Tastebud : Coffeehouse 72

22 March 2024

Dessert after main meal, at Coffeehouse 72. We left Eatnam as lots of customers were dropping in and the place was getting noisier so we decided to have dessert. I found a place near Medborgarplatsen train station that is affordable as I saw retirees and adolescents (not dressed richly) hanging out here. It reminded me of a mamak stall in Malaysia but this is the indoor version!

My friend treated me to a raspberry chese cake and an apple pie served with custard sauce. Each slice costed SEK45. They were not very sweet desserts so I enjoyed them. 

Tastebud : Eatnam

22 March 2024

Vietnamese food! The last time I had Vietnamese food was last year in July at An Nam. There are quite a number of Vietnamese restaurants in Stockholm. I have tried 7 places including this - Saigon Baguette in 2019, Nha Trang in 2019 and 2023, Hanoi Pho in 2021, Restaurant Springrolls in 2022, Ong Vietnam in 2022 and An Nam in 2023. Looks like, on average, I have Vietnamese food twice a year.

Eatnam has 3 branches in Stockholm. We chose the branch located near Medborgarplatsen train station. The two of us shared Bo Kho (Vietnamese beef stew) with rice for SEK185 and Pho (noodle soup) chicken for SEK175.  The beef stew uses chuck steak according to the direct Swedish translation of högrev. This cut of beef is located on the shoulder. The beef stew was yummy. I put my hands to show how big the bowl is. I have slightly longer fingers than an average person. 

Tastebud : Lilla Prag

13 March 2024

Awesome dinner at Lilla Prag! The place got crowded very quickly by 6pm. Mostly locals and there were retirees too. So, you can count that this is a good place to eat. I had the Lilla Prag Special which is a pork schnitzel and cheese schnitzel served with thinly sliced fried potatoes, salad and tartar sauce for SEK249. It is important to finsh the food while it is still warm otherwise it can get a bit boring.

Tastebud : Ikki Kista Galleria

9 March 2024

Random lunch stop at food court (MEET) in Kista Galleria. I was craving for noodles in a soup as it is cold and I wanted it to be spicy but not crazy chilli hot so I had Bun Curry for 125kr. Rice noodles in coconut milk curry. Bean sprouts were served separately. Not spicy but good enough to fill up the tummy. It came in a big bowl but there was more water than noodles. Haha! Typical. 

Stronger today

I have lived in Sweden for almost 7 years now. 

Today, I am a very different person that I was before I moved here. Before I moved, I was a different person after a family incident. 

Tough and uncomfortable situations mould and can remould a person. A person's personality is so fluid that you can adapt and be a new person. 

Last year, I turned 40.  

Suddenly, I stopped giving a shit of how people treat and think of me and I set my boundaries by not allocating time for people who gives me bad energy and makes me feel lousy. During the last 6 years, it was mentally and emotionally draining for me. First, it was the longing for the sense of belonging and I was very lonely but I was different from the persons I tried to connect with. We are adults and everyone has their own personality so it is difficult to adapt to new persons compared to being a teenager where you are still getting to know yourself. Second, when I tried to network because it is so important here to get a job, I was suffocating inside because the network did not continue the contact or end with 'let's meet up again' but it never happened or I was invisible to the network the next day at work when I thought we had a good chat the day before. It made me wondered - What is wrong with me? Did I offend them? Do I sound weird? Maybe we did not have a good chat. 

There is no third. These two points has made me finally put things to a stop. 

I wished I had the courage to set boundaries earlier so I did not have to carry these heavy emotions for so long. I have been tired for a very long time.

When someone here asks 'how are you' as they usually start their conversation, you are not expected to say 'it has been tough'. I know it is just being socially polite although I think it is not necessary. It is fake. This is the society's norm here, and I think it is also okay to not follow that norm. I ask 'how are you' if someone asks me because it is expected as a response. But when I initiate the question, it is because I genuinely care for the person and I listen. 

Today, I do not bother of how I am being treated. I enjoy my space and my own company. I set plans for my own priority. I do not give a second chance to people who do not respond the first time. 

It is well-known that Sweden has an integration problem and I went through it, experienced it and survived it. 

I may experience episodes of emotional and mental turmoil in the future but I know I will survive it. I am supposed to be hardened by experiences that do not kill me but I am still human. However, I am very much better than I was in the last 6 years. 

I can share without feeling ashamed and bitter. 

I can smile today. :) 

Tastebud : Blue Chili Thai

7 March 2024

Today, I had dinner with a new friend! It feels really great to be able to share with someone who understands and who went through similar experiences as I did to adapt in Sweden. We had dinner in a Thai restaurant. This is a new place for me. The food is not as spicy as described in the menu, 3 chillies! Haha!

We shared three dishes together and surprisingsly, we could finish them. I think it helps that we could not stop talking! We were there from 6 - 9pm. The food was salty for me and I kept drinking lots of water. It is also due to the fact that I do not use a lot of salt in my cooking. The food was tasty but they are not exceptional for me. The chef cooked two portions for each dish. The main dish comes with jasmine rice. We had:

1) Tom Yum chicken SEK189. Only the tom yum came with a tea light candle so the dish was kept warm the whole time. I put my hand next to the bowl to give a perspective on the size. I do not have a large hand but a 2-portion bowl is quite small. A guest next to us had a 1-portion bowl and it was quite small.

2) Green curry chicken (Geang Khiew Wan) SEK189. It cooled down quickly so I poured the rest in the tom yum bowl ,once we finished the tom yum, to heat up the curry. 

3) Fried rice beef (Khao Phad) SEK209. Fragrant and I think it has MSG. 

Tastebud : AM Cafe

7 March 2024

Finally, I had the opportunity to go to the AM Store. Here, I saw that there is a cafe and I had a lunchbox that contained 8 pieces of pork dumplings which were sold for half the price. I suspect that the dumplings had been prepared earlier but the date of preparation was not printed on the package. Since I cook, I know that there is nothing wrong with cooked pork that is stored in the fridge within 7 days or even longer as long as it does not taste sour. The cashier warmed up the dumplings so I could have my lunch in the cafe. So, I got my lunch for SEK38. Yay! 

It was really just pork inside the dumplings!