Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

What to bring home? Food of course

@brittarnhild

The perfect souvenirs to bring home, food of course. We are in the food market not far from Termini, Nuovo Mercato Esquilino. A paradise for lovers of Italian food.

We have a lot of space in our suitcases this time, and can bring homer more or less all what we want. Not fresh meat, fish or seafood of course, but so much else.

I buy a bag of these garlics. I plan to plant a few of them and see if I can make them grow in our garden. 

I buy pepper and other spices,

I buy cheese and salami and parma ham,

and when Terje pays, I photograph citrus fruits.......everywhere.

 

Saturday in Athens

@brittarnhild

The day started with breakfast on the roof terrace of our hotel. Bread, juice, yoghurt, tea, coffee, maps and guidebooks. Plans for a Saturday in Athens were made.

Not much later we were out walking. The plans we had made meant quite a lot of walking!

First stop was the meat and fish market,

where house wives and restaurant owners were busy buying what they needed for the day.

An almost sickening smell of meat and blood and a noise I´ve heard in no other market, with the sellers shouting out about what they had for sale.

From the market we continued to the National Archaeological Museum, which of course is a must when you are in a city like Athens. I fell for the small terracotta figurines from Myrina and Tanagra (photos on my facebook page), all from a time when the Norwegians were still struggling in the Iron Age.

We had lunch at the restaurant outside the museum, lunch without cake, but you can always dream, and window shop :-)

After lunch and a little rest, we were fit for more walking, morte steps, more thousands of steps. And with the help of a funicular (the very last part) we soon found ourselves on top of Mount Lycabettus, with a view of Athens which I could never imagine.

 

Now we are back on the roof terrace of Jason Inn Hotel,
and soon it is time for dinner :-)

 

At the food market

@brittarnhild

A few hours before the plane takes me back to Norway, I finally make it to the food market, Nuovo Marcato Esquilino. I have been there before, and this time I was lucky, the market is in the same street as our hotel, though in the far end from where we stayed.

If I lived in Rome for a longer time, in an appartment, I am sure I would spend all mornings here, setting up the many for my lunch and my dinner depending on what the market offered.

  

In spring I would have artichoce for lunch.......

.......and as I am not sure how to prepare it,

I can always ask for some help.

 

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As the last snow still needs a couple of weeks to melt in my garden, the food market in Rome was filled to the brim with fresh products.

A feast for the eyes and the heart.

Back in The House in the Woods, I still feel Italy inside me. For dinner tonight I will make spaghetti with the first greens from the garden.

 

 

Kapalicarsi, The Covered Market or The Grand Bazaar

@brittarnhild

The Grande Market, the bazaar, Kapalicarsi, opens at 8.30 in the morning. I came a little early, and could, with fascination, watch the workers arriving in masses, being swallowed by the gate. In my guide book I read that there are 4000 shops in the bazaar. 4000! Can you imagine!

I didn´t have any spesific plans for buying anything, I wanted to stroll around to get the feeling of the place, its temperature, its breath, its heart beat.

Being at Kapalicarsi (the word is actually written with a tiny beard under the c and the s, but my dear Mac doesn´t have these letters......) early, meant that the place was still quiet, something which change fast, and the sellers were eager to have their first customer.

"Buy from me" the sellers said, "you will be my first customer of the day. This brings luck so I will give you a very good prize"

And why not? A purple patchwork table runner, a perfect gift to myself for advent.

I don´t know how to bargain. When I buy something I am always leaving the sellers smiling, which means of course that I have payed way to much. But then, I am smiling myself as well, feeling that I have been lucky. So, what´s the problem then :-)

When in bazaars I always look for the spice section. In my kitchen you find pepper from all over the world. Pepper which is used daily in my cooking. But you also find a huge variety of other spices, collected on travels. Spices which looks tempting there and then, but most of them I have no idea how to use.

 

In Kapalicarsi I ended up with Indian saffron, and a variety of teas.

And of c ourse the charming seller gave me the "you are my first customer today very good prize just for you madam"

 

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The Blue Mosque got its name because of its blue tiles.
Granny, Mrs. Steglich and Anne, can you email me your address.

 

The souvenirs we bring home.....and the winner of the travel letter

@brittarnhild

La Boqueria, or Mercat de Sant Joseph, is a food market, or bazaar close to La Rambla, the main street in Barcelona.

We went there during the busy morning hours, 
the perfect time to visit a market.

Fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, cheese,
colours and fragrances,

mouth watering,
tempting.

It was close to lunchtime,
and here and there you could sit down and order food directly from the vendours.

We had planned to eat in Placa Reial, so instead of sitting down,
we filled Terje´s backpack with food,
to bring home to Norway.

And last night we had a Spanish feast in The House in the Woods.

The souvenirs we prefere to bring home,
are digestive :-) 

 

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I am finally ready to write the Barcelona travel letter.
And the receiver is Gunn Marit.
(I need your address Gunn Marit)

 

Can you take me to the market.........

text and images britt-arnhild

Four years ago, when I visited Devaraja fruits- and vegetable Market in Mysore, a young man was opening up a lotus in front of my eyes (take a look here). This made such an impression on me, I have wanted to go back ever since.

 

Yesterday my dream came true, once again.

If you love fragrance, colours, tastes, flowers, spices, LIFE......

Devaraja Market is a heaven.

The market opened around 120 years ago.
Walking around I tried to imagine how everything was then.

The vegatables being the same,
the people the same, though oh so different, so different.

My local supermarket back home will feel like a bleak, colourless place after this.

The marked intoxicated me.
I should have bought pepper, I should have bought a special necklace made by seeds, I should have asked questions, I should have taken more photos.

I should have........

I should have, I should have, I should have........

No, I should have not.
I did exactly the right thing.
I walked through the market with all my senses open.

And I enjoyed every second of it.

 

Here is a link to more info about Devaraja Market.

Enjoy! 

Food of the season

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

Farmer's Market in town. Not only the market which we have on Saturdays all through the summer. For a few days there is a food festival, with local food as well.

The marketplace, a street, a park..... all filled with stalls selling fruits, vegetables, fish, seafood, meat, chocolate, local brewed beer, juices, cheese.

Proud farmers sell their products. My mouth waters as I start dreaming of meals to cook.

I walk through the stalls several times. I meet Torgeir and we have lunch together. Local food. A feast for the eyes and the tastebuds.

I buy Torgeir a "mixer" (what is the English word for stavmikser....a kind of stick you use to make soups, sauces, mayonaisse.....), we browse a few bookstores.....

and then I go back to the food market to do my shopping.

Tonight's menu in The Blue Cafe:

juniper smoked salmon

homebaked flatbread

rømme (sour cream)

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a vegetable soup of an earth palette from the farmer's market

warm homebaked focaccia with extra virgin olive oil and maldon salt

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fresh tapped water

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a bottle of font sante sainte-victoire, cotes de provence, rosé (a house gift from Linda & Maurice)

What is on your menu tonight?

Colours and inspiration

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

 
We spoke about a lot of things yesterday, Sheri and I. At some time I asked her about the lemon tree she has in her garden. She told about all the lemons it bears right now and all the yummy things she makes from them. Then she continued to talk about fruits and vegetables and told me that she planned to visit the food market in Roma one of the coming days.

The food market? My interes was caught and I was up with my map "Can you please tell me where the food market of Roma is?"

 
It took me some time to find the market, but once there I felt I was in heaven. Colours, fragrances, bursting life.

I took it all in with my senses. Especially enoying the colours.

 
I have almost nothing left of the spices I bought in Syria last autumn, so now was a perfect time to buy some more. A whole bag.

 
Inspired by the girls I posted about yesterday, and about a morning filled with colours, I couldn't resist when I passed an art supply store. Suddenly I found myself with coloured pencils, a sketch pad and all I needed to make "my own art".

 

Then, in the late afternoon, I found myself in the monastery garden of Il Rosario, trying out my new pencils....

I am no born artist........but love to challenge myself. And we cannot all be masters, can we?

French television coming to "my" fishmarket

Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

 
Writing a daily blog (for more than 6 years, with almost 2000 posts so far) means that I get a lot of emails. People search on google or other places for the strangest topics, and often they are sent to my blog. I try to write back to most of the people who writes me, though when an American man wrote me to ask where he could buy fishballs I had no idea what to tell him. Nor did I know what to say when a woman wrote to ask me about Norwegian men; "I have heard that Scandinavian men as so stubborn, always getting their own ways. I am married to one and need to know more about why he acts like he does. Are all Scandinavian men like that?" Well, the most important man in my life is loving, caring, charming.....but she only needs to read my blog to find that out. I wrote her no email.

Last week though I got an email which made me comment back right away. It was from Allison, working for French television. She is working for a travel and culture program, had done a search on Norwegian fish markets and found my posts from Ravnkloa. Now she wanted to do a program about this fish market in Trondheim. One of her questions was "does fish monger Ketil still work there?"

 
Fish monger Ketil still does. We grew up in the same neighbourhood so I have known Ketil all my life, and every time I visit Ravnloa, which is quite often, we squeeze in time for a chat. I went there last week after I got Allison's first email (there has been quite a lot more since then), but Ketil had gone home for the day.

Then I went there again a couple of days ago, told Ketil about French television and their plans, asked him to pose for me, and right away he walked over to this huge, ugly fish. Great shot, isn't it?

 

Ravnkloa is an indoor fish market. Outside there are always fishermen selling fresh fish directly from their boats. I love the area. The atmosphere. The small. The colours.

 
Inside Ketil and the other fish mongers, are busy selling fish and fish products. Fresh. Delicate. The smell takes me to fish heaven (which is a wonderful place)

 
I have told Allison that if she comes to Trondheim she is welcome to The House in the Woods for mølje. Unfortunately (for her and for me) she will probably only send a couple of camera men up to Trondheim. I really think she should change her mind. How can she say no to mølje?

 
I love to buy shrimps at Ravnkloa. In the summer tourists love it too, then they can sit outside, along the canal, peeling their shrimps, throwing the shells into the water. Saegulls are there in a blink to catch treats.

  
In the winter it is quiet outside.

 
The view is still great though. You can actually look right over to where the young fisherman from our ongoing tale spent his lonely Christmas.

 
Looking in through the window.

 

Here is a link to Allison's television program:

Echappees Belles

Good luck Allison.

 

From the fish market home to dinner for two

Text and image Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland

A very special email found its way to my inbox yesterday. Hopefully it will lead to a thrilling tale which I will share with you later.......but not yet. This email though sent me down to the fish market in Ravnkloa after work. I hadn't decided yet what to make for dinner, but I knew it had to be some kind of sea food.

Well, as soon as I set my foot in Ravnkloa I knew what to make, mølje, a traditional meal with skrei (a kind of wild cod), rogn (cod spawn) and torskelever (cod liver). Winter is the season for this meal, if you have ever tasted mølje you will never forget it.

My mouth started to water already while waiting to be served. I had spent the day trying to come up with a menue, mind travelling to Italy, France, Spain, may be something Indian...... loving your comments on my post from yesterday morning, yes, I could make some pasta, or of course pizza can also be made for two...........but somehow couldn't decide.

Then this email (I am terrible on keeping secrets......) and all of a sudden I could hardly wait.....to sit down with Terje and share mølje........(terrible on keeping secrets, terrible on being patient........)

Terje came home without any gifts at all from Tage Andersen, with not much time at hand after the conference, before flying home, he had found the flower store only to find a sign on the door telling that the shop was closed for two weeks. He did bring other gifts though, Danish cheese, Danish salami, two bottles of white wine and a card with the words - YOU AND ME ARE WE!

Yes, we are!

It is almost impossible to get a good photo of mølje, I know it doesn't look very delicious, but believe me, the taste is completely out of this world. Spawn and fish in strongly salted, at the point of boiling water, the spawn for longer that the fish. Diced liver and onion, fried in olive oil, salt, pepper. Boiled mandelpotet (almond potatoes) with their skin on.

A glass of white wine. Or a whole bottle.

No starter. No dessert. The mølje takes all the space you have in your stomach.

Velbekomme. Bon apetit. Enjoy!

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Here is a link to a previous post from Ravnkloa, the fish market in Trondheim