Celebrating birthdays!

February is a birthday month in almost every Wallergård's home. That is because (due to a special coincidence? ;D) 3 over 4 of the Wallergàrd's clan children (that are not that children anymore...) are born within one week.

This has always been an occasion to celebrate them all together with some dinner tradition and after breaking the chinese (almost new year) tradition, we have this year tried a new place: http://www.halltorpsgastgiveri.se/

The place seems to have quite a good name, and it is understandable why.
It is big, it has a nice view, you can organize whatever event there (they even put the beloved Swedish flag on the table, if you wish so) and they serve quite nice food. And finally, they have tablecloth on the tables!!

It is a pity that they have a fixed menu, or at least, they had it when we were there, but of course, it would have been nice to pick a look at a more a la carte menu.
The menu was Italian inspired and, with a quite odd (?) coincidence the waiter/sommelier was Italian (from Busto Arsizio!), hence he entertained mostly me and Mattias with jokes and comments, while explaining the menu.

The appetizer was some chicken-lever pate' served on a crostino, and even Mattias who is not fond of this at all, ate it with taste. For me it was perfect in order to raise the amount of iron in my blood ;)
The first dish was a minestrone with an omelette. Odd the combination with the frittatina, but it was nice since it had a ricotta background taste. The minestrone had the "home made" feeling, although I am in love with the frozen minestrone you can buy in Italy ;)

The main dish (or actually the second one) was some veal-roll filled with mozzarella and served with "sicilian vegetables" (artichokes and I don't remember what) and some sort of arancino, not arancino. but similar to arancino (that unfortunately had some mushroom background taste). The meat was good, but a little bit dry, the sauce of course helped a lot.

Finally, for dessert an heart-shaped cookie (sold as "biscotto della nonna"), a strawberry ice cream and a small little cake with vanilla cream and berries.

The best? I can't decide between the ice cream and the crostino. Personally, the thing I liked the least was the veal, but it is also true I am not a big meat fan and I am extraordinary picky on meat quality. However, it was a surprisingly good result for being a French chef and who knows if this will become a new tradition or we will create a new one to try out some other food and see if the quality will be consistent ;-)