M.E.A.T. by "night"

Few posts back, I talked about the (then it was new) restaurant M.E.A.T., which is located in Lund.
For Valentine day, we managed to go there for dinner. So, the experience is worthy to be mentioned, although, unfortunately, I left the camera home ;-/

The staff was very nice the whole evening, and this was a nice treatment for us, considering that we were having Isabella around (and hence, we probably destroyed the dinner for a couple of customers more).

Mattias went for the evening menu of that day, while I picked up a couple of dishes from the standard one. In reality, Mattias' selection was from the standard menu as well, but at a lower price.
We both took the crabcakes for pre-dish. They were nicely done, tasty and not too heavy.
While I took the Beef Ribs as main dish, Mattias ate the filet. My rib dish was quite good, the meat was tasty and coming easily out of the bone. However, it was literally drown in the caramelized onion it was served with. It was a nice component of the dish, but covered too much the taste of the meat and was too heavy. The french fries were great and the salad was nice, but hard to eat (I have very hard issues eating crass since it is not chomped into small pieces and I feel like a cow when ruminating it :-)
Mattias' dish was nice and what I tasted was good. There were mushrooms so I did right in avoiding the dish.
Both dishes were cutely served on a plate of wood and the french fries in a small glass. Quite scenic, but a bit unpractical when the table is not exactly big and you have to avoid that your daughter take some cutlery and throw it around in the restaurant :)
We completed the dinner splitting a very nice apple pie, which almost had the "grandma'" feeling in it (I was though more in cheesecake mode that day, pity it was an apple pie day ;D).

This time we were not left hungry and I can say that the quality of the food was very good. I was a bit disappointed at my dish, being too rich in flavour for my tastes, but I like the atmosphere of the place and the menu choice. We will surely go back there and try some other nice dish!

Red rice with gorgonzola

This kind of rice has come recently on the supermarket shelves and I have decided to try it, although I had no idea how to cook it.
The first time we tried it it took almost an hour to get a decent consistency and we were still far from the ideal one.
Then, I investigated the matter by searching on the internet and found that the pressure cooker would have saved our life, and it turned out to be true.

Ingredients:
200 gr of red rice
1 leek
an handful of pine nuts
a piece of gorgonzola
4 anchoves
1/2 liter of broth
two spoons of olive oil
1/2 glass of white wine

Light fry the leek and the anchoves in the olive oil, directly in the pressure cooker. When it is golden, add the rice, let it roast and then add the wine.
At this point, add the whole broth. Close the pressure cooker and let it cook for about 20-25 minutes.
In the meanwhile, toast the pine nuts in a pan.
Once the rice is ready (and if it has too much broth after the pressure cooker is opened, it is enough to let it shrink a little bit), I remove it from the heat, I add the gorgonzola and let it whisk.
Before serving add some raw leek and the pine nuts.

Serve it with parmesan, if you like and enjoy! The red rice has a different taste than the normal one, but we enjoyed it very much.

A bit of Lund history: Hardebergaspåret/The track of Hardeberga

Few weeks ago, when it was snowing at its best (or better afterwards), we went out for a walk.
Walking (or taking the bike) here is always very comfortable since there are good paths for such purpose and in particular, we are lucky to live nearby a big track that crosses east Lund and continue towards Södra Sandby, when it ends, today.
Such track is called "Harderbergaspåret".

Our winter walk on Hardebergaspåret

The history behind this track can be found on Wikipedia, but unfortunately it is available just in Swedish.
Not everyone living in Lund knows that until 1966, a railway track was there, instead of the bycicle path. That was the rests of the line Bjärred - Lund -Revinge- Harlösa, that was active in the beginning of the 19th century (however, still kept in used until 1966 for transporation of stones and beats.

In the new neighbourhood, called Harlösabanan

At that time there were more stations in Lund. Lund Södra still exists but it is used for other purposes and it is still located on the track.

Lund Södra

  Lund Östra was located where we are living today, therefore, nearby Villa Sunna and St. Jörgens Park, but it was demolished 1949.

Nearby Lund Östra

The track was passing "behind" Stadsparken for then continuing north towards Bjärred, with an additional stop called Högevall. Högevall is part of the rests of the medieval wall in Lund, which is crossing the park.

If one is more curious about details of this undocumented piece of history (it would be nice to just see some sign about it there and then on the track) I think the best link to explore is this one.

Tom Sawyer, by Shin Takahashi

Tomu Sōya by Shin Takahashi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I enjoyed very much reading this manga, although I am not familiar with Tom Sawyer, on which the story is based upon.

What I liked the most were, a parte from fresh and beautiful drawings, the characters, especially Haru, the protagonist.

The plot is just catching the reader and the happy ending is the cherry on the pie.



View all my reviews

Evighetsträd (eternity tree)

The other day, I was walking nearby when my attention got taken by a little plate on a tree.
I looked closer and I saw that there was written "Evighetsträd". I was puzzled.

Evighetsträd #9

Evighetsträd #498

I did a small search about this and I found an interesting link:Naturskyddsföreningen i Skåne. Here there is written what is this concept: basically, from what I have understood, this organization tried to preserve middle-aged or old trees that can be found around Skåne.

However, from the sign this seems to be an initiative of Lunds Kommun. They have decided to mark those trees that are supposed to live as long as they can, and once dead, the tree is left as habitat for other organisms (mushrooms, insects, etc.).

A terrible picture of the tree.

The tree in all its height

The tree is one of the 500 trees that have been selected and marked during the 2002-2004 timeframe.

It seems then clear that the two organizations are not connected to each other, although the concept is very similar and probably one is inspired by the other one. 

In all the years that I ahve been living in Sweden this is the first time I met one! I wonder if we will ever seen all the others (there is a map in the link above, but one has to guess where the trees really are, anyway...)

Sailor Moon Stars

Sailor Moon Stars, Vol. 3 by Naako Takeuchi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was a well deserve end to the "saga" of Sailor Moon, in particular the story called Sailor Moon Stars.

I appreciated very much the drawings: the characters are depicted very beautifully and their emotions are clear through every picture. Every scene melts together very nicely with each other and my main perception was that the story was permeated with sweetness and cuteness.

However, specifically speaking of Sailor Moon Stars, it is not a "mature" story, although the moral and the message the is transmitted is very beautiful and positive, but it is clear that the target of this manga is teenagers.

Especially the first two numbers were not representing anything specifically new, also within the Sailor Moon story itself.

Anyway, I will still keep be a fan of Sailor Moon and I believe it is a great comic that girls should definitely read!



View all my reviews

Green Matmarknad

Yesterday we managed to visit a place that has raised our curiosity: Green Matmarknad.
This is a recently opened supermarket in the fancy/posh area of Västra Hamnen in Malmö. It was promoted/discussed/advertised in the newspapers recently for its "green" profile and it caught our eyes.
The shop is quite beautiful and has a lot to offer, most conventional ingredients, but also quite peculiar ones. The ecological imprint is visible in the majority of the products and it is nice to see some new brand on the shelves.
One is welcomed by the flower section, which gives a very nice first impression (and the nice smell makes the customer happy to walk in the shop).  We can switch smoothly then to the grocery part of the supermarket where the vegetables look nice, fresh and are mostly ecological, of course.
On the left, one can see a big area reserved to freshly grinded coffee and a small stand for what it seems can be cooking event. On the right, instead, there is a long counter with unimpressive fish, cold cuts (among which finally one could see prosciutto cotto - cooked ham, porchetta and a very old capocollo) and meat hanged in a pitoresque way.
Continuing in the shop, it is possible to observe a small section for kids/babies products, where one can find alternative brands for diapers, as well as a complete selection of food (unfortunately for me, mostly scandinavian style) for the babies. I wish some more international products would be available there (for example, italiana pasta for babies)!
I was happy to see that there was a detergents refill-station (as it is nowadays popular in Italy, too) of a brand called Attitude, which seems very interesting (maybe to try?).

We walked for quite a while in the shop, wondering if there was something we wanted to buy or not. We ended up buying a new soft drink made in Sweden which we tried today and found very tasty and refreshing: Xubi. However, if one checks carefully, this is not exactly an ecological product (watermelon from Africa!??!??), even though it doesn't contain conservants and sugar and other not so nice ingredients.

We were a bit puzzled by the cash counters (it is all self-service) and some products could not be scanned. However (possibly, also because the place is quite new) we got assisted by a couple of shop assistants, which I assume are not going to be available for a long time: for going out of the shop you need to scan the receipt of the payment.

So, in summary: the place is inviting and it has a nice selection of products, mostly ecological, but not necessarily such.
I am wondering how long such a place will last, though, considering:

•  the competition with the more traditional (and huge) supermarket not so far away from that location,
• its position which doesn't make it super accessible except if one is going to Västra Hamnen or surroundings on purpose,
• the prices, which are not that different from "normal" supermarkets which today offer a quite wide range of ecological products as well.