Tastebud : Holy Monkey

31 March 2019

Today's lunch at Holy Monkey which is located under T-Centralen train station. It is a Thai restaurant. I took seafood noodles that costs SEK114/RM57. The plate is large but the portion is not large. It was spread flat on the plate. The seafood consists of prawns and mussels. There were more vegetables inside. 

Tastebud : Buffet lunch at Haymarket by Scandic

25 March 2019

Somehow, it is very common to have buffet lunch in Stockholm. You can have buffet lunches at hotels or restaurants. Back in Malaysia, I thought buffet lunch at hotels is for the rich and dining in a hotel is rare for me. I don't usually have buffet lunch in Malaysia either. It will be too much to consume during lunch. I have buffet lunch when I go for training in hotels.

I have had a couple of buffet lunches now. Most of them being Asian buffet lunches - a mixture of Chinese, Thai and sushi food. Think of fried noodles, rice, stir-fried vegetables and chicken, fish, salad, fruit, sushi (is always a must). They are usually priced between SEK105 - SEK120. That is RM52 to RM60. You can find these sort of buffets packed with people. 

Today, I had a buffet lunch at Haymarket by Scandic. It is not an Asian buffet lunch. It is the Swedish version, well I think it is the Swedish version. Grilled chicken, cabbage, beetroot soup, salmon and potatoes. I did not take any photos of those but I took a photo of the dessert that my friends and I had. Little cute cookies with cream and blueberry fillings. Yummy! The buffet costs SEK160/RM80. This place does look a bit fancy, so I am not surprised with the price. By the way, the restaurant changes its buffet menu every week. 

SMA - Chinese New Year 2019

23 March 2019

Today, Swedish Malaysian Association celebrated Chinese New Year at WKB Restaurant. Yes, it is a belated celebration. A very belated celebration! Close to 1.5 months later! Well, it is because it is difficult to find a weekend where everyone is available. There were games for adults and kids, food, and a karaoke session too! It began at 11am but I was there from 830am, and ended at 3pm but I left at 3.30pm. 

Since I am one of the committee members, I helped out for the event and I parked myself in the kitchen. It is hard work preparing the ingredients for 300 pax! I skinned gingers, cut mushrooms, fungus, beancurd skin and broccoli, sliced chillies, julienned carrots. Took 3.5 hours. This morning, I reached early and got a crash course on how to chop chicken for the chicken rice. It was my first time and my left palm was numb from hitting the chopper down to the board. I am not exaggerating when I said I have a blue black spot on my palm too. 2 of us chopped 50 for 1.5 hours. Helped fried some of the spring rolls too. It was fun working in the kitchen. I love the fancy kitchen tools! Look at the huge wok they used to fry the vegetables.

Chamber concert - RSPO Orchestra Academy and University College of Opera

21 March 2019

Volunteer duties at The Concert House today. Today, I stood in Concert House to distribute flyers on Kompis Sverige and explain what is the organization about. We had an event today to listen to a chamber concert at The Concert House, so I did this before listening to the concert. 

I had an interesting experience explaining to the Swedes who stopped to listen. My speech goes like this - Kompis Sverige is an integration project that matches newcomers with Swedes based on their interests and background. Would you like to meet a new friend from another country?  I put on my widest smile! And prayed that they understand me.

I believe it is so important for newcomers to have friends in a new country because I was like that too - I did not have any friends when I came and it was so lonely and you have no one to hang out with or understand how things work. I could not train Swedish with any new friends. I got friends now from my language school and Kompis Sverige activities. So, I wished that the newcomers will have friends. One really needs a friend. In my case, I could not get any friends from Kompis Sverige because they did not have an agreement with my municipal, so I just joined their activities instead and got to meet new people too. 

Some responses I got from:

1) 2 elderly ladies: “We are married to foreigners. We have lots of friends from other countries.” One of them wanted to know where I came from. 

2) man and a son: “Son, won’t it be interesting to meet a friend from another country?” The kid was trying to pull away from the dad.

3) an elderly man: “I have little time. I want to watch the concert. Say as fast as you can.” Thankfully, I could because I have been practicing the same lines. 

4) most of the elderly folk: “I don’t want to meet new people”

5) 2 ladies: “That would be great to meet new people”

So, the best part is everyone who I spoke to understood what I am saying in Swedish because I thought the elderly would not understand me so well as I don’t have the accent. This accent is so important - because of the different accentuation in the pronunciation. 

The photo says - Say hello to our volunteer Shi Yan. Today, we have informed about Kompis Sverige at Konserthuset. 

This is a 40-minute chamber concert by the students of RSPO Orchestra Academy and University College of Opera. I realized I enjoy listening to classical music and opera or symphony concerts after going to these events that were organized by Kompis Sverige. It is amazing to note that I have a new interest now.

Eldfesten (The Fire Festival)

19 March 2019

Today, Stockholm celebrated Chaharshanbe Suri, an Iranian festival that is celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday before their New Year, which is known as Nouruz. Nouruz also marks the beginning of spring and it is the day where the daylight and night hours are equal. The celebration was held at Skansen, Sweden’s open air museum. Skansen is a huge museum and I can only think that there are a lot of Iranians in Sweden. Chaharshanbe Suri is associated as the fire festival as people celebrate it by jumping over small bonfires to purify themselves and forget the old year.

There was a display of the Haft-sin (seven foods beginning with the letter sin (س‎)) indoors. I did not know it represented something until an Iranian friend showed me her Haft-sin. I asked her what have you seen? Hilarious!

There was a huge stage where a number of performances were being carried out. I saw a fire performance, because it is, after all, a fire festival. It was 3 degrees and luckily, I was dressed in warm clothes.

The highlight of the evening for me was to jump over the bonfires. They are gas-ignited bonfires. We went to look for food but there was an extremely long queue and I did not want to wait for the food. So, I went back.

Tastebud : Relais de la Gare (second time)

18 March 2019

French food for lunch at Relais de la Gare. It is my second time here. The first time I was here, I had sourdough bread with cheese. I had club sandwich with fries and bacon slices and chicken pieces. SEK195 that includes salad and tea/coffee with pastry. It was a huge sandwich by the way. I shared the fries with 2 other friends of mine. 

I feel that french food is really expensive.

Hallwyl Museum

17 March 2019

Today, I met up with 3 of my friends from Kulturkompis and we visited Hallwyl Museum. Not many people know about this place although this museum is conveniently located in town. It is a house that belonged to a rich family and was donated to the local district. This is my 3rd time visiting this place, and I find this time the most educational. I believe it is due to my improved Swedish vocabulary. I can understand what I am reading and I can appreciate the place better. The first time I went, it was my first summer in Sweden, so it was a month after my arrival where I visited all the free museums in Stockholm.

Plus, there was an exhibition of women empowerment during my visit. It was on the main woman character of Hallwyl House. Her name carries the Hallwyl's family name. 

This is the armory room and it is mostly for displays. The owner bought all this stuff to show status. And in my head - gosh, with all the money he has, and he invested in armory that he cannot use.

Korean performance - Coreyah and Nanta

14 March 2019

I had a fantastic evening watching the performances of 2 Korean groups (Coreyah with the instruments and Nanta with the kitchen equipment) that were brought to Stockholm to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Sweden and Republic of Korea's diplomatic relationship. It is as if I just watched a live performance of K-Pop concert! The Coreyah group even wore the colors of a Swedish flag.

Coreyah is a Korean music ensemble consisting of 3 performers of traditional Korean instruments, one vocalist, one guitarist and one world percussionist. Nanta is a non-verbal performance integrating traditional Korean rhythm with comedy and drama in the kitchen. 

The event started with an opening speech by the Ambassador of Korea. 

The Coreyah performance took about an hour and it was fantastic and lively. The drummer spoke and I thought he was cute on how he expressed himself. Haha!

I had no idea about Nanta until I saw its performance. The group came in by creating music with kitchen equipment and danced up to the stage. It was definitely loud because they were hitting pots and pans but there was a rhythm, of course. Nanta was really hilarious with their comical actions in the kitchen. I laughed out loud which I never expected myself to. Finally, it ended with the group playing their make-shift drums from barrels.

Tastebud : Cassi Restaurant

14 March 2019

Today, a friend and I had French dinner at Cassi Restaurant. The street has a couple of French restaurants because the French ambassador stays there. 

I had sauteed beef with rice. SEK190 that includes salad and bread. Friend had sausage, sour cabbage and potato for SEK188 and we shared a non-alcoholic beer for SEK44. The food is nice but the taste is nothing different from the usual. So, I am not sure what is French about it. The place has a nice ambience and it is opened between 4.30pm to 8pm. It got pretty crowded by 5.30pm. I suppose this place does not need much advertising at all since it has short operating hours during weekdays. 

Theatre - 'Äkta känner äkta'

11 March 2019

Volunteer duties at a theatre play today. The theatre is small but not as small as the one I went in Galeasen Theatre. The title of the play 'Äkta känner äkta' means real knows real.

The play is about a man who went back to his hometown 20 years later to film 2 of his childhood friends' history and a bit of his. He asked questions on what are their happy and fearful moments. One The man who came back described his happy moment of how he lost his virginity - the words used were not romantic. Another one described his happy moment of him spending a few hours in a tent with a girl. Another one described his fear of his sister being raped and her parents did not allow her to return to their house and he sent his sister to her friend instead. One of the friends spoke of how his uncle who migrated to Sweden resorted to being a taxi driver when he was a professional in his country. Yes, that resonates hard among many immigrants where it is difficult to find their own profession again. 

There were a lot of foul words used during the beginning of the play. I don't enjoy swearing so I did not like it when I heard 'suck your c*ck' in Swedish. Then, I learnt what is the Swedish word for 'son of a b*tch'. The two friends were teasing each other and in the midst of it, insulted each other's mothers like - Your mother is so fat that she has to pay taxes in 3 countries / she has her own postcode. Gosh, I cringed when I heard that. Why is that necessary in the lines anyway? The three of them touched on a loss of a friend, Dmitri. Dmitri was shot because he stole and the man who left was involved in the crime but he did not know that the gangsters that they stole from will take revenge and shoot Dmitri. That was the real reason the man left his hometown. 

The 3 guys pretended to smoke weed too and smoke came out from under the benches. Probably dry ice but it smells odd. As the title speaks for itself, I am aware that they are acting as real as it can get in reality. Does this actually represent the majority of the teenagers here - weed, sex, steal, swear, insult? It was a very expressive play, nonetheless and worth the watch. 

The curtains went down before the play started.

The last photo shows the 3 friends who finally found closure on Dmitri's death. They sprang happily out of the theater into the cold. The end. 

Tastebud : Espreso House (via Karma)

12 March 2019

Sweden has an awesome app for the budget-savvy. As I am an intern, monies are limited for me. Then, I got to know of Karma. It is an application where food is sold for 50% off as the due date is one day later or on the same day itself. Lots of students know of this application.

Today, I decided to try it out for lunch. I activated my location for the app and found locations close by that supports Karma. Espresso House was one of them. I decided to buy a ceasar wrap with chicken for SEK31. I bought the food from the app and showed my paid order to the cashier. It did not smell bad at all. It is still pretty good! 

Tastebud : Hang Chow Restaurant

9 March 2019

Today's lunch treat was at Hang Chow Restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, and according to my friend, cooks real Chinese food. The restaurant does have a very oriental decoration, though. 

We took the 2-persons meal set that costs SEK158 per person. Appetiser was sweet and sour soup and a huge spring roll with minced beef. The main meal was fried prawns with fried duck (I have never eaten fried duck prior to this) and stir fried chicken with beef. Dessert was banana fritter with ice-cream. The meal set was extremely filling and we could not finish the meal. My friend packed the remaining of the food.

Swedish Milestone - Writing Notes

I need to write down my next milestone in learning Swedish.

Yesterday, I was at a meeting with a client and my manager. My manager assigned me to jot down the minutes of the meeting. The meeting was held in Swedish, and to my surprise, I jotted down everything in Swedish. 

I reflected back at my first meeting with a client at the end of August 2018 and I was so nervous. I could only understand 50% of what the client said, mostly because I did not understand the jargons and I needed time to accustom to her accent. I was jotting down my minutes in English. This continued on - writing all my minutes in English. Then, it gradually become to some Swedish words and some English words. My fingers could not type fast enough to catch the additional letters in the keyboard. Plus, my spelling was getting haywire as I learnt more Swedish words. 

And yesterday, 8 March 2019, after 8 months, I could type the minutes in Swedish! I was in shock. In 3 months' time, it will be 2 years in Sweden. 

Tastebud : Vapiano (Munkbrogatan)

5 March 2019

Vapiano is a spacious Italian restaurant in Stockholm. It is very surprising to see how the tables are generously spaced from one another. There are no waiters to collect your orders here. One has to go to the respective counters that prepare salad, noodles or pizza to place their orders. Your order is stored in a card that is given to you upon entering the restaurant. You can see your food being prepared in front of you. 

I had scampi spinach pizza for SEK135/RM67.50. The crust was hard and thick and I did not find the pizza as delicious as the one I had in Eataly and Dell 'Attore. My thumb was aching as I was pressing it hard against the knife to slice the crust. If I come here again, I will try the pasta and am definitely not having the pizza.