Linkopi @ Linköping

weekend of dinner parties!

Here're the photos from Martin's:

Group shot in Martin's living room. Martin's our swedish peer student who has been really kind to show us around town and takes wonderful care of us, speaks Japanese and is learning Mandarin. Haha. Thank you Ma Ding! Ni de ren zhen hao! Also in the photo, we have mr yz, Iliana, who i met in school when she tried to hand me a swedish newspaper in school across the path and i told her i didn't understand swedish and she said i could just look at pictires! what a small world! the one with the peace sign is Martin himself, Bjorn the alcoholic who's also superbly funny n entertaining n who's also intending to stay in India for 3 months! Martin's Dutch peer student Erin and last but not least, Peter who's always late and who always gets teased by the others for his Southern roots. He was early that day! (in the Peter sense: only half an hour late) and we discovered it was 'coz he was wearing a watch. Hahaha. there was also Joaquim who isn't in the photo 'coz god knows where he was. He's like Bjorn's alter ego. I think the two of them will make a very nice stand up comedy act.

The food we had for dinner! Singaporean fried rice by Rongwei, Wonton soup from me and Swedish Falukorv stew by Martin! What's Falukorv? You'll find out in a little while. Obviously, there was alcohol too, courtesy of Bjorn and Peter. There was some minty finnish 50% alcohol that smelt like mouthwash which i didn't try, a bailey's smell alike but taste totally different 60% alcohol which i didn't try either, 40% tequila with a cute little mexican hat on the cap and the raspberry absolut vodka which you are all familiar with! Alcohol's good in winter. Really. It keeps you warm for a little while and all the alcohol u consume disappears once the -10degC wind hits your face. Pity Bjorn still didn't get drunk. We're still waiting for the day he does after hearing his drunken antics. Heh.

On Sunday, we went over to Aaron's new room in another corridor:

Aaron is a really nice man we met in our kitchen. He's one of the first people we met in this corridor and the thing is, he didn't even live in this corridor! haha. he used to live upstairs but has since moved 'coz of the state of the kitchens in this building. they're really really dirty! He was really friendly and talked alot to us and that's how we got to know that he's moving to a newer room. And he was really nice to invite us over to his new and much cleaner corridor for dinner. From top left:
1) the ABC soup we made for the dinner. Just a typical Singaporean "auntie" soup with onions, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and some meatballs. yum yums.
2) the common room in Aaron's corridor. Nice and neat and spacious!
3) the boys
4) the girls
5 and 6) the food! we had tandoori and dahl, spanish omelette, sudanese chicken and pineapple crumble, tangyuan!! and fish casserole and ABC soup. As good as a international buffet! yums!
7) the boys again with hats
8) and 9) girls in the very clean kitchen doing the dishes.

it was a really wonderful dinner. we met people from different countries. There was a sudanese couple, a chinese couple from Harbin, 3 indian nationals, a spanish man and a Singaporean girl who's doing her masters. They're all really nice and friendly! And i've never felt so good speaking Singlish before! I had no idea how important Singlish is to me! Shiok shiok shiok!!

Anyway, one thing Lina (the Singaporean girl) said that night was really true. She has been away from home for long periods before and she said she always take photos of the food she has 'coz it will help you remember what you were doing at the point in time and what people you met. I totally agree! that's why this blog has primarily been based on the food we're eating.

Can't wait for the next dinner party with this bunch of wonderful people. I'll definitely introduce some of my other friends from school to them to widen the interesting mix of people.

Speaking of friends from school, here's a photo i took today with Pavol, a Slovakian guy and Chiara, an Italian girl.

I met Pavol the 2nd day i was here when Martin met up with his Slovakian peer student, Andrea. And it so happened that we were in the same Cryptology course (which i have decided to drop 'coz it's damn tough!). I just met Chiara today when she came to talk to Pavol. She knows Luca too! Haha. Gotta party with them one day. This photo was taken after lab today where we were supposed to solve some Cryptograms using some silly program on the computer. That explains the tired faces.

Now, onto the food part of this post! The first cup of coffee i've had since i reached Linkoping! Not that i usually drink alot of coffee but we're supposed to be here to Lim Kopi right? So there. My first cup of Caffe Latte which wasn't very nice 'coz it's abit too thin and not sweet enough. blah. Mandarin Oranges!! haha..only that it's not called mandarin oranges over here. The 'gam' they have here's really small. Smaller than palm size but very very sweet. I don't think i've seen this particular kind in Singapore before. It'd be really nice and cute to bai nian with. Oh! i miss chinese new year! =( all the new year goodies. egg rolls!!! almond cookies!!! BAKGUA!!! haha.. and i'm sure i'll miss visiting with my family and the mad rush to get new clothes. miss xueli, u better save my ang baos for me okay!! my 2nd attempt at biscotti! dark chocolate brownie biscotti for bb since he likes dark chocolate. the smell's stuck in the kitchen and our neighbour smelt it so i offered him some. haha. he says its good! he has to right. duh. i also made green bean soup while mixing the dough! and i cleaned the kithen while baking! efficiency! and now, the answer to the falukorv mystery! falukorv is that huge sausage in the top left photo. look at the sheer size of it compared to the tomato! and this is a small one already. there's another one that's twice the length of this! haha..it's a traditional Swedish food that tastes kinda like luncheon meat. As you can see, i sliced it and panfried it as sandwich filling. Portobello mushrooms and tomatoes grilled with cheese and garlic also went into my gourmet sandwich! it's yummy! oh! and the huge sausage only costs 15 SEK. that's less than 4 sing dollars! haha. i think i'll be having alot of falukorv in the near future.make that the very very near future! we had falukorv stew with pasta that very night. haha. finally, presenting to you, Happy Sunday Crepe! haha..crepe layered with orange marmalade and raspberry jam and tangerine slices all around it! cute isn't it? almost too cute to eat!

Okie dokes! time to go make some falukorv and fried potatoes for supper! and yes! it's from that same huge sausage. wonderful, magical sausage.

Oh! and we're off to Kiruna from tomorrow till monday to see Ice hotel, the Northern lights and dog sled and to freeze our butts off! Here's a preview!

Northern lights. Hopefully we get to see it and get beautiful shots like these.
Entrance to Ice hotel. Finally going there!
Happy Chinese New Year to everyone in advance! Have a happy and healthy piggish year! Gong Xi Fa Cai! =)))

luv, Junli!

posted by jL-yZ @ 6:14 PM