Fin.

Note bene: Ce n'est pas vraiment la fin pour le blog, mais c'est la fin des articles universitaires.

Le repas gastronomique des Français est une pratique sociale coutumière destinée à célébrer les moments les plus importants de la vie des individus et des groupes (naissances, mariages, anniversaires, succès, retrouvailles). C’est un repas festif réunissant des convives qui pratiquent ensemble, pour cette occasion particulière ‘ l’art de bien manger et de bien boire ’. Cette pratique, très populaire et familière à tous les Français, se développe en France depuis des siècles. Elle se transmet et évolue en permanence.

« Catherine Colonna, dossier de candidature N° 00437 »

Vous pouvez le voir, selon le dossier de candidature que la France a présenté pour que le repas gastronomique français soit inscrit sur la liste du patrimoine immatériel de l'UNESCO, cette coutume sociale de manger comme une forme de célébration est "très populaire et familière à tous les Français". Juste pour moi, j'avais défini le mariage de mon amie, qui a commencé hier soir (et a terminé ce matin), comme un aboutissement de toutes mes aventures gastronomiques "françaises". Me connaissant, je l'ai observé autant que je pouvais, pour m'imprégner au maximum, parce que c'est simplement la nature de ma curiosité culturelle. Mais j'ai essayé de prêter une attention particulière à ce qui se passait entre les amis, la famille et moi, parce que je savais que j'écrirai ce dernier article sur mes expériences gastronomiques globales. Et pendant que j'étais assise à la réception, j'ai réalisé :

Les Français disent des conneries.

D'accord, d'accord - je suis trop fort. C'est juste le comité qui a proposé cette idée d'ajouter le repas gastronomique français.

Je lisais ce que ce dossier a dit que le long repas a rassemblé les Français, "renforçant le lien social", pour célébrer quelque événement spécial autant que bien manger et bien boire.

Mais maintenant, je ne le crois pas.

C'est vraiment incroyable de voir comment un cocktail de 3,5 heures, une réception de 9 heures, et un déjeuner avec les restes met à nu les coutumes d'un pays. Vraiment.

Le mariage nous a rassemblé. L'amour entre un homme et une femme. C'est la raison pour laquelle nous étions assis dans cette salle des fêtes de Saint Michel en Picardie. On s'en fiche de la nourriture. En fait, quelquefois, la nourriture était plus une arrière-pensée au fur et à mesure que la soirée avançait.

À l'heure du cocktail qui a eu lieu dans la cour de l'église, les traiteurs ont servi des petites pains avec du champagne. Il a commencé vers 16h15 et avant 17h30, seulement un quart des invités est resté. Je suis sûre que c'est juste la famille du marié et de la mariée (mais je pense que la plupart la famille était du marié parce que cette famille semblait plus grande que la famille de la mariée) et une poignée d'amis de lycée de la mariée. Les mariés se faisaient prendre en photos, donc ils étaient eux-même absents. Leurs amis du travail étaient allés au café en face de la salle des fêtes et avaient pris un verre. Le petit nombre d'amis qui sont restés à l'église parlaient de choses et d'autres - deux femmes ont bu de l'eau et j'ai bu du jus. Le lien social était là, mais la nourriture et les boissons n'étaient pas importantes.

Le dîner a commencé à 19h30 à l'heure pile avec une diversité d'amuse-bouches. Il y avait des verrines, une mini bouchée de salade dans petits verres, et des canapés, une tranche de pain avec différentes garnitures, comme du caviar et du chèvre avec une tranche fine de concombre. Le Champagne a continué à être servi.

Après un certain temps, le DJ nous a demandé de nous asseoir, et nous avons commencé à jouer à un jeu. Il jouait une partie d'une chanson, de la bande originale d'un film (le thème pour le mariage était les films), et nous devions lever la main quand nous le savions et il pouvait choisir quelqu'un. Si nous nommions correctement le bande originale, la table de cette personne pouvait se servir au buffet. Il a répété le cycle jusqu'à que toutes les tables gagne - même la dernière table a dû répondre correctement ou être à jamais banni du buffet. Au début, c'était une partie de plaisir, mais alors que le jeu a continué, les invités ont commencé à être plus compétitif parce que ... euh ... ils avaient faim. S'ils n'ont répondu pas correctement, ils doivent se cacher en honte des autres invités. S'ils ont répondu correctement, le reste de la table est reconnaissante et contente, et le lien sociale augmente. En ce sens, la nourriture EST un lien social. Je suis d'accord.

Entre les plats, les Français jouent à des jeux, chantent des chansons de maries et / ou regardent des court-métrages aussi des maries pour passer le temps et vous empêcher de vous rendre compte que le dernier plat était il y a des heures. Ces animations semblent lier les invités plus que de manger ensemble. Les jeux font tout le monde rit ensemble. Les chansons font que les invités se sentent émus. Et les vidéos vous permettent de partager tous les aspects de leurs vies - de la naissance jusqu'au jour du mariage.

Or, il y avait encore une petite pause entre ces animations et l'arrivage du plat principal. Mais quand la nourriture est arrivée, j'étais la seule à la table. Une cousine ​​du marie m'a rejoint, mais les autres sont venus en retard, ont vite mangé ce qu'ils voulaient et ils sont repartis. Certaines personnes avaient tellement mangé au buffet qu'ils n'ont même pas mangé ce plat... les maries, par exemple.

Pour le fromage, presque personne n'est venu immédiatement et le fromage chaud a refroidi assez rapidement.

Le dessert était à 01h30 et tout le monde s'est rassis à table... juste avant de la quitter immédiatement après avoir mangé. Tout les invités ne sont pas partis immédiatement, mais c'était vraiment le signal que c'était bon de partir.

Et repensant à tous mes repas mémorables avec des amis, il y avait une raison à chaque, comme il est défini dans ce dossier. Une réunion entre moi et mes amis. Un succès - que notre cours à Paris soit terminé. Un mariage entre un mouton et un chaudron (leurs noms de famille).

Peut-être que la seule partie française est le nombre de plats et de l'ordre. Autres que les États-Unis et la Corée du Sud, je ne sais pas bien sur d'autres pays, mais je sais que leurs longs repas sont toujours courts en comparaison des repas français. Par exemple, la plupart des contrats de réception de mariage dans l'Arkansas et San Diego durent 6 heures - 1 heure de préparation, 1 heure de nettoyage et 4 heures pour la réception. Fondamentalement, vous avez 4 heures pour manger et faire la fête. En Corée du Sud, vous mangez au buffet qui est essentiellement un restaurant, et, si vous le souhaitez, attendez de voir les maries. Si vous ne voulez pas les voir, vous partez juste après avoir mangé. Les mariages en Corée du Sud sont généralement à l'opposé d'intime ou d'émouvant. Dans tous les cas, il est assez fréquent  dans le monde entier de célébrer des occasions spéciales avec un putain de repas. Il n'est pas réservé aux Français seulement.

Pour conclure, les Français ont présenté leur argumentation d'une manière qui, à mon avis, est incorrecte. Le repas français n'est pas un lien social, seulement une partie.

Vannes

So originally, I had wanted to write about the food I ate here in Vannes, Bretagne (Brittany to Americans), France ... but I'm not going to lie. Too much time has passed since then. Although the date shows I'm posting this while I was in Vannes, I actually am not.

Honestly, none of the food I was going to write about had to do with restaurants because I think I got a limonade (not the same as a lemonade) at one place, but that was the only time I didn't eat home-cooked meals. As I remember this, I also remember that I think that is what I was going to write about. The original purpose was to see how the French eat today even with the French gastronomic meals being preserved by UNESCO. Although in all of these places, I saw multiple courses, I hardly ever saw the full meal being served.

Except here.

In Vannes, maybe because I was a guest, they start with the aperitif and end with a digestif. There were multiple dishes. It reminded me of the last time I was in Korea when my Korean mom tried to feed me after I was full. My friend's mom did not push me like my mom, but she did feed me a large variety of things, so I wanted to try everything.

By the way, the crepes really are better in Bretagne. But more on this later.

Though Vannes is small in comparison to Paris, London, Stockholm - even Tallinn, food-wise, I remember it being nice. Everything I ate was good and it still looks quite common to go to the fresh markets and speciality shops. I know Paris has a multitude of fresh markets and speciality shops, but for convenience, I feel like it is more common to go to a grocery store. Thus, the feeling of picking out your fresh vegetables is much nicer. It's like going to a farmer's market in the US versus going to Wal-Mart or Kroger (or whatever your region's store is called). It simply cannot compete.

Basically, every point in the UNESCO document - about fresh food, number of courses, etc. - was true here. I feel like Bretagne, which I believe is a bit more traditional generally speaking (it's also the most Catholic region in France), is truly maintaining this French custom.

Oh, yeah, and their ice cream shops are amazing, too. Quiberon!

London

I want to start this article today by saying that this is my last article of a city that is not in France until August. Well, maybe this is the penultimate. I could be overwhelmed by American food when I arrived there a few days before August, and feel a need to write.

So I spent a few days in London. I had some new cuisine experiences and we'll start with Wasabi.

Oh, yes, that's right. It's Japanese food that I ate in the UK, the country of, not the Japanese, but the English. This was my second meal of the day, and it wasn't a big deal, but I wanted to mention a few things before you dismiss it completely.

I saw an ad for it while I wandered aimlessly near Piccadilly Circus, and the picture of those dumplings really made me want to eat soup dumplings. Great, right? -_-

Later, when I went there with my friend, I discovered that I was wrong. My friend enjoyed his sushi, but my soup would have been nice if it had been seasoned properly. But the American Southerners, who are stereotyped as someone who wants a ton of salt on everything, would have nearly died from the salt concentration. It was ridiculously salty. I would have thought that I was drinking water from the effing English Channel.

I ate what I could (basically the ravioli) and left the rest.

What I found most interesting about London is something that I noticed in my first meal there: the British method of "fast food." If heating is required, the fast food restaurants keep them in refrigerated displays, like Starbucks, where you take your cold food or drink, which is not quite ready for consumption. When you pay for it, you give this mostly prepared food to the clerk and they immediately begin to cook the food and/or mix the drink. I saw this style in several different restaurants in London and it is very refreshing because it means that your meal is literally made to order - even if the prep was not. Perhaps American fast food restaurants should do the same.

Of course the gastronomic highlight of my London trip was the afternoon tea at the Savoy Hotel.

Looking around the hotel before our reservation, we stopped by the bakery. Macaroons and other colourfully, delicious pastries were everywhere.

 

I was there during Wimbledon, so you can probably guess what they made a lot of.

When we sat down, we looked at the menu which contained two options: afternoon tea or high tea. So my parents, who lived in Dunoon, Scotland for one or two years, always told me that afternoon tea and high tea was one and the same. But not so. High tea is more like a light dinner - more savoury than sweet. These meals were supposed to be like a snack since dinner used to be around 20:00 or 21:00. The French would call it « l'heure du goûter ».

Since I doubt that you can not read the menu in the picture, I'll tell you what it says.

High Tea

A selection from our teas
A selection of sandwiches (see below)
Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs with Melba toast
Toasted crumpets with butter and strawberry jam
A selection of cakes

Afternoon

A Selection from Our Teas

The Savoy Collection, black teas (flavoured or not), white teas (flavoured or not), yellow teas, green teas (flavoured or not), oolong teas, herbal teas, excellent and rare teas, flower teas and iced tea.

I wanted to make sure I would enjoy my tea (despite the possibility of changing tea once), so I chose a safe bet:

Fair Trade Jasmine Pearls

Velvety, full and enticing green tea leaf lifted by fresh and heady jasmine aroma. The taste is sumptuous, round and deeply jasmine infused.

My British friend, on the other hand, was more adventurous and chose from the excellent and rare tea section:

Iron Buddha Oolong

An intensely floral oolong tea, hand rolled and fired to create a characteristic Iron Buddha or "Iron Goddess of Mercy" Oolong flavour.

A Selection of Sandwiches

• Ham with mustard cream cheese
• Coronation chicken (a.k.a. chicken salad) on olive bread
• Scottish smoked and poached salmon with dill mustard
• Egg salad with watercress
• Cucumber, fleur de marquis (a cheese from Corse) and dried tomatoes

Scones with and without raisins ...

... with Cornish clotted cream, lemon curd and strawberry jam.

A Selection of Pastries

• Hazelnut and espresso cookie
• Raspberry and green tea balls
• Milk chocolate and passionfruit éclairs
• Rhubarb and strawberry tarts
• Forest fruit and dark chocolate shortbread cookies
• Pineapple and coconut slice

I confess that I asked for one of each ... except the pineapple and coconut slice. I'm not really a fan of coconut. I'm sure you're shocked. Everything went well together - even the green tea and raspberry balls which I doubted the most since matcha tastes like grass to me.

A Selection of Cakes

• Blueberry
• Banana and almonds
• Chocolate

Honestly, I could not give you an honest opinion of these cakes. I tasted them so I could describe them here, but we had already eaten so much that everything tasted the same and we almost could have thrown up.

Now let's play a little game. Maybe you have watched it on TV during the day. When I was a kid during summer vacation at my grandparents' house, we watched it every morning - it's called The Price Is Right. I want you to think carefully about what you just saw and guess how much it all cost - for high tea and afternoon tea. We will return to the prices later.

When we ordered and our Hungarian waitress brought the first set, she cautioned, "These sandwiches and scones are unlimited, but be careful and remember there are still pastries and cake after these."

But ... neither of us had eaten that day and our reservation was at 17:30, so we didn't take her advice to heart. Everything was magical for me. We don't really have luxurious teas like this in Little Rock. I heard that Ashley's, where I went several weeks ago, have teas like this, but, like the dinner, it is ridiculously expensive since they know they are the only restaurant in the Little Rock area where you can just sit and have a posh tea. (Another tea room exists, but you must make reservations in advance and have a minimum of 6 or 10 people - I forget the name now)

So at the beginning ... at 17:30, we were like ...

... But by the end at 19:30-20:00, we were like ...

So what was the cost of these teas? Per person, it was £52.50 for the high tea and £50 for the afternoon tea. Notice: this is in pounds sterling - Britain's money. Which means that it was about $90 (66€) and $86 (63€). PER. FUCKING. PERSON. Thank God my friend works for the hotel and gets a 50% discount for the teas. I don't think I will ever have the opportunity to take tea here again. Never. That's a lot of money - even for the English. Maybe ... if I marry a rich husband who thinks that $100 for an afternoon tea is chump change ... well, of course I would try it again. And it would be even better because now I know exactly what to expect when it comes to how much I should eat and when. However, I probably will still feel a little guilty the next day that I spent enough money on one TEA to feed a family in a third-world-country for a month.

The first night I arrived in London, my friend met me at the airport. On the way to the house where I was staying (again thanks to Airbnb), he asked me if there was anything special I wanted to do. I told him I wanted to experience a curry in London. I often listen to Friday Night Comedy on BBC Radio 4, and throughout the years, I have heard British comedians joke about curries. So on my last night in London, that's exactly what we did: eat "curry."

We walked down the street of restaurants, and were about to enter a curry buffet when a guy approached us. He runs the restaurant next door. For £1 more than the buffet, he told us we would have a starter, main course, nan (which is the Indian bread), rice and a drink. My friend thought we would not eat more than two plates and buffet did not include a drink that probably cost more than £1. So we went with the guy.

An expensive city like that is not a city to experiment with food. So I kept to dishes that I already knew. For the starter, I chose samosas, fried pastries stuffed with potatoes and vegetables (always peas - the other vegetables vary), and which are always delicious. I always get them at Indian restaurants. Tonight was no exception, but they exceeded my expectations because I was basically dragged there by the owner, the interior looked pretty shady and, although they said we could choose anything under the various headings, it turned out not to be the case.

Just as an optional addition to our starters (my friend got tandoori chicken, which I think he did not like), we were given this yogurt-curry sauce.

My friend ordered the chicken korma and I ordered the lamb vindaloo. Note that none of us ordered CURRY. My friend told me that the English call any Indian food "curry." So, to eat curry like the English, curry is not actually required. As long as you eat in an Indian restaurant, you are eating "curry". And my vindaloo was legitimately spicy. What I had was the spiciest. The shady man who I guess was our server came back and asked if it was okay that the dish was spicy. I told him the truth: Spicy is good. He laughed in a very weird way.

I am pleased to have had the experience of eating curry like a normal Englishman (or ... Englishwoman). I also had "fast food" and a sophisticated tea. All these things are the most diverse range of meals that I've eaten during my travels since May, including Paris.

Speaking of Paris ...

Oslo

Ahhh, Oslo. Home of King Harald V of Norway, who is also 71st in line for the British throne; the Vikings; and the stave churches.

When I arrived, it was too late for dinner (hence the McDonalds), but I had more time here than in Stockholm, so I was in no hurry to go out and find a restaurant immediately. Big mistake.

The next day, I did a lot of things to try to prepare for my London leg which were not related to food. In fact, I didn't had an opportunity to eat until the afternoon when I arrived at the Norwegian Folk Museum (translation: the Norwegian Folk Museum). I went to the cafe after buying my ticket and I thought it would be a good idea to buy an ice cream. The cafe, after all, was warm and full of the smell of coffee.

Yet when I went outside to eat my ice cream ... I realised that I must have been crazy. It was cold. And it started raining just after I entered this open-air museum. Although ice cream is not a gastronomic marvel, the sprinkles were abnormal. I do not know how to describe them except to say they were like the love child of American sprinkles and Pop Rocks. Norwegian sprinkles did not exactly explode in my mouth, but they were crisp and hollow. Yet they seemed solid. A real mystery.

That night, after another day not eating, I'm starving. I went to a store like 7-Eleven to try and buy tickets for the Royal Palace in Oslo the next morning. To enter the Royal Palace, you need to be part of a tour. To be part of a tour, you need to buy a ticket. One can only buy tickets at 7-Eleven or this similar store. Bizarre. But this store's computers for bookings were broken. So I went to the other side of the same street to the same chain. There were no spots open until 17:00 the next day, but I was leaving at 13:00, so I guess I'll have to do that next time. Beside me, there is a case of hot dogs. Which looked very good to someone who is really hungry and on a tight budget. So I bought one. Or two. For about $6, which seemed cheap at the time. And they really were delicious, these "spicy" hot dogs. I would buy them again if I come back because they were good and relatively cheap. If two hot dogs cost this much, can you imagine what a decent meal would have cost? And they also had, in the true French style, croissants. In fact, they were having a sale. I could pay $2 less than I paid for the hot dogs and get one croissant, OR I could pay the same price as hot dogs and get three. These croissants were also delicious. Soft and flaky - it was like eating a croissant in Paris. However, after days of these meager meals, I thought: "Tomorrow, I am going to enjoy a good meal, damnit!"

Yes, it is Subway. So my plan was to find a restaurant at 11:00 and eat there. Finish around noon and head to the airport via the train station. After I used AirBNB again to find a place to stay here, I found that my host was - surprise! - a cook in a Mexican restaurant. She recommended some restaurants with good, but cheap (for Oslo) food. So my plan was to pool the money I hadn't used in the last two days and enjoy myself. So, Isabelle, how did you come to SUBWAY? Hmm, well, all the restaurants my host recommended were closed. Until 13:00. When I needed to be AT the airport. So, on the way to the station, I saw Subway, which I knew would be faster and maybe even cheaper. It was not the cheaper and the salami seemed kinda odd.

My friend just told me it doesn't look too weird, but when you compare pictures of the American Subway's salami and this salami ... you can see a difference. Maybe because there are more fat (or what I assume is fat because it's white).

Looking back, eating Subway was better because, even though I knew that London is expensive, it proved to be a bit more expensive than I had realised.

Stockholm

Now we come to the trickiest part of my travels. After eating very well in Paris and three meals a day in Tallinn - which is actually unusual for me, even in the United States - I won't be eating well. Not at all. Today marks the first day of these odd meals.

As I said, it was nice, eating breakfast on the ferry, even if I didn't think the food was that great. My lunch was just a handful (or five) of Haribo gummies ("Exotic Fruit" flavour). Although they were filling, they are also a sacrilege to the French meal.

Not eating lunch resulted in me being hungry way before the European dinner time standard at 17:00 or 18:00. I confess that before coming to Stockholm, I didn't do much research ... or any at all. I tried a relatively new site called AirBNB to book a room with Hus24, a home for young entrepreneurs. They were very busy, so I didn't want to talk to them. But, now I was so hungry, I could have eaten a whole horse on my own ... however, I didn't know a good place to eat. Should I choose a random restaurant? No, it was my only night in Stockholm and I wanted to eat good food. My solution? Ask one of the entrepreneurs. A girl was in the room where I was staying, and she recommended a restaurant that was "good and cheap": Vapiano. "It's like our second kitchen, and it's very close," she said. I, on the other hand, was skeptical.

In 2011, I celebrated my birthday in Seoul, South Korea. I was teaching English far away from my friends and my family, so I wanted to have a good birthday meal to help me forget that it was my first birthday on my own. A colleague recommended a restaurant called Vapiano for all of us to go to. Since it's been three years since we were there, I do not remember the quality of the food, but I remember that it was a bit more expensive than what I had anticipated.

So when the young woman told me it was cheap ... Well, who knows? Maybe it's not the same restaurant. After all, foreign restaurants in Seoul are not exactly known for being avant-garde. Seoul had only a Taco Bell near the US military base for several years (it now has another near the the university district). I would not say that Taco Bell is avant-garde, but American restaurants tend to grow fairly quickly after the first branch. McDonald's, Domino's, Pizza Hut, Burger King, KFC and Subway are all fast foods that I have seen in many countries).

But this woman had a lot of good things to say about Vapiano, so I decided to try it. It seems that Seoul is more avant-garde than I thought.

Vapiano has an interesting concept that makes it easy to rack up a high bill. Instead of ordering with a server or with a cashier whom you pay and whom gives you a number by which the server can find you, you receive a card that looks like a debit or credit card. At the different stations (pizza, pasta, salad and antipasto, dessert), you order with the chef of the station and give them your card, then he (or she) places your order via computer and swipes your card. Some stations you stay nearby until your order is ready, but others give you a buzzer like one you get when you wait for a table at Chili's or some other American restaurant like that, so you know when your meal is ready and you can pick it up. After you finish eating, you pay with the cashier by the door. The cashier checks your card and tells you the final amount.

The cuisine is Italian, which is not Swedish meatballs, but the way I see it is that you do not have to eat the cuisine of a nationality when in a country. That's not necessarily how the locals do. So going to an Italian restaurant in Stockholm is perhaps more of a Swedish experience of eating the smörgåsbord. Maybe.

Maybe it's because I missed lunch, but I - usually a two-, maybe three-slice-girl - ate the whole freakin' margarita pizza I ordered. Though ... I definitely was too full after finishing it. I had planned on eating dessert, but, no. There's absolutely no way I could have eaten it.

To help the digestion of the pizza, I walked around Gamla Stan, the oldest part of the city, where Hus24 (the place where I'm staying) is. I noticed that there were also many cafés and brasseries, and I remembered reading again that day that the Swedes also like to drink coffee, eat at a pastry shop and people-watch. Weird, right? Not too surprising after Helsinki, but weird. After all ... we are not in France. The last time I checked, I was in Stockholm, the capital of, you know, Sweden.

The next day I went to the official residence of His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. I guess it's like Buckingham Palace for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. I heard she spends much of her time (or perhaps she spent ... she is a bit old now and it might be too hard to travel there often) at Balmoral Castle. Anyway, I went to the palace before my train to Oslo in the afternoon. They have free tours (you have to pay the entrance fee), but they do not allow photos inside. It's a bit sad because it was beautiful inside. It reminded me a lot of Versailles - it even has a small replica of the Hall of Mirrors - which is one of the two palaces I have ever visited.

The other palace I visited was the present palace where King Carl XVI Gustaf, actually lives and the reason I missed lunch yesterday. The palace also looks like Versailles, but even more because the king was also a large garden.

So I am on this tour, right? The guide has a German accent like Rupert Friend when he played Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in film The Young Victoria, but his appearance looks a bit like John Cleese when he played Q in the James Bond films. His sense of humour leaned more towards the old more than the young, and when the other English tour caught up to us the second time, our group magically went from having about twenty people to five.

But it was clear he had great pride in his country because he told us a lot of information and our tour lasted several rooms more than the one after us. I think he only stopped because he realised the time. (He also guides the tour of the Treasure Room.) A very interesting fact is the name of the Swedish dynasty. I never really thought of the Swedes having many dynasties, like China or England, but of course it makes sense. The present dynasty is called Bernadotte dynasty. I don't know how much you know of Sweden, but Bernadotte certainly does not sound like a Swedish name. When I heard it, I thought it was Italian. I wasn't sure if it's just the way our guide (and the rest of Sweden) said it, or if this was just how the first king of the dynasty has pronounced itself. But wait, let me tell you a short story that pieced together all the mysteries and questions that I had been having.

According to our guide, a long time ago, Sweden had a war with Norway and they lost really badly. The king was overthrown and Sweden asked the great Napoleon for advice on how to have a leader who wouldn't lose easily. Napoleon was kind enough to send one of his own marshals up there to be the next king. So ... ta-da! Mystery solved. The Swedish royal family is actually of French blood. This guy, Jean Bernadotte, became King Carl Johan of Sweden overnight. His wife came up after him ... apparently coming during a Scandinavian winter is the best time and gives the best impression of your new country, so that's when they sent the queen, Her Majesty Queen Desideria, to her new home. She quickly fled back home to France for a while before coming back for good. In any case, they spoke French and it was only their son, the future King Oscar I, who learned Swedish.

But anyway, that puts a whole new spin on my perspective on all of these mysteries. And, looking back now, I realise that I probably could have understood at least half of the Swedish words that I had seen in the first Swedish palace. I'm not saying that because of a French man who became the King of Sweden the Swedish language suddenly became French, no. For you who know me personally, you know that I have studied (albeit briefly) many languages. So, in Swedish, I saw Latin, French, English and German. Uh, and some native Swedish words, of course. ^_^

Literally moments before I got on the train to as "Oslo S" (the Oslo Central Station), I went to McDonald's at "Stockholm C" (Central Station in Stockholm). I can just hear the groans now. But my choice of McDonalds was not actually a compliment. I went because I knew that they use a lot of fat when they cook, so that, although my meal was cold, it tasted the same and it was a long train ride. When I looked at my receipt, I amused myself by what I saw:

1 Cheeseburgare (Med Naturell)

1 Stor Pommes frites

Does anything look familiar to you? Yeah, me neither. :-P

With these new thoughts around in my head, I'm on the train to begin my next adventure ...

Note bene to the non-French speakers: The word, "[French] fries" is "frites" and we all know fries are made from potatoes (or so they tell us), which is "pommes de terre" in French.

M.S. Baltic Queen

When I was planning these mini-trips, I found a night ferry (the M.S. Baltic Queen) to take me from Tallinn to Stockholm. I had never taken a ferry, so I didn't know that there was a cafeteria. There was no mention of it on the website, so I thought that the buffet was the main choice for most of the diners. So, I made a reservation for a "Texan-themed restaurant" called "Grillhouse" because it was the least expensive of their restaurants. After I went to Helsinki, I realised that there must a more common place to eat which was cheaper, although some of the dishes at the Texan restaurant were reasonably priced. Regardless, I cancelled my reservation and went in search of new horizons. I had expected to pay around 25€ for a steak, although even the cheapest salad was 15€. When I began to calculate items at the cafeteria, I found I could have easily paid for a full meal for a lot less money. My dinner that night: a grilled chicken Caesar wrap, a smoothie and a slice of apple tart. All for 10€ exactly!

The wrap was a typical wrap. I still had that bottle of sewer water from Tallinn in my room, so I saved my smoothie to drink after finishing the last of the water. All that remained was my apple tart, and geez! I took a single bite, and wow! I never want to hear another European complain about the sweetness of American desserts again. Like I said in my post of Estonia, the foreign students often complained about the sweetness of our desserts. This tart was nothing in comparison. I don't think that I've ever had such a sweet dessert in my entire life. I almost couldn't finish it. I think it must have taken me half an hour minimum to eat that one slice. And then, I didn't really want to drink the smoothie, afraid of how sweet it would be. In the end, though, it wasn't that sweet. But I didn't know that at the time.

The next morning, I ate at the breakfast buffet, which definitely was the only option for a morning meal. I saw a lot more raw fish once again. Eventually, I ate some bread with butter and I tried to eat some meat. It wasn't the best breakfast, but still better than the first day in Tallinn.

Eat on a ferry, check.

Finland

We began our day early, early in the morning. They came to pick me up at 5:45 a.m., but it was already sunny outside. I began our day in Finland well with some cherries and strawberries that we had bought at the farmer's market the day before. Then I read the free travel guide, Welcome to Helsinki, which the ferry offered us and saw that the Finns like drinking coffee while eating something sweet. At the moment, I can't remember the exact words. When we arrived at Helsinki's port, there was another "Farmer's Market" ... or a tourist trap ... whichever you prefer. But it wasn't the same as the one we already had visited. These items were handmade, yet felt more commercialised than what I had seen in Tallinn.

We walked around their Old Town, which is still more modern than Tallinn’s. Actually, that’s a bit of a lie. While Helsinki is a younger city (1550) in comparison to Tallinn (5000 BC), the real difference is that Helsinki keeps old and modern together whereas Tallinn’s Old Town is pure - only old buildings - no modern buildings, even though the old buildings have been properly equipped with modern things … you know ... like electricity ... and running water ... you know. As we walked around, I noticed that there were a lot of coffee shops. Not that that is surprising, right? But wait, these coffee shops seem awfully familiar. Isn’t that a croissant? Aren’t those tables outside facing the street and not each other? What did that book say? If I was going to have any Finnish experience, it should be sitting at a café and doing nothing … Hmm, without even trying ... in a Scandinavian country, I have found France and she is quite strong. Look at this Magnum ice cream. Doesn't it look like an ice cream that Marie Antoinette could have eaten? It's really covered in gold.

Unfortunately, we didn't arrive in enough time to take our sweet time at a café. For lunch, we went to a restaurant where we saw a lot of people going inside. This particular restaurant served a buffet of a different "theme" everyday. And, of course, the theme today was salmon. I'd had enough fish, so I said I'd pass and looked at the other options. Baguettes. Croissants. Pastries. Sandwiches. Yes, France was all around me. I chose a ham and cheese sandwich which was more like a tomato and cucumber sandwich. All that I could taste was the cucumber, so I took some of the cucumbers off ... except then all I could taste was tomato. The ham and cheese was practically non-existent. Still ... the sandwich, in my mind, is a pleasant memory. I probably could have eaten another one because, as you can see, it wasn't exactly big.

A little bit after we ate, we got into my friend's car and we went to Porvoo, which claims to have a traditional Finnish village. Although that was a lie, there was a small part of Porvoo which was very idyllic and picturesque. After walking around a bit, we went into a cozy tea room. It's a shame that we didn't realise the place was a tourist trap because they definitely trapped us. If you don't see the price, you should know that it's very expensive, right? Eh, well ... we didn't remember that in the moment. For one coffee, one tea, one hot chocolate and two pieces of cake, it cost about 30€. We once again tried a chocolate cake and a non-chocolate cake. They were both delicious, but they would've been even more delicious if they had been cheaper. I know, I know ... it was our fault.

The first cake, the one without the chocolate, was a cream cake with fruit. It was really good and I would have liked to have eaten it side by side with the "Ma Cherie" cake in Tallinn. That would have been the best way to know which one of the two was the better cake.

The chocolate cake here was much, much better than the chocolate cake in Tallinn. Without a doubt. Although, I definitely wouldn't have been able to eat an entire piece on my own without having something to counterbalance it since it was pretty rich and a little heavy.

But these two cakes worked in harmony to create a "mouthgasm". In the end, maybe they were worth the cost.

After we finished up there, we went to IKEA. They had to buy things since they had to keep 10 apartments in order for their business, thus IKEA was the obvious choice. We spent a few hours there, which is not a surprise. They told me that all Europeans should experience a traditional day at IKEA which consists of spending a few hours there (check) and then eating at the cafeteria. Which is what we did. And I'm going to tell you, it wasn't a memorable meal. With difficulty, I remember that I ate a pork chop and some fries.  Although the furniture may be cheap, the food was not. And, after an hour, I felt quite ill. I again thought that I might need to vomit and I got a terrible headache - in fact, it was the worst I'd ever had. I know that this meal in IKEA was not the reason, but in my mind, the two are linked together.

Estonia

Thanks to Air Baltic’s weight requirement of eight kilograms (16 pounds), I was not able to bring my notebook, which I had forgotten at the time of packing, has all my notes for the French food that I ate. Until i make it back to Paris, I will write about my other food experiences I’m having along the way. The reason that I want to wait is that i want to write about everything and I only have pictures of some places and dishes.

I did make an agreement with my professor to write another six more, but I would much prefer to write about all the experiences that I have throughout my travels. He mentioned that I might have a little flair for these blogs, so who knows? I may continue writing, though in English, after I graduate in August. He once said that I should find a style that I like and go with it. After reading the mere introduction to Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour, I think that he might be from where I get my style. I don’t think I’m nearly as pessimistic, but there is definitely some similarities.

So, on that note, let’s start with Tallinn.

I’m going to start with something very basic : water. When I first arrived around midnight, my longtime friend and his boyfriend took me on a little tour of Tallinn’s Old Town. It was very quaint and I enjoyed it very much, but it left me quite thirsty. So we stopped into 7-Eleven, which I was told was not too popular with the natives. Water was the obvious choice since I can use it without refrigerating it. My friend told me that water in Tallinn does not need to be bottled - I could drink out of the tap. He recommended Vichy since there was “no taste.” When I got back to my apartment (he rents 10 in Tallinn and he gave me my own space), I opened this Vichy bottled water, poured some into a glass and drank. Within an instant, I recoiled. Not that I’ve ever drunken sewer water, but I imagine that this is quite the taste that it would have. If this is my friend’s version of water without taste, I can’t imagine what the others tasted like. What a wonderful way to start out a trip and perhaps a bit of foreshadowing.

The next morning, we went to a “farmer’s market”, which was a normal market, but outside. There were so many delicious smelling fruits and vegetables. There was actually a lot I wanted to buy.

There were also some buildings at this market which were specialised. One building was a dairy market, which sold yogurt, butter and cheese ...

... another a wine and cheese shop ...

... and a third (though not the last), which sold fish (trout and salmon mostly), shrimp and caviar.

We went back to their apartment to fix breakfast. As my classmates recently discovered, I do not like eating marine animals. I enjoy being by the water - beach, temple (yes, there is one such temple in Korea), port, whatever. I really love the water. But, I won’t eat them. Maybe it’s a deep-seated psychological problem from attending sea camps as a child and thinking fish were my friends, or because Disney’s The Little Mermaid the first movie i saw in theatres. Who knows? But since I was eight or nine, I have not willingly eaten any fish. Every once in a while, I try it again, but usually have the same gag reflex. So you could imagine my surprise at breakfast when I was told, “Bon appetit !” over a plate of tomatoes, toast, scrambled eggs and … salmon. Oh, and we’re not talking about just any salmon, which I ate as a child in the form of patties, no. We’re not even talking about smoked salmon, which was used in lieu of pretzels or peanuts when I flew from Seoul to Tokyo in a sushi dish. Oh no. We’re talking about raw salmon. Totally uncooked. Just sitting there. Two slices. On my eggs. Hangin' out.

Apart from this rather shocking food, we had a wonderful breakfast. In addition to what I've already mentioned, we ate some parmigiano reggiano (or parmesan); some fresh cherries; some fresh strawberries; some Estonian "kimchi" (i.e., marinated and fermented cucumber); American-style parfaits with blueberry yoghurt, strawberries and blueberries; and some tea. My friend's boyfriend is actually Malaysian, but he was a chef in Sydney for fifteen years, so he was rather worried about the presentation of the parfait. They also gave me a glass of blueberry-apple juice to try. It was delicious. It was very nice to eat with them because it showed that the French were right : we grew closer over a meal as an American, an Estonian and a Malaysian-Australian.

Here's a picture of the marinated cucumber. I'm wary of calling it a pickle because it had fermented for only a day and didn't taste like any pickle I've had before.

It was an experience. The salmon had a slimy texture, which could be covered up by eating the tomatoes with it. Surprisingly, there wasn’t too much of a fishy flavour, and although I don’t want to eat anymore, it might have actually been better than cooked salmon. Maybe it’s just because it's fresher than the stuff we get at home. I sincerely ate my fill and we left for some outdoor amphitheatre. Quite soon after we left, it was raining, so we went back to Old Town to walk around in the rain (though, in reality though, what's the difference between walking around an amphitheatre or Old Town? You're still walking in the rain.) We took shelter, by design apparently, in a chocolate shop called Pierre Chocolaterie, where we bought drinks and two slices of cake to share. The first one was called, “Ma cherie” (“My dear” in French) and is considered the specialty of the establishment. I’m not sure what’s in it other than some sort of cream and chocolate, but it was bliss.

The other had "Sacher" written underneath. I'm not exactly sure what that is, but I remember that my Cordon Bleu book has a recipe of a similar nature with the same name. I know that "Sacher" is also the name of the chocolate used in that recipe, but I couldn't tell you what it was with 100% certainty. It was also delicious and this little chocolaterie around in me a need for cake that I've never had before because I'm not actually a big fan of cake and/or chocolate, but I think all three of us could have eaten our own piece or shared a whole cake since these two slices were gone in five minutes or less. I mean, even at home, I will not eat a chocolate cupcake, abstaining if there are no other choices. So that's saying something. If I had abstained from this, I would have suffered a major loss.

These cakes were surprisingly sweet, which I only say since most international students I meet complain about how sweet American desserts are, but not to the point of making me sick. I might even be dreaming about Estonia’s cakes in the near future. Although, I must confess, the house specialty would definitely be my personal favourite of the two.

We missed lunch, probably thanks to the cake and tea or coffee which we drank, but were starving around 4 or 5 in the evening. So what did we do? We looked for another café. It was quite a difficult task, despite all of the cafés - drinking coffee or tea after a meal is quite important … hmm … where have I heard that before? - because 23 June is a national holiday. I was quite shocked to see ESTONIA of all places celebrating St. John’s Day. Sure, I celebrated it when I was in Spain, but for some reason, it seems odd here. Maybe it’s because I know of Spain’s strong religious background, whereas Estonia … I wasn’t even sure to which religion they adhered. I suppose if I had really stopped to think about it, I would have correctly come up with Russian Orthodox, although I know that the Soviet Union (USSR) didn't really allow religion - yay, communism! It might also be because they celebrated it in a much different way than the Spaniards with their fireworks and drinking madness. Honestly, it reminded me more of how it was described in Eloise McGraw's The Moorchild, a children’s book from my mom which I had read to make me “not feel alone in being different” or some such thing. [My school wasn't what you'd call diverse with one Chinese boy, two Koreans (a boy and myself), one African-American, one Jew and one Moslem.]

In any case, we were hungry and my friend had made dinner reservations for 8, so in our hunt to see if a specific cafe was open, we went to a mall. When we found the cafe closed, we looked around and they saw a new restaurant (Tapita) which claimed to have Spanish tapas. The last time I saw this friend was when he visited me in Barcelona with his ex-boyfriend, so tapas seemed appropriate. Furthermore, his current boyfriend is a former chef from Sydney (Malaysian descent) and is constantly thinking about food and locational styles, thus he was interested in this new Spanish restaurant and its concept.

My friend ordered the hot tapas sampler which included some vegetables, some chicken, some beef, some calamari and some fish. It was a sampler with everything. And yay! I had yet another chance to have fish. I don't think that I have ever eaten this much fish in such a short period of time. Never. Even when I was learning to cook in Thailand, the school taught us with a variety of proteins, adn we never ate fish as frequently as I was doing on this little European excursion. I confess though ... I didn't try the calamari. It's the only thing that I didn't think I could pretend to eat. So, I can't give a precise description of it. But in the end, a few bites were still left in the cone that it came in, so maybe it wasn't all that good. The fried fish wasn't too greasy, but ... there was lot of it. Despite the fact that I don't like fish, I can eat some without making a face ... as long as it's not too fishy tasting. So, if you see me eat fish, you'll often see me doing so with my hand over my mouth to hide the fact that I really hate it. The three other tapas were, of course, better, but in my opinion, they weren't anything special. The beef on bread was my favourite, but the potato "bomb" was not bad since it was full of spices, the flavour I enjoy the most.

After the tapas, they dropped me off at my apartment because they had some clients to meet. We met again a little after 8 for dinner at a very touristy restaurant, Olde Hansa. Now, before I go on, I ought to say one thing about Tallinn which you may not know. Tallinn today is not exactly run down - but definitely the effects of the good ol’ Soviet Union’s communism can be seen everywhere. The Old Town is well kept for such an old city, and much better kept than quite a few Soviet-made areas of the city. However, during the Middle Ages, not only was Old Town more like New Town, it also thrived. Tallinn, according to my tour guide friend, flourished during the Middle Ages, but for whatever reason (he told me, but I’ve already forgotten), they could not keep up and during the Renaissance, Tallinn began to lag behind the other cities.

So, this touristy restaurant to which my friend brought me was a medieval themed restaurant - a reminder of the “good old days” (old, indeed). It was dark from being candle- and torch-lit and chilly as there were no big fires (no fireplaces). The benches and tables were made from wood. Our waitress stayed in character as a serving wench. And the bathroom ... I won't go into details about it, but I'll just show you the cleanest part:

I could imagine someone in hiding with the task of watching for people entering and then refilling this little pot after each use.

There were strange smells coming from everywhere. When I looked at the menu, it was very strange. They often combined ingredients which would not be combined today, such as salmon and pine nuts, saffron and pickles or ginger and turnips. Starting with the medieval beers, you could order a dark honey beer which I just discovered is not the same as mead; a strong dark beer with herbs which might be an ale; or a light cinnamon beer. My friend ordered the honey beer and it wasn't bad. But, I preferred the non-alcoholic mead ... or maybe they just say that since historically mead is fermented honey. Though my face didn't feel flushed which is the norm for me after just one sip of alcohol ... but who knows? As you can see, the drinks were served in earthenware mugs.

We ordered "Rewal's plate for tasting" which isn't exactly the most descriptive name. When I asked my friend what we were eating, he replied, "You don't need to know - just eat!" So when I asked my friend Google, I found this blog article about the restaurant from almost ten years ago (that's a scary thought ... people have been writing food blogs for that long?). Given the turn of events, I wasn't really sure if I wanted to know what I had eaten. According to this author, the plate had "juniper-ripened beef, orange tongue jelly, French royal poultry liver pâté, onion jam, quail eggs, herb-bread with nuts plus a few pickles and cream sauces." Although I could have passed on some of these, the pâté was pretty much awesome! The normal meats were still delicious, just not as much as the pâté, and the bread with the cream sauce ... it was all good food. But hearing that I ate TONGUE JELLY still makes me feel a bit sick to my stomach.

My friend and his boyfriend ordered the "thick meat soup" with another place that I've forgotten for sharing. I ordered the "Himalayan lamb dish with warming spices, Mountain people style". When I ordered, I figured it would be something rather exotic. Lamb with warming spices. Mountain people style. But, when the dish arrived, I was very surprised. The waitress described our plates to us one by one. "Here we have your bean bag, your lentils with garlic, wheat porridge with olives and fermented vegetables." Not all of the dishes had the same sides because my friends had bread with theirs as well as other sides. The "bean bag" was a puree of beans in a pastry wrap. I wasn't thrilled about it and it was the first time I encountered wheat like this. Needless to say, I didn't really like these sides, which is a bit of a shame.

The lamb itself was tender. I was surprised at first bite because I didn't know what they meant by "spices". For the information of future visitors of Olde Hansa, it's curry. My "exotic" dish (which I have no doubt WAS exotic for medieval Tallinn) turned out to be a normal lamb curry.  I had forgotten that when we thoroughly studied the medieval period when I was eleven or twelve (we even had to write a three page paper over a specific medieval topic of our choice) that our World Cultures teacher told us that they would overuse the spices in order to cover the true flavours of the food. So, in that first bite, these words immediately came back to me. It's not that the dish was spicy as in hot, but rather spicy as in a lot of spices. No, it was SPICY. I could feel the lamb in my mouth, but I couldn't really taste it. I only tasted curry. And damn, was that sauce heavy or what? When my friend went to the restroom, his boyfriend and I remarked how it was a touristy place and he really didn't like the food there. The meat was fine ... just not exceptional.

After we finished eating, they took me back to my apartment and everything was great … but a little later, everything was not great. I usually do not have a difficult time digesting food unless it’s spicy hot (as opposed to hot/cold or spicy as in a lot of spices), but man! I felt really sick and almost thought that I would need to make a restroom run. “Tomorrow will be better,” I thought to myself, “We’re going to Helsinki. It’ll be better.” Well … we’ll see.

Note bene : Despite the fact that I did spend another partial day in Tallinn, I won't be writing about my culinary experiences since it was just me, making a Korean dish for them to thank them for their hospitality.