the real highlight was that night, when we went to AQUAVIT. it was quite literally, the coolest and best resteraunt i've ever been to in my life. just imagine: jacobsen swan chairs, a utzon-esque undulating wooden slat ceiling ala bagsvaerd's outer rooms, poul henningsen lights, verner panton chandaliers...oh god.
we ate in the dining room, sitting in these very 70s textiled booths. each table had a alvar aalto vase with nettles in them. we ordered aquavit to begin with - i chose raspberry lime and tried vanilla, pear and black pepper. if you don't know, aquavit is a scandinavian liquor which is basically ike schnapps or vodka, which is surrounded by a lot of tradition and so on - i remember my swedish relatives challenging my dad and grandpa to an aquavit drinkin contest or something when we visited them. so we began with that, and they bring it in these beautiful chilled crystal glasses which look like shot glasses with stems. also, aquavit is by far the most expensive place i've ever eaten - damn. so of course this is one of those places where they give you 3-4 little tasting plates of stuff the chef is trying out, the first one was mushroom soup with sort of pickled shrimp, and then there was salmon foam, smoked tuna, and caviar. i started my actual dinner with this really famous thing the chef magnus makes, the lobster roll, which is a really thinly rolled thing of lobster, pickled apples, and trout roe...and it comes with this little shot of frozen lemon lime juice! i also had to get an elephant beer because that's a classic thing to drink with fish. and then for our second course i ordered shellfish stew, which wasn't really a stew, it was a plate of one of each: lobster, scallop on mushrooms, something else i forget, and some kind of flower stuffed with crabmeat. and then the water poured this saffron/saslify soup all over it...delicious. and then we had this rose hip soup with lime foam over it, and then we had dessert, for which i had a chocolate truffle with lemon sorbet thing. my mom was so excited, because on the dessert menu they had fruit suppe with pepparkroker, and she said grandma ina and grandpa helge used to make it for dessert, and she hadn't seen it since then.. i am writing all this down because it was literally the best meal i've ever had. whoever this chef is, i guess he's a young swede who was raised somewhere in africa, but he's brilliant. we got little packs of pepparkroker to go, haha!
oh god it was so magical...i just had to write about it so i won't forget.
so here i am back in dallas, bored as hell and both trying to get a job while trying to hold out as long as i can without doing it. it's been rainy since we got back - kind of depressing. i don't know anyone here now that caitlin's in chicago, and annicka doesn't come home for another few weeks. my mom took me to see "the lives of others" which was fantastic. not much to report otherwise...the long cold months of boredom at a crappy job await... i'm okay with it though!
