Scandinavian Kitchen

J-day at Scandi Kitchen

Yesterday was a very special day at Scandi Kitchen.  It was J-Day. 

Now, ask anyone Danish and they'll tell you what j-day is - it's the day when the Tuborg Christmas Beer is released into the wild that is the Danish public.

Yesterday was our J-day as we had our massive Christmas Beer delivery come in from the Daneland.

The boys were all very, very happy.

We predict these babies will go extremely quickly (and we will not get anymore), so don't be shy:  pick up now or at least order/reserve.  £1.95 each or 6 for £11 and a case for £41.95

New Scandinavian Potatoes - coming in June

We bet your Mum always told you to eat up your potatoes when you were a kid.   Ours certainly did – not that we minded, especially in the summer when the potatoes were new, fresh and from the farm down the road. 

Today, the taste of Scandinavian summer still starts with the first new potatoes of the year, boiled and dressed in melted butter and chopped parsley.   Perhaps the taste of summer to you is Midsummer’s eve, eating matjes herring with potatoes, chopped chives and crème fraiche...  Either way, it is the taste of home for most of us.  And yes, they DO taste different than English potatoes.

Either way, good news:  we’ll be stocking Scandinavian potatoes again this year.  Not in great amounts, mind you, so if you’re clever, you let us know if you are interested so we can make sure we order enough for you.  We’ll have Swedish potatoes and we’ll also stock some nice potatoes from West Zealand in Denmark (from some nice farmer down the road from Bronte’s mum and dad’s house.  They have an annoying dog that barks all the time and the farmer himself has a scary mono-brow, but man, they grow nice tatties).

They’ll come in early June, in time for Midsummer parties...  Prices depends on local seasonal prices, we’ll keep you posted.

Scandinavian Kitchen catering

Did you know we also do catering?  Indeed, we serve lots of fantastic companies across the capital with Scandinavian food - from traditional open sandwiches to lighter snack lunches to canapes and breakfast meetings. 

It is not only Scandinavian companies that use our services - we've catered for hundreds of different companies, from the BBC to film production companies and banks such as Goldman Sachs - and big events like "the International Wine Challenge".  We count all the Scandinavian Embassies and Chambers of Commerce amongst our customers - as well as big companies such as Bang & Olufson, Kvadrat, Handelsbanken and many, many others.  On top of that we have lots of regular private customers who use our services catering for big family events and parties.

In a recent survey to our customers, 100% said they would use us again.  (Parp, parp, that was our trumpet blowing.)

If you fancy chatting to us about our catering, give us a ring or send a mail to iwantfood@scandikitchen.co.uk and we'll get back to you promptly. 

Party catering can be bespoke - as is breakfast meetings and buffets.  Here's a taster of our lovely open sandwiches and canapes (again, we can amend to suit your particular event):

For canape suggestions click here  and for open sandwiches click here

'I used the Scandinavian kitchen delivery for an important presentation to clients and everyone absolutely loved it! The food was great quality and the presentation prefect! We are a Danish company so it was complete package! Thanks again, Julie at www.egecarpet.com"Excellent canapes. Good service from staff prior to event and canapes delivered on time.

"Excellent canapes. Good service from staff prior to event and canapes delivered on time."

"The food was excellent and there was only a couple of pieces leftover.  Everyone said how good it was.  We will definitely use you again. 
Sally at DnB NOR Bank ASA"

 
tags: danish, food, catering, swedish, norwegian, london, corporate

New stuff just in...

The Christmas deliveries are starting to come in... Some of the new stuff added this week includes:

• Gløgg spices

• Vortmix

• æbleskiver

• Brunkager

• Pebernødder

• Klejner

• Swedish Chrsitmas beer and Swedish Chrsitmas aquavit

•  

Den Danske Klub i London / The Danish Club in London

Did you know that there is a Danish Club in London?  Indeed - and it's been there since 1863 and is the oldest Danish club outside Denmark. 

Located in the prestigious Arts Club in Dover Street, the club organises events for Danes and Friends of Denmark throughout the year and provides a great meeting place in the centre of London for both grabbing a bite to eat (they have monthly Danish Buffets and serve daily smoerrebrod's platter too).

This autumn they have their annual Danish Club Fair - it's this Tuesday 18th November and it is open to both members and non members.  You can buy stuff from Denmark including Danish food and hampers - in fact, we have a little stand there so if you fancy stocking up on kjejner and curry herring before Christmas, then it is a great opportunity to come along and see what the club can offer you - and maybe even end up becoming a member yourself.

When:  Tuesday 18th November from 14:00-16:00 and from 18:00-20:00 in the Garden Room.

See you there.

More about the club here http://www.danishclub.co.uk/

Scandinavian Christmas Fairs in London

Every year there are several organisations that hold Christmas fairs for both the Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish communities in London.  These are really great events for all the ex-pats living in the UK and for a non-Scandi to attend it's a real cultural introduction.

Here's the low-down of this year's fairs and when they are taking place (this list will be updated as we find out more)

Finnish Church Christmas Fair            21-23 Nov and 26-29 click here

Danish YMCA &Church Christmas Fair  29-30 November click here

Swedish Church Christmas Fair           20, 22, 23 November click here

Norwegian Church Christmas Fair        21-22 November click here

These events tend to get rather busy but are really good fun and is a great way to not only met Scandinavians but also to support the community organisations that work so very hard all year round making sure people who come to the UK are not left alone and provide excellent fascilities ofr mother's groups, au pairs, elderly people and so on.  Do pop over and have a look and pick up some goodies.

Other Fairs to note:  This year the Danish Club in Dover Street will be holding a fair on the 18th of November - this is a fantastic opportunity to pop down to the club and meet old friends or indeed if you've never been, this is an open event and you can pop over and just have a nosy round to see if being a member is something you feel like doing. 

At this fair you will be able to buy lots of Danish food and goodies - from herring to remoulade to sweets - there'll even be hampers full of Danish food click here to be Danish - we'll be there and you can order stuff for Christmas or buy on the day.

There's also a fantastic Swedish Christmas fair in Barnes this year on 22nd November click here - we'll be exhibiting there and you can buy all the stuff you need or Christmas (if we run out, you can place orders).

Danish food mail order company closes in the UK

Hello all you Danes

We've ben asked to let you know that the popular Danfood / Danfoods, that provided many ex-pat Danes outside London with mail order food for years, closed down several months ago - but that many people are searching the net in vain to find info as there seems to be nothing published about it.  We realise, of course, that many Danes live in other parts of Britain and it is going to be hard for them to get hold of Christmas foods this year. 

While our mail order servive is not yet fully up and running it IS on the way and almost there - and if you have requirements in that directions, mail us and we'll see if we can help you out.

Og saa blir' det jul alligevel...

info@scandikitchen.co.uk

Bye for now

The Kitchen People

Postcard from Heather and Jo #1

Jazz band in Malmo

Hello from Sweden, SK regular Heather and her friend Jo here, on holiday in Sweden via Copenhagen, sending you a few postcards over the coming week (sadly no photo today as can't attach camera to PC).

On arrival at Copenhagen airport, I found it rather funny to see a little sardine tin like pod full of smokers squashed in, smoking that cigarette they have not had for a few hours. You could barely see them for all the smoke!! The joys of the smoking ban, maybe these will start popping up at London airports too!!

We wondered through the large shopping street without spending a single ore, past shops with names we found funny such as a shoe shop called 'Dope' and a ladies clothes shop called 'Kinky Bitch', who know's what those shoes were made from or who the clothes were for, but we didn't hang around to find out. We would like to come back to Denmark and don't want a Danish criminal record! I'll leave the criminal record to my borther who is at Climate Camp in the UK!

Our boat tour of Copenhagen's canals in the glorious sunshine would have left us very sunburnt had we not found some free suncream at a basketball event by the town hall. That however may have covered up our blushes at seeing the Little Mermaid's behind!! An ice cream later and we were off to Malmö.

Described by some as being the Copacabana of Sweden we were looking forward to sunning ourselves on Malmö's long strech of beach. Frankly if that is what the Copacabana looks like, we don't want to go!! Admittedly the pouring rain and driving wind did not help!

A lovely outdoor performance by a jazz saxophonist did end our visit in a memorable way and as we leave we have seen a poster on the back of a bus saying "Live in the Grand Canyon of Malmö"! Clearly the city is not satisfied with having the tallest building in Sweden and has designs on being much grander. I love it! I look forward to the "Las Vegas of Malmö", the "Big Ben of Malmö" and the "Ayres Rock of Malmö"!

Off to Göteborg........

What do the Scandinavians miss from home? (apart from the weather...)

We are often asked by our local London customers what our best selling Scandinavian products are. Well, we did a bit of looking in people's shopping baskets over the past week or so and here are the result:

• Danish food:  Remoulade (a curried mayo based piccalli dressing, goes with beef, fish or chips), Koldskaal (buttermilk soup) and Stryhns liverpate (a coarse porc pate, great on rye bread)
• Swedish food:  Kalles kaviar (creamed cod roe, you put it on egg sandwiches), filmjolk (soured milk, eaten every morning) and ahlgren's bilar (marshmallow sweets)
• Norwegian food: Staburet Makerell (mackerel in tomato sauce), leverpastej (liverpate) and bamsemums (chocolate covered marshmallow bears)
• Finnish food:  Reissumies (special Fazer rye bread rolls with an obscene amount of fibre in them) and any salmiakki liqourice, the stronger the better.

Lovely innocent smoothies

Bronte went to Fruit Towers (as innocent's head quarters are called) today - she's worked at innocent for many years but now she is finally full-time Scandi Kitchen.

To celebrate, the Cheese CLub at innocent had a Scandinavian day today - and we brought along several interesting cheeses that we also stock at our little shop:

Sweden:  Vasterbotten, a 12-14 month ages hard cheese not unlike parmesan in texture but so seriously tasty on crispbread it is hard not to eat the whole packet.

Norway: Brunost - brown cheese, literally.   Whey, cream and milk is boiled until the sugar in the milk turns almost into caramel and this gives the cheese it's distinct colour and sweet flavour.

Denmark:  Gamle Ole - stinky, stinky cheese.  Strong.  Lovely. Great finish.  Blaa Kornblomst: Blue cornflower, a lovely creamy blue cheese with a great finish.  Not too strong, but still with a good bite (Organic from a small Danish dairy).  Last but not least:  Esrom cheese.  Some claim it is the king of Danish cheeses; strong, and as our Tobias desribes it: "with a nice flavour of cow shed at the end".  Yummy.

It's tradition at innocent drinks' Cheese Club to vote for the favourite at the end of a long tasting session and Gamle Ole was a clear winner. 

Fruit towers, where Bronte used to work and where people love smoothies and cheese.  A lot.

We're in a Japanese magazine... But we can't read it.

There's a lovely Japanese publication called Lovely London and we're featured in it.  It looks really fab and they've taken some really nice photos.  We're wondering what it says?  Maybe "Henrik Rock Star is simply the most gorgeous at SK" or "Louise is an angel and she makes the best coffee around".  Or maybe it simply says "the best place in London open sandw iches" but we think there are a lot of letters if it says just that.

Midsummer in London 2008

Phew, lots of stuff happening.  Whether you're looking for a Danish Skt Hans event or a Svensk Midsommar / Swedish Midsummer, you're in luck.

Here's the lowdown:

• Swedish Midsummer Party - the main one is in Hyde Park, organised by Swedish Chamber of Commerce.  Bring your own food and drink and dance around the Midsummer pole, pretending to be a little frog. Entry Free
• Dansk Skt Hans, KFUK are organising it and will be lighting a bonfire and selling hotdogs.  Entry £6
• The Finnish Church in London is having a Midsummer BBQ in the Church Garden
• Scandinavian Party is having a Scandi Midsummer event - entry only by ticket in advance (£5-10) - click on their site for details on how to buy.

Other links to our pages about midsummer here, here and here

If you don't fancy any of those events, make your own party at home - we stock everything from farskpotatis - new Swedish potatoes - to gradfill and prinskorv and salmon - and of course, Kims and Estrella chips and dipmix.

Whatever you decide to do - we all hope you have a great time this midsummer.  We'll certainly be celebrating the long evenings Scandinavian style.

Scandinavian new potatoes

Midsummer is hugely important to many Scandinavians.  It signals the beginning of summer - and with the beginning of summer comes new potatoes.  Well, we know you can buy them at Tescos, but honestly, they just don't taste the same.  Nope, you can't convince us.  They don't.

So, we're getting in a very limited amount of Swedish new potatoes (and for you Danes, yes, they taste very much the same as Danish ones) - so, your midsummer celebrations are saved.  All you need now is some butter and some dill and you're in business.

The babies arrive on Tuesday afternoon.  You can reserve yours by giving us a bell on 0207 580 7161.

People say nice stuff about us...

Lately, we've been really busy with our office catering.  Tobias (Superhero a la Danoise) is rushing around the kitchen making our special TLC smørrebrød, which stands for "Tender Loving Care" open sandwiches - they are called this because when we prepare food for your business meeting, we take extra care to make sure the open sandwiches look the part - whether you are looking for authentic Danish smørrebrød or a selection of mixed Scandinavian sandwiches to impress your clients with.  You can peek at our fancy pancy menu here.  Sometimes, Tobias sings to the sandwiches just to make sure they stay happy and lovely.   Recent happy customers include the Danish Embassy in London, Sandi Toksvig (very funny BBC lady), Innovation Norway, Swedish Chamber of Commerce, Arup - to name but a few only out of a long list.

We've also been doing a lot of our new-style Scandinavian canapes lately - not a sausage or spring roll in sight, we promise.  Our canapes are easy to eat standing up, making the ideal for when one has to balance a glass of champagne as well as stuffing food in one's gob all at the same time as being introduced to a potential new customer.  We've helped out places such as the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Swedish Church, Flawless online, BoConcept, Aram furniture store and the BBC.  The menu for the Scandinavian canapes is here

Here's some stuff people have said about us lately:

"Scandinavian Kitchen delivers all you'd expect if you're looking for the very best in authentic scandinavian cuisine, prepared with style, enthusiasm and great care with exceptional attention to detail - thank you! Philip Johnson, Danish Embassy, London"

"Thank you very much for the delightful lunch you sent us. The collection of smørbrød both looked and tasted wonderful.  We were also very pleased with the friendly and efficient manner in which our order was handled."  Berit Scott, Royal Norwegian Embassy.

Rat-tat-tat - that was our trumpet blowing a bit.      

Eating your way around the world

We had some really lovely visitors on Saturday - a group of foodies are eating their way around the whole of the alphabet. We were lucky to be the D (for Denmark).  So far, they've eaten Argentina, Bangladesh and Czech.  Next up is Ethiopian.  We're wondering what they'll do on Q?  Any suggestions, let us know.  What a great idea, though.

Strong, salty and sweet licourice

Strong Scandinavian licourice.  Lakrids. Yummy.  It's the thing that most of us really miss from home.  Since we opened last year, we've even converted a few locals onto the taste of Turkish pepper sweets and anything with salmiakki flavour.  Salmiakki is a nice Finnish word for saying "ammonium chloride" (NH4Cl) which really does not sound like something that should be in sweets, but we love it so much we see past it. 

At the moment we're doing a little feature on the salty licourice - here are some of the many kinds we stock.  Learn these and next time a few sneaky Danes try to offer you one of these sweets, you can knowingly say "Ha! you fools!  Don't you think I know how strong Djungelvrål is?" instead of being the laughing stock when your face ends up looking like you've just swallowed a hedgehog.

• Tyrkisk peber – a strong boiled sweet containing  ammonium chloride.  Not for the faint hearted – this stuff is strong. The grey version (firewood) is chewy and a lot milder.
• Djungelvrål – little sweet licorice monkeys covered with  ammonium chloride.  Extremely salty in the beginning, but sweet finish. Not for young kids

• PANDA licorice – soft licorice, not too strong.  Go for salty or sweet version.
• Piratos – Danish salty licorice – chewy, strong and salty.  Not for young kids
• Salt Bomber – sweet licorice with sugar coating – a good beginner, not strong – ok for some viking kids
• Lakrisal -  ammonium chloride pastilles, medium strength, a favourite all over Scandinavia - not for kids
• Labre Larver – sweet sugared caramel coating, sweet licorice inside – not strong, ok for kids
• Nappar – salty licorice dummies, medium strength, OK for kids
• IFA salty pastilles from Norway – medium
• Salty Dent – from Norway, salty pastilles, chewy (medium)
• Bilar “deck” – marshmallow type licorice “tyres” from Sweden – mild.  OK for kids

Stuck in the office?

We have just launched our catering menu, so if you are having a bit of a do or a meeting in London, you should check it out - we do both canapes and our special TLC* scandwiches (smørrebrød) - they are a bit different to the ones we sell in our cafe and work really well if you want to serve something different for your meeting.

Click here for the catering menu.

*TLC = tender loving care.  Or Tobias Loves Carrots, but that makes less sense.