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.