One of my favourite breakfast dishes is the, at the moment (and for some time) quite trendy, ‘smashed avo’ sandwich.

In this weekend’s version I used fried chorizo “crumble” to add some fatty, spicy and meaty crunch to the dish.

What you need (for 2 persons)

1 fresh chorizo (remove the casings)

2 eggs

about 100 grams feta cheese

2 quite thick slices of good quality sourdough bread

1 avocado per person

Fresh Coriander/cilantro

Blackpepper

Salt

How to make it

Fry the de-cased chorizo in olive oil and use a wooden spoon to divide the sausage into small pieces like minced meat for the chorizo crumble. When it’s crisp, turn off the heat and set aside.

Use a griddle pan or an actual bbq to char the sourdough bread. It should have nice char marks but not be too crisp, so a minute or so per side depending on the heat should do the trick. Of course you could just toast the bread as well.

Poach the eggs by adding cracked eggs to just boiling water (with salt and vinegar in the cooking water). Let boil for a minute and a half, then pick them up with a slotted spoon or similar. Set aside while making the final preparations.

Take the pit out of the avocado and mash the flesh together with a little bit of salt. Put the mix on the grilled bread. Crumble feta cheese on top of the avocado and finally a poached egg. Top with the chorizo crumble, coriander and chives.

Serve with a cup of coffee, a bloody mary, or why not a glass of bubbly – it’s still weekend after all!

Had a very nice weekend, especially eating wise, last week. Thought I’d share some pics from it.

Slow cooked Sunday Bolognese, probably my all time favourite dish. Made extra tasty with spaghetti from Italian company Martelli (found at Urban Deli if you’re in Sweden).

I had a slice of Nutella and strawberry pizza when we visited Brazil in January and I’ve been wanting to try to make it ever since. Basically bake a pizza crust without anything on it, when done smear on Nutella, and then add strawberries, whipped cream and icing sugar when it has cooled. So good.

A homemade pizza with shrimps, bacon, feta cheese, buffalo mozzarella and chilli flakes. We actually had this one from Dominos while living in Australia. Great combo of flavours. Washed down with rosé.

Probably the best burger I’ve ever made. Fresh ground chuck roll, cheese, my favourite burger dressing, brioche buns (from Garant if in Sweden), pickles, tomatoes and onion rings. So fatty the grill went crazy but turned out to be incredibly juicy and delicious. Served with kimchi slaw (kimchi mixed with mayo), fries and smoky Brazin Zinfandel.

Related to my last post, I decided it was time to have a proper cacio e pepe the other day. 

Cacio e pepe is probably one of the easiest to make dishes while still really delicious. Since I am kind of lazy but still need delicious food, it’s a perfect dish for me.

You need

Spaghetti (preferably good quality)

Pecorino cheese

Black pepper

Salt

How to cook it

Grate pecorino cheese.

Cook spaghetti in salted water until slightly under cooked. Reserve a couple of table spoons of the cooking water before draining the pasta.

Put the pasta back in the cooking pan together with almost all of cheese, the cooking water and pepper. Stirr on low heat until cheese and water has mixed into a velvety sauce around the spaghetti. Season with (plenty of) black pepper and sprinkle the last pecorino cheese on top.

Done! Enjoy!

Got a revelation the other day to try to combine one of my favourite pasta dishes ‘cacio e pepe’ with a risotto. Turned out really well. Below is how to do this cheesy, peppery and smooth risotto cacio e pepe.

Ingredients

Arborio rice or other prefered “risotto rice”

One onion

Garlic

Chicken stock (or vegetable)

Butter

Pecorino cheese

Chives

Cooking the risotto

The recipe is really simple. You make a standard risotto by first frying finely chopped onion and garlic in butter. When cooked till soft (but now browned), add uncooked arborio rice and “toast” for a couple of minutes. Poor in a glass of wine and let it reduce for a bit. Then just add stock (I use chicken stock) in portions (like with the wine let reduce, then add some more) until the rice is done. It should have some bite still in my mind and the risotto should be relatively runny.

Flavouring

Add finely grated pecorino cheese (you could use parmesan but it won’t really be the same), a knob of butter and lots of black pepper to the risotto. Stirr and taste. If taste’s good you’re ready to serve.

I added a layer of grated pecorino at the bottom, then the risotto on top, and then some extra pecorino, black pepper and finely chopped chives on top of the risotto. Enjoy!

A good Swedish Midsummer is, in my mind, among the best things of the year. Usually it rains, and usually it’s a last minute option. But occassionally, there is this invite to one of your friend’s country houses for a proper traditional Swedish Midsummer bash with Midsummer’s pole, boozy herring lunch, childish games and partying till the sun goes back up at something like 3 a.m. This year was one of those rare pretty much perfect Swedish Midsummers. Pics below.

Midsummer party setting. No electricity, no heating and no running water. Lots of pretty little cabins, lots of beer, plenty of schnaps, sea access and a great sauna made up for any first world inconveniences though.

Pre-Midsummer dinner.

Picture perfect sauna.

Slightly crooked Midsummer’s pole which is what we circulate doing our pagan dances, such as the classic “tiny frogs”.

Traditional herring lunch with pickled herring, boiled new potatoes, Västerbottens cheese pie, egg halves, sour cream, chopped chives, salmon and crispbread.

Un-traditional but nevertheless delicious pavlova.

Sunset at 11 pm:ish.

Day two was spent on below jetty tanning/sweating out the Midsummer alcohol.

Sunset.

Got back from our trip to Monaco last week, and though I’d share what we had, and what you too could eat in Monaco.

Although we only visited for four days, we did a fair bit of eating.

Le Louis XV – Alain Ducasse à l’Hôtel de Paris

One of the “must dos” in Monaco if you are okay with spending €300-400 (minimum) on a dinner for two. I’ve wanted to go there for a long time, so we decided to splurge to, for the first time, visit a European three michelin starred restaurant.

Upon arriving, we were the first guests of the night, which was a little bit intimidating initially. Although staff were quite relaxed so we were too.

Prices are quite high as mentioned, but you do get quite a lot for your euros. We ordered five dishes in total – a shared starter (€45), two mains (approximately €100 each) and two desserts (€36 each). A bottle of red wine was €60 and a bottle of water €7. In addition to our five ordered dishes we received 9 various kinds of food items and dishes, each.

French fishes with Mediterranean herbs.

Stocafi, a Monegasque dish with salt-cured cod, fennel sausage, tomatoes and olives.

Milk-fed lamb, red leaves lettuce salad, tiny spelt and herb pesto.

Guinea fowl cooked in the fire place, green peas and morels.

Soft chocolate cake, cocoa/nib.

Coffee candy.

Rum baba, lightly whipped cream.

Apart from what is above we had two kinds of sorbet (green apple-rucola and yuzu), roasted almonds and homemade chocolates.

A fantastic experience both in terms of ambience, food and service.

Café de Paris

A Monaco classic, located just next to the casino and an exceptional place to people spot, watch the expensive cars (and their owners/renters). Because of this also sort of a tourist trap with steep prices, at least so I’ve heard. Fortunately it wasn’t all that bad and we had a really nice dinner at prices relatively close to a meal in for instance Stockholm.

Sirloin with fries and béarnaise sauce (that is much better than it looks) costed €31.

Steak tartare with fries, also €31.

Enjoyed with a bottle of wine and a shared dessert we paid slightly over €100 for two in probably the best location in one of the most expensive places in the world.

Amici Miei

Closer to our hotel, the Columbus we found Italian restaurant Amici Miei, meaning “my friend” as we learned from the friendly owner.

First up, delicious mussels.

Raviolis with truffle, porcini and ricotta in a creamy sauce. Really, really delicious.

Delicious grilled lamb with a few basic but well cooked condiments.

Again, prices were relatively high, although less so than Café de Paris. Two beers, a 50 cl bottle of local wine, a shared starter and two mains costed us around €100.

More food in Monaco

Honorable mentions goes to Le Comptoir at Place D’Armes were we had delicious sandwiches and coffee for breakfast. It is below the hill where the palace and the aquarium/Oceanographic Museum are located.

Mozzarella & ham sandwich at Le Comptoir.

Another recommendation is to visit Carrefour where you can buy snacks and drinks. They had bottles of Champagne (yes, actual) from €10.

Another quite nice place was Bilig Café which had decent food at decent prices. A crepe with lemon and sugar was €4 and a Salade Nicoise was €15.

Salade Nicoise and crepes at Bilig Café.

All in all, Monaco was a very nice destination for a four day getaway. The ultra luxury is mostly located around the casino, in the rest of the city/country you can find nice food and drink at relatively decent prices.

I have the somewhat odd but also quite fun hobby to try to visit all the countries in the world. Now it’s time for number 73, namely: Monaco!

Haven’t managed to get further than the Lufthansa Business Lounge in Frankfurt yet, but I’m working on it!

Looking forward to four days of nice views, lots of delicious food and possibly a glass of champagne or two.

Turned one year older last weekend, and chose, maybe not that surprisingly, to celebrate with a decent amount of food and drink. Below are a few pics from the birthday dinner.

Wine! The spectacularly tasty Charles “Champagne Charlie” Heidsieck, Juris (Austrian red) and a Brunello di Montalcino. Good stuff!

Steak tartare on grilled sourdough with dijon mayo, red onion, chives and capers.

Grilled lobster with chive butter. Oh so good. The smoke from the grill really worked well with the sweet lobster meat and the herb butter.

Grilled steak with marinated gem lettuce, fries, grilled vegetables and truffle mayonnaise.

Dessert: weed tarte tatin. No, not the weed some smoke, but weed as in stuff you pick from the side of the road. Well, actually my mother does that. And it resulted in this delicious weed tarte tatin.
The Sunday was my actual birthday, and it started nicely with nutella, cream and strawberry waffles for breakfast.

Moving on to Italian cold cuts in the sun.

And finally, my favourite dish in the entire world (sort of at least): Bolognese, served with garlic bread, Martelli spaghetti, parmesan cheese and red wine.

Recently visited South America for a three week trip which started on New Years Eve in the fantastic city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Except for fabulous beaches, friendly people and the world’s largest urban jungle there is plenty of good food to be found.

We arrived the legendary city early new years eve, and went right away to meet two friends for some jetlag-beating sunshine, beer and prawns on famous Copacabana Beach.

Grilled prawns with garlic and lime at one of the Copacabana beach restaurants.

Caipirinhas (lime, sugar and Cachaça – Brazilian sugarcane liquor similar to rum) enjoyed at a beachside bar on Ipanema Beach. 

Not surprisingly, many restaurants in the Copacabana and Ipanema areas were fully booked, and lazy as we were we hadn’t made any prior reservations. Fortunately we found Stambul (yes, without the “I”) in Ipanema. A Turkish restaurant that had one available table for four hungry Swedes. Not the most genuinely Brazilian first meal of the trip, but hey, the food was great and they even had a Capoeira performance on the street the restaurant was on.

After our Turkish dinner, we walked down to the beach were the famous fireworks were to be at midnight. A guy on the beach offered to rent us four beach chairs, and so we did. The guy then took us trough the crowd and set up our beach chairs smack bang at the water’s edge with amazing views over the fireworks paired with a couple of mean Caipirinhas. The party then lasted into the morning hours, and despite Rio’s reputation, we had no trouble at all running around along the beach till 5 a.m. On the other hand there was a massive security presence as well as lots of people out all night long.

Morning after visit to the Sugarloaf mountain and then a hearty delicious lunch at Galeto Sat’s with mixed meats, Brazilian specialty broccoli rice, fried, vinaigrette (sort of like pico de gallo), eggs farofa and a couple of local beers together with a (seemingly) bunch of happy hungover locals.

Another lunch was at Devassa in Ipanema. A nice Brazilian buffet with seafood rice, pastels (similar to empanadas), black bean stew, chicken and various salads.


One of the best meals of the entire South America trip was at Churrascaria Palace. A “churrascaria” is a restaurant serving grilled meat, usually offering as much as one can eat with waiters moving around the restaurant with the skewers, slicing meat onto the guest’s plate. Churrascaria Palace offered a really nice churrasco with an initial buffet of starters such as high quality cold cuts, fresh oysters, cheeses, nuts, salad and similar. After the starters the churrasco followed. We had tenderloin, fillet mignon, chorizo, lamb, chicken, chicken hearts, ribs, grilled cheese and more. Everything was really delicious and we basically rolled out after finishing. No desserts were tried.

The following day we went on a food tour that we found on TripAdvisor. The tour company is called Eat Rio and the idea is tours that get you to know Rio by “strolling along the streets, eating the food and rubbing shoulders with the locals”.
First stop was at Nova Capela in the Lapa area of Rio. We had actually visited Lapa the night before to check out the famous nightlife, and it was fun to be back during day time when it was much calmer (and you actually paid attention to the buildings and not just the party crowds). Anyway, at Nova Capela we had some delicious fruit juice that I of course forgot what it was, and “Bolitas de Bacalao” deep-fried cod croquettes that was really, really good. 

A stop at the fruit and vegetable market in Gloria neighbourhood.

Some amazing mango was had at the market.


Then we went on to “Tacaca do Norte“, an Amazonian restaurant, where we had Amazonian soup with salty prawns and jambú (a numbing Amazonian plant) in a slightly tart broth. The cool thing with the jambú was that it was mildly narcotic, numbing our lips and changing flavors. The result was that the accompanying Amazonian Cerpa beer tasted salty. Very cool. If you had “Kava” in the South Pacific, this was similar. We also tried a tasty crab dish as well as a proper Acai bowl.

The final stop on the tour was Severyna de Laranjeiras where we had a couple of (delicious) dishes as well as drinks. We tried delicious pastels (the Brazilian version of empanadas) which is deep-fried and filled with everything from prawns, to meat or cheese. The ones at Severyna was amazing, especially dipped in chilli sauce. We also had baked prawns, prawn stew, slow cooked meat, pumpkin, black beans and finally a splash of clarified butter to make everything extra delicious. A couple of fruits from the fruit market was also used to make passion fruit caipirinhas. A very delicious end to a great tour.

After food tour-visit to the favela Babilonia and the bar “Estrelas da Babilonia“. The visit featured an initial climb into the favela by motorbike taxis and then a walk following the stars on the ground showing the path to the bar. It was slightly tricky but we were rewarded with great views over Rio de Janeiro as well as cold beer. On the return trip down we walked.

Rio – what a great city
As most people, I have read about violence and crime in Rio, and in the beginning we were very careful with hiding our cellphones and leaving our camera at the hotel during night time. But we felt safe pretty much all of the time and had no trouble what so ever. Police and security presence were high in most areas we went to. Of course though, you need to be aware of your surroundings and you should not flash expensive phones etc since there is definitely crime happening although we weren’t affected. But we really enjoyed our visit to Rio de Janeiro with its friendly inhabitants, great scenery and fantastic food.

After our recent visit to Manila and Boracay, we ended the trip with a visit to one of my favorite cities in the world: Singapore.

We flew sort of direct (a short stop in Cebu, then back onboard the same plane) from Boracay with Singapore Airline’s “low cost” affilliate Silkair, which proved to be very nice. They had a wireless onboard entertainment system that you could use on your own device (no wifi though), tasty food and complimentary drinks.

I’ve visited Singapore once before, and by then I had the idea that I think many have of a futuristic little city country with harsh laws, extreme cleanliness and a general feeling of surveillance. I did not get that feeling at all when visiting fortunately, and neither did I this time. They have harsh punishments for certain crimes, true. But as a foodie destination I really love it. It’s clean – yes, but more in a no-rats-and-no-trash-in-the-water kind of way than in a scary way. Anyway, we began our trip by using the limo company Blacklane for the first time. They are sort of like Uber, but you can pre-book them which is handy. A friendly guy named Herman picked us up in a spectacular Mercedes and we were driven to our hotel Sofitel So Singapore for not much more than a taxi. We used a discount code though, but they are easy to find by a quick google search. In our fancy ride from the airport, driver Herman told us about our hotel being very close to Lau Pa Sat, a large outdoor (and indoor) food market in the middle of the Singapore CBD. Anyway, below is the best we had.

Blacklane pick-up from Changi Airport. Complimentary food advise was given.

Bak Kut The aka “meat bone tea”. A tasty, spicy broth with pork ribs and condiments. Had at Ng Ah Sio in Marina Bay Sands mall’s food court.

Chicken and prawn satay (grilled skewers) with peanut sauce, cucumber, raw onion and a pitcher of Tiger Beer. So good.

Grilled beef satay.

Built in the 19th century, Lau Pa Sat or Telok Ayer Market has for a long time provided food to hungry visitors. These days, they close the street in the evenings when the satay stalls lit up their barbecues where they produce some of the best skewers I’ve ever had. The atmosphere, prices and food was actually so good that we spent four out of six nights at Lau Pa Sat. Either for food, or just for a beer on our way back to the hotel.



One of Singapore’s most famous dishes: The Chilli Crab. A giant steamed crab that is then stir-fried in a spicy and sweet chilli sauce and served with “mantou” deep-fried buns that you use to soak up the sauce. Chilli crab is a messy but fantastic experience of sweet crab meat, spicy sauce and crunchy fluffy mantou buns. Don’t forget to buy napkins from the vendors.

Really delicious Korean fried chicken at “4 Fingers Crispy Chicken”. The kimchi coleslaw was spectacular in its obvious tastiness.

Fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold again, fold, fold, fold AND fold. DTF’s dumplings are folded at least 18 times. And they are crazy delicious.

Dan Dan noodles (spicy sesame and peanut) 
Chilli and cucumber salad.

Sautéed water spinach.

Taiwanese pork chop with egg fried rice.

Xiao long bao.

Din Tai Fung is an old favorite of mine since my student days in Sydney where first got our addiction. Din Tai Fung is a Taiwanese chain of restaurants that these days is operating in both Asia, Australia and the US. They just opened shop in Dubai, so they’re at least moving towards Europe. A few of their outlets (at least in Hong Kong) has been awarded Michelin stars, and that is despite not being particularly fancy or expensive.

Din Tai Fung’s most famous dish is the xiao long bao aka the soup dumpling. XLBs are basically dough that is folded at least 18 times and wrapped around meat and jellied meat broth, that melts when the dumplings are steamed. That means that when you bite into the dumpling you will experience light dough, meat, and soupy broth at the same time. You will also get the sensation of dipping them into the DIY dipping sauce of hot chilli paste, soy, ginger and black vinegar. It is ridiculously tasty and I try to visit Din Tai Fung each time I’m at a place who has one.

We ate at Din Tai Fung Marina Bay Sands and it was delicious, of course. Except for the XLB, Din Tai Fung also have a few other dishes that’s really delicious. Our standard order is above water spinach, chilli-cucumber salad, spicy dan dan noodles, and Taiwanese pork chop with egg fried rice. Washed down with a Taiwanese beer it is definitely one of my all time favorite meals.

Light show every night (free) at Marina Bay Sands. Bonus views of the pretty CBD skyline all night long.

There’s actually decent beaches in Singapore. This one on Sentosa Island.

Above is Hainanese chicken rice from vendors “Tian Tian chicken Rice” and “Ah Tai” in Maxwell Food Centre. When I last visited Singapore there was a chicken rice war between the two, since Ah Tai used to work for Tian Tian but then got fired/resigned and started his own shop in the same hawker centre. Last time I thought the rebel chicken rice stall Ah Tai had the better version, this time I’d say that Tian Tian had reclaimed the Hainanese chicken rice victory.

Lunch at Lagnaa in Little India. Tasty butter chicken, palak paneer, jeera rice and naan.


One of the last dinners of the trip was at Equinox restaurant. Equinox is located in the Swissotel Stamford building, located on the 70th floor. The food is not fantastic, but still very tasty, and the view is really to die for. Above is a rib-eye steak with marrow bone, black truffle butter and black truffle mac n’ cheese (that was amazing). Prices are quite high, but are kind of worth it since food is good and view’s as mentioned fantastic. If you’re after view but do not want to pay 100 SGD for a steak, you can do like we did last time and visit the adjacent New Asia Bar for a drink instead.

Delicious Godiva Soft Serve ice cream at Godiva, Suntec City Mall.

Our last dinner in Singapore was at Yayoiken Japanese restaurant. The place is very high tech and you order and pay for all food and drinks through a table-side tablet. We had tonkatsu, tempura prawns and gyoza which all were really delicious. Prices were really good too.

A visit to the “Arab Quarter” where we visited the beautiful Masjid Sultan Mosque and had a tasty falafel at House of Kebab.


Then it was time to fly home. The flight from Singapore to Bangkok offered this sunset as well as Charles Heidsieck champagne and lobster thermidor onboard Singapore Airlines.