A Norwegian cow with a heart-shaped marking on her forehead

There was a group of cow nearby where we stayed in up north Norway. They seemed so curious about us every time we passed by, particularly our dog Sesame which was also very excited for the cows. They ended up greeting each other by kissing gently, wasn’t it cute? And look at the black and white milk cow, it is amazing to find out there is a beautiful heart shaped marking on her forehead. I didn’t noticed this little magic until I travelled back home. What a pity, otherwise I would try my best to film the cows more. And it’s not a bad idea to let this special cow to be star for promoting the good quality of Norwegian dairy product.

Happy Birthday to Our Shiba Inu Sesame

We spent our nearly two week holiday up north of Norway. Of course we did bring our dog, Sesame with us. He is a shiba inu, a Japanese breed and now two years old. We love him so much and you can see how sweet he was in the photos below which were taken during the trip. Look at the last picture of the gallery do you notice something very unusual?

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Are you interested in knowing Sesame more? Here is his twitter!!

Fiesta – Real Spanish Style

In Spain, the main courses always come in very big bowls or plates, like Paella (seafood with rice), Arròs Negre (squid sauce with rice), and boiled lamb chops. Two or three people can never finish one. If it doesn’t taste good, it will be a waste too. That is why I like Tapas much more!

Tapas means cover. Legend says originally it was a piece of bread covering a glass of sherry wine to avoid flies from falling into it. Later on, people add cheese, olive, tomato, or ham; and Tapas is created. When I had Spanish food back in Norway or Hong Kong or even Iceland, we liked to order a whole table of this kind of quick bites as main courses. Now, in Spain, I can really taste the real “Ir de Tapas”. Like bar hopping, we go from bar to bar, trying each one’s tapas, from around 4 or 5 in the afternoon up to 7 or 8 at night. There are fried mini-octopus, deep-fried squid-rings, cheese balls, hot shrimps, spicy sausages, beefball, chicken on a stick, omelets. Simple food with a portion size of dim sum or sushi. Each dish comes with a stick for paying bill easier. Each costs one Euro only, not bad at all.

We cherish the taste as well as the environment. When I try to post some pictures on line, I find out that I didn’t take any as I am too happy at that time. I am very sorry! But I do like Tapas, and very like “Ir de Tapas”.

Having Bear in Tallinn

We have to pay 4 times in HK than in Bangkok to have the same meal. Similarly, from expensive Norway to Estonia with much lower living standard, you can pay less in Estonia to get the same thing. In our last trip, we had tasted the medieval dishes already. So, we decided to enjoy the delicacy of real French cuisine and traditional Russian food this time.

One of the special meals we had was at Troika which is a very popular Russian restaurant. I ordered a seasonal dish: stroganoff bear meat that is even more exotic than whale meat. Actually I don’t enjoy exotic animal meat, guessing it tasted like deer or elk. Just to satisfy my curiosity only with no expectation. Its texture was very tough like prosciutto ham. Fortunately it came in small portion; even cooked with lots of black pepper, served with sour cream, radish, baked apple and kraut, I still could taste the strong special smell of the meat. This special taste came from all the dead-meat this bear had before: mixtures of well-developed muscles and fat tissue. Now, I finished all but with guilt.

Perhaps I preferred normal foods. Blini is small but thick pancake which looks like mini burger. Instead of meat, we put sour cream, onion dices and smoked salmon. You could sense a mixture of all kinds of flavours in your mouth. Like eating Canapé in small bit. If you are big-spenders, you can add caviar too. Also, we ordered deep-fried fish. Unlike the British’s Fish & Chips which is always very greasy, this was lightly-battered so that we could still be able to taste the freshness of the ingredient. Among all dishes, the best one, unexpectedly, was the appetizer Pelmeni, Russian dumplings. Served in a bread-made bowl of mushroom soup. The dumplings have a stronger taste than ravioli or Chinese dumplings, and I loved very much I could eat 20 of them and still want more. Because of this, on the last day of the trip, we went to have 2 more Pelmeni, served with mustard, garlic sauce and sour cream, for lunch again. Plus, we ordered the deep-fried fish and Shchi. Shchi tasted like Borsch but with more cabbages and less meat. Sweet and spicy, good for digestion; otherwise we would not be able to finish the food.

If I have ever visited Russia in the future, despite the ever-increase in tension between races and unexpected terrorism, it would have been for the food, not for Kremlin or Moscow Underground.

Having Frog in Tallinn

People can hardly find frog as the main ingredient in Norwegian cuisine. To my surprise, I can find frog meat all over Tallinn: from fresh meat in supermarket to delicious dishes on the menu. In Mõõkkala, a seafood restaurant, I ordered a pan-fried frog legs appetizer. Don’t laugh, it really looked like a pair of man’s muscular legs. It tasted like chicken with the texture in between chicken breast and thigh. However, I think the congee with frog meat would be the best way to have it. The frog meat was much tender and juicier. Main course is the restaurant’s special, grilled swordfish. Presentation is wonderful: like a Baked Alaska, the fillet was covered with a fluffy egg-white. However, this still could not compensate for the dryness of the fish. To my surprise, the french fries are so crispy that I ate them all.

Here in supermarkets, we could find lots of items. Most of them were well-known brands from oversea. I tried to checkout some local products; and the packages were similar to those foreign ones. This reminds me of the situation within EU: Globalization, not only has mono-toned our daily lives; but also our values in style, taste, etc. Tallinn’s trendy restaurants, like other in Paris, Hong Kong, and Stockholm, have the same design and atmosphere, using similar utensils and presentations. Rack of Lamb must stand tall, flounder in the curve-shaped, garnishes are of similar varieties too. Feel like dining in from one fast food restaurant to another. Hope this is only a trend: one that cannot be missed out in Norway or Estonia.