and I have vague memories of the restaurant. But with my blog, I can easily read back on my experience. My first experience with French food was at Relais de la Gare where I had work lunch here three times and the last time having beef tartar, and the second restaurant is at Cassi restaurant. I find nothing exciting with French food. 

Today's French dinner started with appetiser - croquette filled with chicken, sprinkled with truffel and served with mayonnaise SEK120. The crispy layer was yummy as all crispy layers should be. Croquette is deep-fried patty made from mashed potatoes.

Main meal is flounder fish cooked Meuniere style SEK285. Meuniere means to bread and fry in butter. My dish was very buttery and I was full from the meal, probably from all the fatty butter. The fish fillet was quite thin almost flat to the plate. It was surrounded by small slices of beetroot. They could have been more generous with the size of the beetroot. The dish is served with lemon, capers and boiled potatoes. They were generous with the lemon because the sour lemon was very strong.

 

My drink is sparkling apple juice SEK60. I like the candlelight. It does not give much warmth but it is pleasant to the eyes.

Tastebud : Gunnarssons

18 November 2025

After our dinner at Mormors restaurant, we had cake at Gunnarssons. This bakery and cafe has been around since 1946 at the same place. But Vetekatten is still older being established in 1928. I am aware that the prices in Gunnarssons are not cheap. But we were here because it was still open and it is near the train station. We shared a Catalan for SEK48. Small and expensive. A sort of mazarin with raspberry jam under the icing sugar glaze. There is not much of a jam on the pastry. Just lots of icing sugar glaze. Very sweet. Good thing that we shared it. 

Tastebud : Mormors Restaurang & Dumpling

18 November 2025

Yesterday, my friend and I had dumplings and beef noodles for dinner. I read good reviews about Mormors restaurant and I have seen the queue outside and inside the restaurant. I went to two restaurants (Chao Na and Dionysos) that are located next to Mormors restaurant and on both occasions, the dumpling restaurant has always a queue.

The restaurant opens at 5pm and when I arrived at 5.10pm, the place was full. There are several tables in the restaurant, not many, but the owner maximised the space as possible so it was quite narrow to walk between the tables. We shared a bowl of 10 pork and 10 chicken dumplings SEK149 each and a bowl of noodles with marinated beef SEK159. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the bowl. I like big portions. But I was cheated by it. The dumplings have thick skin dough and the slices of beef are very thin, probably 0.2mm. 

I started my meal with complimentary miso soup that does not have seaweed. It gave me some warmth.

I prefer the noodles soup at Tan Tan Dan. It is not very flavourful here. I think the relatively affordable price makes it a customer favourite. 

This is what I meant by thick skin dough. I reacted to the thickness when I took my first bite. I make dumplings and I know that the skin can be thin. 

I was happy before I dug into the food.

Tastebud : Farsi

15 November 2025

Random weekend dinner at Mall of Scandinavia. Tried Persian food from Iran. I had lamb stew with a large portion of rice that is sprinkled with saffran rice on top that came with cucumber yoghurt and salad SEK179. The lamb stew came with kidney beans and according to the menu, it has dried lime but I tasted nothing sourish. The food was good but it was not exceptional to me.

Stockholm Food & Wine, Baking & Chocolate Fair 2025

9 November 2025

6 years later, I visited the fair again. This time, the fair includes food and wine. The ticket prices have went up. When I went there in 2019, the ticket was SEK135. Today, it is SEK250 but I got it for half price as it was an offer for Sunday's entrance. I thought that I should get out more in November as it is a dark and cold month. Barely any sunlight. Since it was SEK125, I decided to go for it. Unfortunately, it was not as fun this time. There were no mini competitions or lucky draws that can win prizes on the spot. Instead, one needs to buy and participate in the booth's lucky draw or spin the wheel.

My post in 2019 had a similar photo. I suppose my taste in colourful food has not changed. The price then was SEK20 and today's price is SEK30. I had the white ball - it is vanilla and white chocolate. Very sweet and it is a huge ball.

A large area for potatoes. Lots of space were wasted here. The booth had advertisements for potato chips and a very sharp potato peeler from the Kitchen Lab. Nothing exciting. 

There were some food and chocolate samples. After a while, the sampled chocolates tasted the same everywhere. We sampled noodle in kimchi soup, and tempeh.

There were food trucks at the end of the hall. I had a sandwich that has fillings of lightly smoked shoulder pork, cabbage with mustard vinager, BBQ mayonnaise sauce and topped with chips. Bread is sourdough bread. I was very full from the sandwich. SEK170.

I had sour beer from Nya Carnegie Brewery. They had a beer truck here.

We were here for two hours only.

Tastebud : Robin Delselius cafe (Sickla branch)

8 November 2025

Today, we did an outing at Sickla shopping center. Lunch was at Robin Delselius cafe. It came highly recommended and there were so many customers too! Well, the sight of all customers definitely speak highly of the place.

I had grilled focacia with brisket and kimchi mayonnaise SEK139. It came with salad. I think there was cheese inside too. It was a big portion of focacia. I wanted to eat somethin warm, hence grilled focacia. And with cappucino SEK51. My lunch was tasty. I saw that there was Soup of the day for SEK149 and one can take from the buffet spread - there was bread, butter, salad, cake and coffee! I think it was much worth it with the soup as it includes coffee and dessert. 

Tastebud : No 17 Palace (2nd time)

30 October 2025

Second visit to No. 17 Palace. The first time I was here, I was pleased with my experience. We had sliced beef and pork tongue, boiled entrecote with duck blood and tripe and fried eggplant. Today, the first two dishes are no longer in the menu. Fried eggplant is still in the menu and costs SEK10 more.

Today's company is a non-Swede so we had steamed fish. Swedes are unable to eat fish with bones. Even meat too. Everything must be boneless. I love steamed fish. Today, we shared xiao long bao 89kr, steamed fish 339kr, braised pork with preserved mustard green 298kr, and fried choy sum 178kr. Rice is included. I had hot water which is not charged for. 

My friend was disappointed with the xiao long bao as there was no bursting broth when we bit into the dumpling. I was not familiar with this dish so I thought it was just a dumpling. So, we don't recommend that. I peeled a bit of the dough to see the fillings of the xiao long bao and there is no broth inside. 

Choy sum was good to eat too although some stalks were not properly cooked and were too hard to bite through and I spat some out.

The fish is not big so there is not much meat in the fish. But it was good enough for both of us.

I enjoyed the braised pork a lot! The fat in the meat but there were bits of hard cartilage in the meat. I was surprised to find that as I had a similar dish in Winner House - bigger portion, cheaper and no cartilages. Plus better presentation from Winner House.