Have you noticed there is a sodokumania hunting our countries? Are you one of the biten? I first noticed Sodokus when visiting the UK this summer. As Tobia pointed it out to me in a newspaper I tried it and I was instantly hooked. Not to mention the exotic name, what does it mean, anyone …? I then realised I must be a bit slow because Sodokus were not only to be found in news papers but there where books full of them on best selling shelves in large bookstores.
Back in Sweden again I noticed Sodokus everywhere. Sodoku magazines, Sodokus in newspapers. Last week my work-mate confessed to being obsessed by Sodokus! ‘I can´t read the morning newspaper any longer without doing the Sodoku’ she complained. And the other day when I found a newspaper in the train I realised she is probably not the only sufferer. My fellow traveller had been nice enough to leave the complete newspaper behind, except one page that was ripped out; you can probably guess what page. Where will this sodokumania lead us and does it bring any good? Maybe a nation of super logical thinkers, so go for it let loose the little sodokumaniac in you!
To night I had a really nice dinner. In the entrie "Sweet remembrances from Brighton" I said I wished there where stores as Taj in Uppsala/Stockholm, well I still do. But we do have some nice stores here as well like “Sivia matcenter” (i.e. Sivia food center) just 10 minutes from where I live. Sivia food center looks so boring from the outside, you would never even consider to go in if you did not know it beforehand. However if you do go inside you are likely to find that it sell a lot of interesting and exotic food products. The products are mainly from India, Iraq, Iran and that region. I sometimes go there on weekends to find some new and tasty food. To day I also found out that they sell, yes believe it or not, Branston pickle in several varieties! I believe I have seen Branston pickle in one or two other shops in Sweden but I have never seen it in so many varieties, I was really happy. I had a Squeezy mustard pickle, mmmm. To my mustard pickle I had pitas from Lebanon, Danish Halal chilli poultry sausages and a nice salad with chilli from my own garden (well at least my own balcony). To drink I had an Innis and Gunn oak aged beer, an Edinburgh ale that was really nice. So what I meant to say was that Sivia food center might not be comparable with Taj in Brighton but they are aiming in the right direction. What I miss in Sivia matcenter is the nice fruits and vegetables they sell in Taj and an ecologic aspect.
My advice to you, folks: never underestimate the experience needed for making jam, or the time. What happened was that I found an abandoned blackcurrant bush not far from our house and, as wild berries in Uppsala is so much rarer than wild blackberries is in Brighton (which grow almost everywhere), I was very happy. I wanted to do something with my blackcurrants and decided on jam, which I have done before but always in the same experimental way.
Everything went fine. The whole kitchen smelled from warm berries, until a more unpleasant smell became evident, burnt rubber. To save time I had put both glass jars, and the rubber rings to go with them, on 300 degrees Celsius in the oven to sterilize them (normally you sterilize them in boiling water, I thought I was smart). I managed to get the rubber rings out from the oven and opened all the windows to let the smell out. Luckily I had not burnt the jam in the meantime. Next I got the, by now very hot, glass jars out of the oven. They were ready to be filled, I thought. However when putting the glass down on the wet sink they both, slowly and painfully started to crack before my eyes until the hole glass was painted with cracks. Those where the only two glass jars I had at home, what now? In the end I had to take an empty tea container, which I sterilized in water this time, and finally managed to put the finished jam in. And… well in the end I hope some summer blackcurrant jam in the cold winter days will be worth the effort.
This morning I had a cup of red honey vanilla tea and a speciality mango for breakfast. With the sweet mango juices dripping down my fingers I wondered how the Swedes can manage without such heavenly fruit. This mango I bought yesterday at Waitrose on Western road. We do have mangos in Sweden, but they are so different from the ones you can find in the stores in Brighton you can hardly believe it is the same fruit, hard, and flavourless. I wish someone would open a store like Taj or Infinitifood in Uppsala I would be a regular, no doubt.