SC - Tour of Finland by Jaelle

[maddie teller-kook]

all i can say is WOW!  what a wonderful experience. IF I ever get to
europe... i will have to try and get to Estonia.  sounds incredible.

meadhbh
- -----Original Message-----
From: Lillian Johnston <LillianJ at bethlehem.org.au>
To: Cooks Guild (E-mail) <sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG>
Date: Tuesday, January 19, 1999 5:28 PM
Subject: SC - Tour of Finland by Jaelle


>I was asked to include this report to the cooks guild from Jaelle on her
>recent trip. I hope you all enjoy the read.
>
>Yours in Service to the Dream,
>Nicolette Dufay
>Baroness, Stormhold
>Principality of Lochac
>Kingdom of the West
>
>MKA: Lillian Johnston, wife of Kelley, mother of 2 lovely girls, now aged 7
>and 12, expat American living in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
>_______________________
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Subject: THIS IS REALLY FROM JAELLE (JUDY GERJUOY)
>
>Hi everyone!
>
>Please forgive this mass mailing, but one of the wildest things to happen
to
>me in my life (Out side of Tero), daddy, don't read that last sentence
>please, I don't want to shock you) has happened, and I want to tell all of
>you about it, with the exception of Helena who was there, but wanted to
know
>what I was going to tell everyone.
>
>As you know, I am currently in Finland, visiting Tero.  And, as you all
>know, I have done an extensive annonated bibliography of books on medieval
>food/foodways which is in a number of places on the web, and I get people
>writing to me because of it on a regular basis - say once a month.
>
>Well, shortly before I was to leave for Finland I get an e-mail from
>Estonia. A lady by the name of Reneta had found my list, and wanted to buy
>some of my books. I explained that they were my personal collection and
they
>weren't for sale. I told her where she could get some. She wanted to buy
>them, because she worked for a medieval restaurant in Tallin (spelled
wrong)
>which is in Estonia.
>
>She wrote back with more questions, and I mentioned that I was engaged to a
>man from Finland and I would be visiting him for Christmas and we were
>planning to go to Estonia for the day to do shopping (that's where you get
>cheap linen and cheap amber) and did they want me to come over to their
>restaurant for a couple of hours to talk about medieval food.
>
>I get an e-mail back offering to pay for my hotel stay if I would come talk
>to them.  They sent a phone number (The owner is Finnish).  Tero called him
>and made arrangements for rooms for not only Tero and I, but for my friends
>Antti and Lea, and as it turned out, Helena as well.
>
>We went over to Estonia on Tuesday.  We were supposed to be met at the
port,
>but the owner had to be elsewhere, so we took a taxi to his restaurant. For
>the five of us, it totalled, maybe $10 American.
>
>We met him, he took us in, talked to us, seated us at a table, and told us
>to order.  We all ordered assorted different food, and he came back and
>joined us and we talked. And we talked.
>
>We arrived at his restaurant by 1PM and we didn't get to the hotel until
>9:30 that evening.  He gave us a grand tour of the restaurant. Not only the
>two floors where he served guests, but the kitchen, the cellars,
everything!
>
>The restaurant itself was amazing. Parts of the building date back to the
>mid 13th century, and a lot of it looks like a 14th century tavern would
>look.
>
>Most of it is lit by candles. There are wooden cupboards to put your coats
>with authentic looking hinges and locks.  The doors to the bathrooms look
>medieval, though the fittings are modern (thank goodness!).
>
>The tables and benches for the most part done correctly, and the plates,
>bowls, mugs, bottles and glasses are wonderful!  They have custom green
>glass glasses and wine glasses which are *very* good - more of them later.
>
>The walls are decorated with drawings that could be from a 14th century
>manuscript - with some very nice icanthus leave decoration.
>
>All of the staff who are visible must wear medieval clothes, all of which
is
>above the basic t-tunic level, and some of it is very good.  A fair amount
>of the staff have real shoes, which is a nice touch.
>
>After lunch, (which included all sorts of beers, wines, and liquors, and we
>were never given a bill) and the tour, we sat around in the downstairs room
>of the restaurant and talked and ate and drank even more.
>
>The food was incredible.  Even the simple dishes, such as the barley were
>excellent.  I talked to him, his wife and the cooks about medieval food,
and
>more about medieval food, and even more about medieval food.  His two cooks
>are *very* good - they are considered among the best cooks in Estonia, and
>one of them has a television show on Estonian TV.
>
>We finally stopped talking after 9PM because I was falling asleep.  (Our
>ferry left at 8AM, which meant we had to be there at 7PM.  But, we were
>picking Helena up at the train station at 6:30 AM, which meant we had to
>leave the house at 6AM, which meant we had to get up at 5AM.)
>
>Before we left, the owner arranged a schedule for us, which had me back at
>the restaurant at 9AM to work with the cooks on some actual recipes, and
the
>rest of the group joining us at 11:30 where they would take us shopping,
>feed us lunch, take us on tours, and then back to our ferry.
>
>I will admit that I was sort of in a daze.  I am a reasonable cook, but
*me*
>showing two top notch professional cooks how to do stuff. But, I am my
>father's daughter, so I agreed.
>
>Luckily, Lea wanted to replace one of her cookbooks (Take 1,000 Eggs or
>More) with a second edition of it, so she had brought that as a gift for
>them from all of us, so I had something to work from, since my books are
>still in the US.
>
>The hotel was a bit low grade by my standards, but it was clean, and warm,
>and free.  But I had to be at the restaurant by 9AM, and that came to
>quickly for my exhausted brain.
>
>I got to the restaurant no more than 5 minutes late, and in fact they were
>late opening, but by 9:20 I was up in the kitchen talking to the two chefs.
>Their English was *a lot* better than my Finnish, but there were a few
>problems in getting ideas across, but we managed.  The only problem was the
>name of some of the spices, since that isn't standard vocabulary that you
>use.
>
>We made several dishes, including almond milk, and I went through the
>cookbook and marked a bunch of interesting recipes for them to work with.
>
>It was *lots* of fun watching trained cooks at work.  I had one minor
>freakout when I looked at the refrigerators and freezer. The temperature
>was indicated on the outside and I sat there wondering why the fridge was
>set at 3 degrees and the freezer and minus 16. That seemed *very* cold to
>me.  Then, this bolt of lightning hit me - *centigrade*!
>
>We went all over town shopping.  The prices are *very* cheap.  I got lots
of
>amber, mostly for people who I had promised things, a doll for a friend's
>daughter, and some nicknack stuff.  I turned down the snail planter that
>Antti pointed out, though I pointed out that we were an infesting every
>place he went.
>
>We also went to a hat shop that did medieval and other hats. I got Tero a
>cool medieval hat and Antti got a nice Cavalier one.
>
>Then we went back to the restaurant for lunch.  We never got to order, they
>just served us food.
>
>I can't remember it all, but it included liver pate, quail eggs, lentils,
>olives, pickles, bread, butter, barley again, roast quail that were guilded
>with real gold (I have done that, once. It is a very time consuming task,
>but
>looks lovely), roast bear that was delicious, lots of assorted booze,
>including a bottle of *very* good 35 year old wine, that I, alas, don't
have
>the palate to appreciate.
>
>Again, we never were given a bill.
>
>Then his wife got us into the their town council building which is *not*
>normally open to tourists.  some of the building is also from the 13th
>century. Even the parts that aren't, have been, in general, reasonably well
>restored.  We saw lots and lots of incredible medieval things including
>tiles, carving, tables, chairs, chests, etc.
>
>After that the rest of the crew went touring, I spent about an hour doing
>Laurel work, because I was behind, and it *had* to get done. In fact, I
>shouldn't be writing this, I should be working on it, but I wanted to share
>this with everyone, because it was so incredible.
>
>Then they took us to an old church. Originally built in the 13th century,
it
>had parts added on to it every century. A large part of it was destroyed by
>Soviet bombs during WW2 and afterwards, but a lot of it has been restored,
>and a lot did survive.
>
>There, they got the church/museum director who is a professor of art
history
>give us our own, personalised tour of the church.  There was so much cool
>stuff there I don't know where to start.  3 tripdics (spelled *very*
wrong -
>the three part pieces of folding art you see around the alter of a medieval
>church.  Part of the classic "Dance Macabre" painting that was repainted by
>the artist for them 20 odd years after he did the first one. They have the
>first about 1/4 of it.  Wood carving, and heraldry, and all sorts of stuff.
>
>We had to leave to get to our ferry after that.
>
>We had asked them if we could buy some of their drinking glasses. They
>weren't willing to do that, but they gave everyone but me one as a
>souvenir, and they gave me a large package of 4 of them!
>
>I have never, ever, been treated like this in my life.  For instance, while
>we did pay about $28 (American) each for the ferry trip, with the exception
>of the cab to and from the ferry to the restaurant, breakfast for everyone
>but me on Wednesday morning, and a soda I bought during the day on
>Wednesday, the only money we spent was for things we wanted to buy to bring
>back.  And, the Finns were able to get tax free booze on the ferry going
>back!
>
>And, what is even cooler, my Finnish wedding feast will probably be there.
>They are going to give us the meal of the century at an incredibly cheap
>price.  We can arrange inexpensive housing in Estonia for those who would
>like to stay and shop and tour (which is *well* worth it), and you can go
to
>Estonia and back in one day. The ferry which is lots of fun, is a bit more
>than 3 hours each way, or you can go on a hovercraft which takes about 1.5
>hours.  We can travel as a group which will be fun.  The ferry has
>comfortable seats, and even cabins if people want it.  It has shopping, a
>children's play area, a restaurant and a cafeteria, television, a band,
game
>machines, etc.
>
>The wedding feast will probably not be in the restaurant - they are going
to
>look into getting a castle instead. Somehow I don't think people will be
>*too* disappointed.
>
>So, that's what *I* did on Tuesday and Wednesday.
>
>J
>
># .sig of Tero Heikkinen # In SCA Johan Magnusson Kivisuo
>Ta/ 42 leathanach sa phas seo.
>
>
>
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