Scandinavia Dreamin

You'll remember the excitement I felt back in December, as I wrote about the St Lucia festivities that take place right around the Christmas period in Sweden. The Norwegians and the Swedes have another long-standing tradition of celebrating the summer season with a day of outdoor fun, eating, drinking and dancing around the maypole. The 17th of May, being the National Day for Norway and the 25th of the June, being the Midsummer festivities for both Sweden and Norway. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to celebrate Midsummer with a couple friends in Sweden and I still foster fond memories of the day. What better way to celebrate the start of summer than by eating herring, fresh crayfish and drinking Aquavit while dancing around the maypole with inebriated Swedes? I say none. I have never met or encountered a people more elated about summertime than the Scandinavians. There's something about sunshine that brightens up their faces. It's almost mechanical. Like they've been stuck in a dark hole all year round, watching the sun set and the moon rise 365 times before summer, the real fun, can finally begin - the day of Midsummer.

The Midsummer Swedish Maypole

I am a huge fan of Scandinavia and its many festive traditions and have been ever since a dear friend of mine from Oslo introduced me to her culture my Freshmen year of college and when a couple years later, my lovely Swedish man, traveled with me to his motherland for the Midsummer celebrations. Navigating through the Norwegian Fjords last summer made me even more positive that this is a culture I respect and will remain fascinated with for years to come.

The advantage of living in a city like London as an expat, as opposed to living in a city like, say Liverpool, means that certain products and facilities, are at arms length when you are missing your home country and all of its cultural and culinary offerings. Living in London during Midsummer means that you can find places to be when the festivities take place. I witnessed the exciting Swedish festivities with excitement last year in Hyde Park and I look forward to trying out the Norwegian 17th of May festivities in Southwark Park.

17th of May in Southwark Park, SE16

You can also be sure to find the stores to purchase the goods from when you are hosting a dinner party and you want to impress your Swedish and non-Swedish guests. Scandinavian Kitchen has been my go-to Scandi place for my Senapssill and pickled Smorgas Gurka cravings as I work right down the street.

 Pickled Herring, in various sauces

 Sweetened Pickles

 Scandinavia's Favourite: the Wasa Toast Bread

The Scandi Kitchen is also a cafe, where you can sit and enjoy meatballs, pizza (Swedish cabbage) and beetroot salads, shrimp and dill on toast and lots of many other delicious dishes. Quite kid-friendly as well, Met Mum and I enjoyed a lovely lunch there a couple weeks ago, while her adorable daughter Little L licked her lips from the Maribou chocolate milk she was sipping.

 Swedish Maribou Chocolate

Scandinavian Kitchen
61 Great Titchfield Street
W1W 7PP
0207 580 7161

It's all There: In Pimlico the Beautiful

My overall feeling today is joy. Joy and excitement. As I glance over at the date on my computer screen, I realise that we are more than halfway through this short week and we can start looking ahead to the weekend. As a frequent traveler, I tend to enjoy my London weekends a lot these days. Maybe it has something to do with constant urge to discover new places, maybe I just like it here. It's probably a little bit of both to be quite frank. I like just hanging out. And I don't care that the term hanging out has a colloquial tone to it, there is just no better way to translate my feelings onto the page. Hanging, from being loose. Out, from being out and about.

 Church of Saint Saviour, Pimlico

Spring is my favourite season to enjoy the many beauties London has to offer. Lately I've sort of developed an obsession with the squares that dot our gorgeous city. Yes it's true. Last weekend, we were lucky enough to be blessed with at least one nice day. I took this opportunity to wander about an unfamiliar area, Pimlico. Me oh my, what a lovely little picture book neighborhood. The little Square cornered off by Pimlico Road and Ebury Street offers all of the above. It's all there: the church, the fountain on the square, the little farmers market buzzing with loud butchers and bakers.

Restaurants and pubs permeating the air with the salt and batter scent of their freshly cooked fish n' chips. Walking around the little square, you'll want to try out all of them: the Orange, owned and operated by the same owners as the Thomas Cubitt on the neighboring Elizabeth Street, the Ebury Pub, La Poule au Pot, Daylesford Organic. And they are all within walking distance of each other. 

If you fancy a terrasse lunch or dinner when the weather gets warmer, La Poule au Pot, offers a lovely southern exposure and a prime location on the square. You can enjoy a delicious bowl of onion soup while you marvel at the hundreds of passersby. It's a charming sight, you'll see.

Pick Your Park - Grab n' Go Lunches on the Green

Now that we Londoners have experienced the hottest day of the year, our hopes are way up. But that's okay. It is vital to start thinking positively about the weather to come and it is crucial to start preparing yourself for it as well. Because otherwise, you just fall into a dark hole that some people call depression. And by preparing yourself I mean, seeking out the outdoors - in everything that you do. I am a particular fan of the outdoor lunch concept. Yes I do like lazying around a "terrasse de cafe" for hours, drinking rose and nibbling on summer fruit and biscuits. But that's not what I am referring to. I am talking about the grab n' go park lunches. Just sit your bumm down on the lawn of a beautiful London square, enjoy the scenery, the greenery and everything that ends in -ery. It's magical. That is the London that I have come to adore and relish. I have a few spots in mind that I think make that lunch break quite enjoyable.

 The first one that pops to mind is Lincoln's Inn Fields off of Holborn. You can lounge around there for hours at a time on those lazy summer fridays, watching the people come and go, with clothes that tend to slowly disappear as the weather gets warmer (it's still a mystery to me how some people manage to get any work done in a place where girls wear practically nothing). 

Kastner & Ovens, Floral Street, Covent Garden

Just 5 minutes away, you'll be able to pick up a yummy spring salad at Kastner & Ovens or a quiche and greens at the Fleet River bakery.

The second one I can think of has got to be Cavendish Square, the only green spot near Oxford Circus that isn't Hyde Park. There, you'll be able to find bounds of interesting people watching and a lovely 360 degree view of the old Victorian buildings of Cavendish Square. You can very well picture 19th century wealthy Londoners sitting on those park benches and discussing high society matters with one another. 

Pho Thai Chicken Salad at Pho, Market Place, Soho

In terms of grub-to-go, my faves have got to be Pho, for the freshest and yummiest Thai chicken salad and Tortilla, for the perfect naked burrito (burrito sans wrap) ever!

The third, but not the least, is a park I visit less often due to it's northern-ish location, and that's Islington Green. A lovely place to enjoy the sight-seeing of Upper Street and Camden Passage passers-by. A little less green and a little more rugged, it offers more park benches and trees than the abovementioned squares.

Wild Rice Salad at Ottolenghi, Upper Street, Islington

It is, by my standards, a lovely place to stop and eat a wild rice salad from Ottolenghi.