Walking on ice in Sweden

Where we live, in Sweden, the lakes have been covered with ice for some time now since we are in the middle of the winter. We took a walk on the ice on the lake Brunnsviken in Stockholm City, for Pat it was a first time ever in life! I asked him to check the thickness of the ice from the dock ;)

So the ice was ok, and we walked on the safe areas. If you are not used to walk on ice you should not do it our self, but bring someone that knows how to secure the ice and knows how to act in a case of someone ends up in the water.

This day the snow was perfect for making a snowman, so we did. Apparently the technique we used was different, so Pat tried out how to make a big snowball in an easy (Swedish) way, ie roll it in different direction and it will grow bigger by it self. And it's good exercise, push it! ;)

 



So wherever you are in the world, remember that your surroundings and normal environment can be something completely new for someone else. Today was Pats first time walking on ice!

We found a snowman buddy on the ice, with apple eyes and a half guitar ;)

Ours didn't have eyes but was very well dressed with gloves, hat and a scarf ! And a little nose :)

CAPE VERDE AND RESTAURANT ATLANTIS!

Hello once again friends! from all the world!

Today we will talk about a new place in Cape Verde, well where is Cape Verde what they can offer and what you can do in this tiny place.

The place is a small island in front of Africa! in the Atlantic  the travel from Sweden to Cape Verde was 9 hours in Airplane, with a small brake in Canary islands Spain,

When we arrive in the car we saw lots lots of dessert and only one road that takes you to the city center, The place when we saw it was quite interesting ! you could see from one side the sea and other side some type of mountains that were  quite interesting.

When we arrive to the hotel we decided to go to the beach, i can say the beach was awesome calm relax and not so plenty people as usually typical beaches in the world has,  usually a typical beach can have thousands of people no space even to lay down to have a nice relax sun bath but here you have a hole hole hole place  for you to sit and change  and  relax!

So came the hour to eat something. and well we heard they were some places good to eat we try few of them and well they were ok but  nothing special only 2 restaurants in the island we can recommend you 100% one of them is BARRACUDA and the other one called ATLANTIS.

today we will talk about atlantis ! but also what more you can do in Cape Verde , the restaurant Atlantis has the most fresh  LOBSTER  everyday they bring fresh lobsters that are cooked in the grill , We can say that the taste of freshness of the Lobster is wonderfull plus is very cheap for 2 lobsters i can say yo pay like 5 dollars ! around 7 euro , The service is good not excellent but very friendly,  and well we can say that is a very very clean place.  here are 2 pictures if the restaurant food and how looks outside if you wish to go once to SAL CAPE VERDE

WHAT TO DO
To do well you can rent a car and run the island! there are some nice places like to see the  blue hole in the eat side of the island and well also to take the adventure to ride your car in the dessert that is quite fun and challenging!  also you can have walks in the city not at night because lots of guys are in the city trying to catch girls  but I can say that  is quite nice place to have a relax and forget about the world work problems and sometimes life!.

here is in the  pics of the restaurant an the nice lobsters if you have questions don't doubt to ask ! here it goes!

Warm nachos with beans recipe // Nachos i ugn recept

Who wouldn't like warm, crunchy nachos with beans, cheese and a nice tomato mix? Especially in Europe there are many variants om "Mexican" food, not similar at all no real Mexican food. However, this is a super simple Mexican snack recipe, perfect for the movie nigh! And don't bee afraid of the beans, I was not a fan of beans but these warm nachos with bean mix is truly delicious!

 

 

Nacho ingredients 2 people:

• Cooking oil
• 1 bag of nachos, salted
• 1 jar/box of red beans
• 1 small or 1/2 big union
• 1 cube of chicken bouillon
• Some fine chopped chili (voluntary)
• 4 dl shredded cheese

Tomato mix ingredients 2 people:

• Pinch of salt
• 1 tomato
• 1 pot of fresh coriander
• 1 small or 1/2 big union

This is how to do it:

 
Heat your oven to 170-200 C. Chop the union in small cubes, fry then in oil in a pot until they get soft. Ad the beans and let it heat. Add the chicken bouillon cube, dissolve it an let it boil softly a few minutes.

 

Take the pot of the heat and mix the beans in the pot with a mixer, not to much, because you want some chunky pieces of the beans to remain. Divide your bag of nachos into two plates that are oven proof. Put the bean mix on top of the nachos. It's a matter of taste how much bean mix you would like to put, but I would use all the bean mix on the two plates, while on the picture below we have just put some.

 

Add the shredded cheese on top of the nachos and put into the heated oven for a few minutes until the cheese has melted.

 

Meanwhile chop the union, tomato and coriander, add a pinch of salt and mix everything. Your tomato mix is now ready! Probably you nachos too, make sure they don't burn in the oven.

Carefully take out the hot plates, add the tomato mix on top and the nachos is ready to enjoy! These nachos are preferably eaten with you hands, perfect snack to the movies! It's really delicious :)

If you are not sure how to treat the hot plates while trying to eat your nachos, you can always put a similar cold plate, with a napkin on top, and then place you hot plate on top of that (the napkin prevents the heat to spread to your cold plate). Another solution is to do the nachos on a oven plate and then distribute the hot nachos to cold plates. However its a bit tricky to divide the nachos with melted cheese on top...

AZUL HISTORICO , PASTEL DEL TRES LECHES.

Well talking about our last trip to Mexico my Girlfriend and me we went to a very special restaurant in the city center ZOCALO called AZUL HISTORICO.

People recommended this place for eating  traditional Mexican food but in a new style!.

and yes we can say that the food and the service was great you can see in one of the corners ladies making tortillas by hand and well the service is incredible.

My Girlfriend asks date first night for a Bean tamal and then  some tacos of cochinita pibil.  they were really tasty and nice decorated also we drank some mezcal ( Mexican drink similar like tequila with some oranges and worms salt. interesting and spicy! 

This place we can say that takes  of our top of restaurants a number 4 in our list why a four well the place has  a nice ambientation the service is nice the food also but is missing something to make it perfect, being critics since the beginning you need to make a reservation, the reservation comes with a clue of that specially day, so if you want to jump in you need to give the clue is interesting that Mexicans are using this type of european style,

 when arrival the place as we said is nice is a garden with tall trees and candles all around hanging the old building has around lots of arts shops worth to see them but very expensive. at the same  building ! there is a hotel and a mescaleria, but focusing on the restaurant as we said  something is missing i don't know what Chef Zurita needs to change to give that blink to the restaurant to take it to another level!

LETS SEE IF THE NEXT TIME WE GO TO MEXICO WE CAN HAVE THAT BLINK! THAT IS MISSING IN THIS WONDERFUL PLACE!   

curiously in that place we ate a Famous Pastel de tres leches ( cake of three milks ) and here we giVE the recipe for you ! i hope you enjoy it

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CAKE:

Butter for coating the dish

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk (not nonfat)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened canned coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon dark rum, such as Myers’s, plus more as needed
• 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

1. Heat the oven to 325°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Coat a 13-by-9-inch glass baking dish with butter; set aside. Place the flour in a small bowl and whisk to aerate and break up any lumps; set aside.
2. 2Separate the eggs, placing the yolks in the bowl of a stand mixer. Reserve the whites in a separate, very clean, medium bowl. Add the sugar to the yolks and, using the paddle attachment, beat on high speed until pale yellow, about 5 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl; set aside. Thoroughly clean and dry the stand mixer bowl. Place the egg whites in the clean bowl and, using the whisk attachment, whip on high speed until medium peaks form, about 1 1/2 minutes.
3. 3Using a rubber spatula, stir about a third of the egg whites into the yolk mixture to lighten it. Then gently fold in the remaining whites. Sprinkle the flour over the egg mixture and gently fold it in, just until there are no more white flour streaks. (Do not overmix.)
4. 4Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake until the cake is puffed and golden and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan, about 20 to 25 minutes.
5. 5Meanwhile, place the three milks and the rum in a large bowl and whisk until combined; set aside.
6. 6Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack. Using a toothpick or wooden skewer, poke holes all over the cake and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Pour the milk mixture evenly over the cake and continue cooling, about 45 minutes more. Tightly cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
7. 7When the cake is ready to serve, spread the coconut in an even layer in a large frying pan. Toast over medium heat, stirring often, until lightly browned and fragrant, about 5 minutes. (If the coconut begins to burn, reduce the heat.) Immediately remove from the pan to a small bowl.
8. 8Place the heavy cream and powdered sugar in large bowl and whisk until medium peaks form. (If you like, flavor it with a teaspoon of dark rum.) Slice the cake and serve topped with a mound of whipped cream and a sprinkle of toasted coconut.
   
   
   
   

Most colorful Alebrijes Mexico City



This is our first night in Mexico City and the family took us to see an exhibition of alebrijes. These creatures made of papier-mâché and cardboard has a history since the 1930 and in smaller versions you can find them among the souvenirs but also find more exclusive ones in home decoration stores in Mexico. They are fantasy creatures, often mix between different animals or just monster-like, exploding in colors.

 

This exhibition took place outdoors and the alebrijes were huge, sometimes over 2 meters tall, and made by various artist and private persons. They stood along the street of Reforma Avenue where you also can find the statue Angel of independence. This post will simply be a rainbow of pictures :) Enjoy!

 

 



 

 

Visit google campus in Silicon Valley

Hello all

Here comes a little bit different destination but I think it's worth mentioning because it surprised me a bit, in a positive way. I visit companies every now and then, but Google was far fetched. But suddenly life took me to google in October 2015 and here comes some picture! And yes, it can be worth going here if you are a true Google fan, you can walk around the campus and they also have a little "museum" and shop that you can visit.

Google is offering they employees bikes to use around the campus.

I could not resist the possibility to have a pic of me on one of the bikes. Can you be more happy on a bike?:)

I also tried to take a ride and the bike worked all right :)

They have a small park outside the Android building with some figures known from the business.

Donut anyone?

In the Google "museum" you can see some interesting things from the past of Google. Here is an example of how they were drawing the progress of Google when they first started. On this picture you can see that they started off to move to "Susan's House". Then you can see how they were drawing the number of searches made via Google search engine to be able to measure their success.

And the picture goes on and on and on... One this one where you see a sudden drop is because they changed scale because it couldn't fit in on the paper anymore

In the museum there is a lot more to see but I will not reveal it all here. Also the shop is very good for the one that is interested to buy, cups, T-shirts, bags, pens etc etc

Eat streetfood in Shanghai

Ok, first of all I just want to say that this visit to Shanghai was short, and most of my lunches and dinners was Mc Donald's or Kentucky fried Chicken in the car in between of meetings. We where several cultures that had to agree on the food and the local colleagues thought it was easy and exotic to go with fast food. Oh, I almost forgot the sea food where I tried the mud-tasting fish and a shrimp that did its lats nerve wracking movements when I cut it with my knife. Horrible experience.

The few nights I had in Shanghai was spent in the alleys trying to find local food. I was so happy when they actually considered the confused tourists and properly explained the menus in English...

So Burn a chick or the Dirty acid beans didn't really convince me so I tried other type of foods, just hoping it was pork, beef or chicken. From a hygienic point of view it felt safe that everything always was put on the the table with plastic wrap.

And drinking the lovely beer Tsingtao compensated for the Dirty Acid beans.

I think eating the street food is a much more fund experience than going to budget restaurants full of western food. And this been cost a fraction of the price compared to the main street restaurants.

So, just a few blocks away from a main street such as Nanjing Road you can find safe street food or small local restaurants with exiting and cheap food, so much more fun than pizza hut :)

Wonton dumplings minced meat recipe // Dumplings med färs recept

Super easy and tasty dumpling recipe using minced meat! The dumplings can be boiled for a soft finish or deep-fried in oil if you want them more crispy. To the dumplings we will do a soya dip sauce.

Ingredients

• 400 g minced pork meat // fläskfärs (mixed or beef meat is also ok)
• 2 shallots //shalottenlökar (we used red union which worked well)
• 1 chili (any color)
• 1 tbsp spoon fish sauce // msk fisksås
• 1 tbsp + 2 tsp sesame oil // tesked  sesamolja
• 2 cloves of garlic // vitlöksklyftor
• 1 lemon // citron
• 2 tbsp fresh coriander// msk färsk koriander
• 2 package of wonton // pkt wontondeg
• 4 tbsp sirup // sirap
• 4 tbsp soya // soja
• 2 tsp vinegar // ättika
• 1-2 tbsp sesame seeds // sesamfröm
• Oil (If you want to have fried dumplings)

How to do it

 

Put the water to boil if you want to boil the dumplings or prepare a pan of oil if you want to fry them.

 

Shop the shallots, garlic, coriander and chili fine. Shred the peel of the lemon. Mix the minced meat together with the shallots, garlic, chili, fish sauce, 2 tsp sesame oil  and lemon peel. Mix in well.

 

 Now it's time to fill the dumplings. Take the wontons, one by one, wet the edges of the wonton with cold water using one finger (this will make them close easier). Fill them with about a tablespoon of the minced meat mix. You can fold the wonton and make a half moon shape or put the mix in the middle of the wonton and fold each corner up towards the middle. Pinch the edges together of the wonton where you want it to close.

 

Now make the dip sauce. Roast the sesame seeds in a pan. Mix sirup, soya, vinegar, 1 tbsp of sesame oil and the roasted sesame seeds. The dip is now ready!

 

Now we will cook the dumplings, either in boiling water or fry them in oil. If boiling them in water, don't cook them all at once. They will after a while pop up to the surface, let them boil for a couple of more minutes and then remove them, one by one as they are ready. Cook the rest of the dumplings when the first batch is ready.

 

If you choose to fry, fry them until they get golden brown and then remove them. We did fry ours, and below you can see the result!