Food

Finncon: Day -2, The Viking Feast

~ Cheryl

Here I am in Helsinki, where I am happy to report that it is Summer. Also the Finns are their usual, fabulously hospitable selves.

The convention began with a trip to the fairly newly opened Helsinki branch of Harald, the viking-themed restaurant. All of the guests were there, making for a very large party, so we got a special room. This is not Buca di Beppo, so there is no Pope Room. Instead they have a splendid chieftan’s feasting hall with axes and reindeer skulls on the walls. Less splendidly they have some sort of role-playing scenario which our poor waitress stumbled through and most of us ignored because it did requite improvisation and the prompts were pretty dreadful. They should hire me to write better ones. It did, however, produce one effective moment, of which more later.

This year’s Guests of Honor are Peter Watts, Aliette de Bodard, J. Pekka Mäkelä (a very fine Finnish SF author) and Stefan Ekman (a Swedish academic whom many of you will know from ICFA). Goodness only knows what Stefan made of Harald’s gross cultural appropriation and theme park vikingness, but I suspect that similar crimes against his ancestors are performed back home in Sweden. Peter and his wife, author Caitlin Sweet, seemed well taken by the whole thing. I was delighted that they enjoyed the cinnamon beer and tar ice cream. One should not, of course, expect to impress French guests with one’s culinary skills, and Aliette, being very pregnant, was understandably tired. However, she and her husband appeared to have enjoyed the evening.

Also at the meal were Sara B. Elfgren and Mats Strandberg who write YA fantasy in Swedish. Their series has been very successful, and I hope to be able to tell you more about them later in the weekend.

One of the things that went wrong with the role-playing scenario is that roles were handed out at random. Had I known what was available, I could have made a much better job of things. Three of the roles were for slaves, and as chance would have it these went to Peter, Stefan and Jukka (a co-chair of the convention). They all mucked in graciously, but it was a bit silly.

The one thing that did work is that they have a ritual of inducting someone into viking manhood. This, inevitably, requires the consumption of a small amount of that famous viking delicacy, rotting shark. Obviously we could not ask Aliette to do this, so Peter got the short straw and played the part splendidly. I am seriously jealous. I have been wanting to try rotting shark for some time, and the only place I know they serve it is in Iceland. Oh well, some other time.

The rest of the food was fairly typical Harald fare, though being such a big party we had to settle for a set meal. This did include bear salami, and thankfully tar ice cream for dessert. There was also some very nice tar-smoked herring in the starter platter. The pork in the main course was a bit dry, but it was an enjoyable meal and a great way to start the convention.

I only had my phone camera with me, and that takes pretty awful pictures, but lots of other people were snapping away so I hope to be able to point you to pictures later.

I’m now safely ensconced at Jukka & Sari’s place, where I once again have the honor of using the VanderMeer Suite. Tomorrow there is the press conference, after which the guests are being taken on a lunch cruise around Helsinki. I, however, will be in Finfar, the academic conference, being mean to poor, innocent graduate students. As I’m going straight from that to the evening sauna party, don’t expect much bloggage tomorrow.

Ã…con Meanders On

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

What’s new since yesterday? Oh yes, there was sushi. There was also a room party. Someone brought a bottle of Jura Prophecy. I can’t imagine who that might have been. It seemed to go down very well. Otto revealed a new skill: expert cake maker. He should do that more often.

After way to much whisky and sparkling pink stuff I had to get up early again this morning for another tour. This time I got the clocks right and managed to inhale a reasonable quantity of breakfast. This is just as well, because the alcohol started early.

We were visiting Smakbyn, a new enterprise set up by top Finnish chef, Mikael Björklund. Although the venue will feature a top quality restaurant, Björklund isn’t in Ã…land just to cook. He wants to start from scratch. He and his wife have purchased a distillery which specializes in apple-based beverages. They plan to start smoking their own meats and fish, making their own cheese and honey, and so on. Ã…land is a fine agricultural location, and therefore an excellent place for such a venture.

Our tasting concentrated on the alcohol. We were served a number of beverages, starting with apple wine and working up through various liqueurs to a Calvados-like spirit. Given that I am from Somerset, I’m pretty hard to please when it comes to apple-based beverages, and several of the drinks didn’t pass muster when compared to equivalent French offerings. However, the apple wine was very nice and did, as advertised, go very well with cheese. I’d like to try it with a proper cheddar rather that the wussy equivalent made here. The star of the show, however, was Appleaud, an apple-based liqueur that tastes exactly like liquid apple pie. I need to get a bottle or two before I go home.

Back at the hotel, we dived straight into the academic session. Merja and Mika were their usual thoughtful and entertaining selves. Merja gave a fascinating paper about the temporal structure of Ted Chiang’s “The Story of Your Life” while Mika continued to expound on semiotics and the multifarious ways in which stories are adapted and evolved through modern media. Sadly he didn’t have time for the whole of his six-part theory of orcish evolution, but we got the general idea. I’m longing to see the theoretical framework he’s been developing for this PhD melded with fan studies to look at the way in which different representations of well-loved characters vie for authenticity.

Tricia’s GoH speech is due up soon, so I’ll head back down for that. It is a gorgeous spring day here today, though, and the temptation to sit down by the water with some cheese, bread and a bottle of white wine is very strong.

Ã…con Underway

~ Cheryl

Yesterday was mainly a travel day, and I slept most of the way from Turku to Mariemamn, thereby saving myself from buying duty-free booze on the ferry. We did, however, have a small amount of programming in the evening. Tricia Sullivan and I, with expert help from Markku Soikkeli, did a panel on “Body and Mind” in which we talked a lot about false dualisms, the complexity of biological organisms, the lack of scientific basis for ideas of “uploading” minds to silicon, and the political minefields that result from “nature v personal choice” arguments. Judging from the feedback I have got, it went down very well. Kisu is threatening to have a philosophy panel on Thursday evening every year.

I had a bad case of time zone fail this morning and almost missed the bus to the chocolate tasting. Thankfully I did make it, and Mercedes was wonderful as ever. I refer you to last year’s con report for a more detailed description of what these excursions are like.

We’d hardly got back when I had another panel. This one was about “Classic Conventions”. I now owe several beers to Crystal Huff as I co-opted her onto the panel to talk about ReaderCon and other US events. Thanks also to my colleagues, Carolina Gomez Lagerlöf and Tommy Persson. Hopefully we entertained.

I skipped Tricia’s GoH interview because I very much wanted to get to the Maritime Museum and they close at 16:00. Mariehamn has a glorious maritime history, having once been home to the biggest fleet of windjammers in the world. The Pommern is still here and I had a good look around her. I have so much respect for the crews of such ships, and especially for Wilhelmina Widborn who served as a cook and steward on the Pommern for many years. According to the museum, she rounded Cape Horn eight times, and survived being torpedoed, during her career.

Also in the museum is one of only two genuine Jolly Roger flags in existence. This one was captured from Barbary pirates around 200 years ago and brought home to Mariehamn by the crew. I’ll have a photo of it up eventually.

And now, dinner beckons. There is a fine restaurant called Nordic Blues, which makes sushi with local fish. I went there last year with Cat Valente’s husband, Dmitry. The plan is to go back today.

For further Ã…con reportage, check out Tero’s blog.

Bruce, Reindeer and Me

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Given last year’s traffic nightmare trying to get out of Helsinki, Otto, Paula and I hit the road nice and early this time. As a consequence we arrived in Turku in very good time and spent the afternoon exploring the city. Otto & Paula have some sort of alternate reality game on their tablets that requires them to visit locations around the world and register at “portals” there. It is sort of like geo-caching, except the treasure is all virtual and you are also part of a team game. It is also a very good excuse to visit interesting buildings, public works of art and so on.

We ended up wandering around the riverside area of Turku in search of somewhere to eat. Otto spotted a steakhouse, and that sounded fairly harmless, so in we went.

Inside it looked very posh, and also very quiet. The waiter who greeted us explained something in Finnish which Otto translated as their having just re-opened after a private party. I thought no more of this and got to examining the menu.

It quickly became obvious that we had stumbled into somewhere very expensive. This was Stefan’s Steakhouse, owned by Stefan Richter who was a finalist on American Top Chef. When you are in such a place, the only thing to do is eat well and worry about the bill later. For comparison, it cost around the same as a meal at Bell’s Diner in Bristol, and is in a similar league quality-wise.

First up a comment about the aperitif they offered. The waiter described it as a mixture of white wine, red soda and cranberries. This was precisely correct. Not wine, soda and cranberry juice; wine, soda and cranberries. It was lovely.

For starters I had to try the roast bone marrow. It is something I had never eaten before. Once extracted from the surrounding bone, it is not the most appetizing-looking stuff in the world, but it tastes wonderful and I was glad to have tried it.

My main course was reindeer sirloin. It is one of the nicest pieces of meat I have ever eaten. I’ve eaten reindeer before, of course, but this was spectacular. Otto & Paula were similarly happy with their steaks.

I’m not sure I’d recommend Stefan’s for dessert. I’ve never seen brownies presented more beautifully, but I have had them cooked better. Otto said his cheesecake was delicious, but it was very small. Still, given the overall quality of the food, I’m not at all unhappy we went there.

Afterwards we headed off to the Cosmic Comic Cafe, where Finnish fandom was gathering for the night. I got talking to Hannah who explained that a lot of people were not going to be there, either because of the USA-Finland ice hockey game, or because of the Bruce Springsteen concert…

I did not strangle anyone. I may have made faces that said, “there is a Springsteen concert on tonight and no one told me? WHY!!!!??????”

Actually Bruce played two nights in Turku (with very different sets for the two nights so all of the hard core fans went to both). Tickets sold out within 15 minutes of them being made available, so there’s no way I would have got one unless I’d known well in advance. But still…

“Oh yes,” said Otto, “that’s what the guy in the restaurant was on about. They had just re-opened after a private function for Springsteen and his tour party.”

So there you have it. Entirely by chance, we ate in the same restaurant as Bruce and the E-Street Band, just after he had left. For all I know, I could have sat in the same chair he used. I am going to pretend that it is so. I hope he enjoyed his meal as much as I did.

WorldCon Scouting: Part I

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

So, here I am in Helsinki, and while I am here I intend to make use of my time looking for things that prospective Worldcon attendees might be interested in. After all, there may be some of you who haven’t yet made up your minds to vote for Helsinki in 2015. If there are any specific questions that people have, please ask them in comments below. I’ll be visiting the convention site on Monday when we have got back from Ã…con so I’ll have time to look around, shoot some video, and ask questions. In the meantime, here are some observations from today.

Helsinki airport is small but efficient. There’s not a lot in the way of direct flights, but those of you who are with Star Alliance will probably find it easy to change in Frankfurt, which is Lufthansa’s main hub. You could also change in London, of course, or Paris. Work on the railway linking the airport with the city is now underway and they expect to have it open in time for Worldcon.

The only cloud on the train horizon is that there are apparently suggestions afoot to fully automate the system. Driverless trains have to be built to a higher safety standard than human-operated ones, and there would be software to be written. I’ll keep an eye on developments.

On the way into the city we stopped off at a shopping mall to have dinner and get food for brunch tomorrow. Otto and Paula too me to Chico’s a restaurant chain that promises to bring American dining to Finland. They have got it pretty much spot on. All of the usual things you would expect from a high end burger joint were available. We had fried mozzarella and jalapeño poppers for starters. The chiptole mayo in my burger was definitely spicy, as were the chili fries it came with (in a little metal bucket). The Finns, being hard core about such things, added half a jalapeñno on the side, with the seeds still in it. That was warm. We were too full for the cheesecake, but I’m sure it would have been lovely. The poppers came with the BBQ mayo as a dip, and it was so nice I now want to try their ribs. OK, so it isn’t haute cuisine, but no one from California can complain that they can’t get good home cooking in Finland.

Also it is a change from my going on and on about the reindeer steaks, tar ice cream and cinnamon beer at Harald. You might get that tomorrow when we get to Turku.

I’m staying at Otto & Paula’s splendid flat in Helsinki overnight. I have had sauna, so I am now a happy and relaxed feline. Tomorrow we hit the road. Hopefully we’ll manage to go early enough to avoid the holiday weekend traffic jams.

By the way, the ice hockey world championships are underway in Helsinki. I won’t have a chance to go to any games, but it will be on TV in the convention hotel. There should be good crowds for Sweden v Canada on Friday, and Russia v Finland on Saturday. USA v Finland tomorrow should also be an interesting game. The Russians look like the best team in the tournament thus far, but the surprise package is most definitely Switzerland who have already beaten Sweden, the Czech Republic and Canada.

Welcome to Turtle Bay

~ Cheryl

One of the benefits of working for an Afro-Caribbean radio station is that you occasionally get invited to community events. That paid off well last night as I got a free ticket to the opening of the Bristol branch of Turtle Bay, a new chain of Caribbean restaurants. It was a great night. They plied us with free rum cocktails, and a broad selection of nibbles from the menu. There was also live music provided by Laid Blak.

I was seriously impressed by the food. The jerk pit chicken wings, sweetcorn fritters and chili friend calamari are all to die for, and basically everything they brought us was good. I can see that I’m going to have to go back often so that I can eat my way through the entire menu. The only real problem that I have is that they are right next door to My Burrito, so I’ll suffer from dreadful indecision as to which door to go through. If it is warm and sunny I think Turtle bay will win, if only because I’ll be tempted by the Marley Mojito (which isn’t on the online menu so I’ll need to write down the menu next time I’m there).

Many thanks to the staff there, and the band, for a wonderful evening, and to Annabelle for the lift back to Temple Meads.

Today On Ujima: Emma Newman, Roz Clarke, Becca Lloyd

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Paulette let me have a huge chunk of today’s Women’s Outlook show. Hopefully I did OK with it. I know I had some wonderful guests.

In the first half hour I talk to Emma Newman about her Split Worlds novels. Between Two Thorns is already in the shops, while By Any Other Name is available on NetGalley for those of us lucky enough to count Angry Robots as friends. If you are thinking of buying the books, please do take a listen. Emma does a fine job of introducing us to the complexities of the novels, and the only spoiler is something that happens in chapter 2. I’ll do a review of the books once I’ve finished the second one. I’m really impressed with the depth of thought that has gone into creating the Split Worlds universe.

Along the way we also get to talk more generally about fairies, and I name drop Neil Gaiman because he reminded me this week of one of my favorite pieces of art. Thanks to the BBC’s You Paintings site, I have appended a copy of Richard Dadd’s “The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke” at the bottom of this post.

After half an hour I swap guests and talk to Becca Lloyd and Roz Clarke about traveling to interesting countries. Becca was lucky enough to attend to Jaipur Literary Festival in India, while Roz is just back from a month’s writing retreat in Nigeria. Along the way we talk about how Western travelers tend to be shielded from the countries they are supposed to be visiting, about food and fashion, and a bit about the books that Becca and Roz are working on.

All of that can be found here on the listen again feature.

The second hour opens up with the feature we we still call “A lighter look at life”, despite the fact that it always turns political on us. This week Emma and I have a good rant about how we hate the British class system.

The I get to feature Emma as our “Woman of the Week”. We talk about her publishing career to date, and all of the interesting things that she did along the way. There are shout outs for Paul Cornell, Adam Christopher and Lee Harris.

Our studio guest for the last half hour couldn’t make it, so Paulette took charge and walked us through a discussion of various topical issues. I may have been less than enchanted with a certain recently deceased statesperson.

That lot is all available to listen to here.

All downloads and linkage is gratefully received. I still can’t quite believe that I get total to all these lovely writers on live radio, but we need need the listening figures to back it up or eventually they’ll stop asking me.

The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke

Radio: Legal Aid, Black History & Thatcher

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

As I noted on Tuesday, this week’s Women’s Outlook show was light on books and heavy on politics. In the first half hour Paulette and I quiz two Bristol experts on legal aid. What the government is doing in this area is quite despicable, and makes no economic sense whatsoever. It is depressing listening, but a valuable insight into just how ideology-driven the current “austerity” drive is.

The second half hour is a lot more upbeat. Paulette and I talk to a lovely lady called Rose Young who is running an oral history project aimed at collecting the stories of black immigrants living in Wiltshire. Alongside the more serious discussion of racism, we manage to touch on important things like cricket and Caribbean food. Paulette mentions Turtle Bay, which is a new restaurant chain being launched in the UK. They have branches in Nottingham, Southampton and Milton Keynes, and open in Bristol later this month. I can’t wait.

Both of those segments are available in the first hour on our Listen Again site.

The second hour kicks off with some light-hearted discussion of parties, and includes a shout out to Kevin. After that Paulette interviews the amazing Cleo Lake who runs the Caribbean carnival in Bristol. And we wrap up to hour with our memories of the Margaret Thatcher era. The Guardian article by Russell Brand that I quote from is available here.

Adrian, our techie, who now has his own Polish/English music show on before ours, played us out with one of my all time favorite pop sings. It’s a bit clichéd for a women’s interest show but it is awesome, and on Listen Again it cuts off half way through. If you are as disappointed by that as I was, here’s Saint Cyndi doing what she does best: having fun.

Yesterday On Ujima: Amelia & Zombies

~ Cheryl

Ujima logoYesterday was a busy day for me at Ujima Radio. Paulette kindly let me have the first half hour for Talking Books, and as I had Amelia Beamer in the studio we focused on zombies, including her novel, The Loving Dead. Along the way we gave plugs for other books, including Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy and Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker. I also managed to get in a mention of Jonathan Coulton’s “re: Your Brains”, though sadly we didn’t have time to play it, or “Thriller”. The conversation included discussion of the origins of the zombie myth, and different ways in which zombies have been used in literature. I’m pleased to report that the Ujima website is showing all of the old shows properly now, so you can listen to or download that segment here.

That podcast also includes the second half hour of the show, in which Paulette and I talk to two other guests: Mandy James and Emily Knight. Mandy is a local writer who has a time travel romance due out next month. A Stitch In Time will be launched at Foyles on April 10th. As the publisher is called Choc Lit there will be chocolate as well as wine. Cunning plan. If I remember correctly, Mandy is a former history teacher, so I imagine the historical sections will be good. I wonder what she’ll make of Connie Willis?

Emily runs the Bristol Bites blog and is therefore a Very Useful Person to Know. Anyone who gets paid to write about food has my admiration. I was delighted to find out (sadly off air) that she shares my love of My Burrito.

The second hour of the show starts with Judeline asking her panel what the Chancellor should have done in the budget. Oddly these “lighter look at life” segments keep drifting into politics, though I think my contribution may raise a smile or two. After the ads, about 15 minutes in, I get to interview Amelia for the Woman of the Week segment. We talk, amongst other things, about Locus, about living in different countries, and about Australian wildlife.

The final half hour sees Paulette talking to two guests about natural birthing. I had no idea that Caesarians have become a fashion. They certainly have a place, and the option to have one saved the lives of two people very dear to me, but the idea of them being the preferred choice horrifies me. I fantasized a lot about getting pregnant as a kid, and never once did I consider anything other than a natural birth.

Still, stranger things can happen. Next week my guest in Talking Books will be Stephanie Saulter. Given the subject matter of Gemsigns, we’ll be talking about designer babies. In addition I’ll be talking to Hannah-Marie Chidwick of the Hecate Theatre Company about putting on all-woman plays.

Radio Daze

~ Cheryl ~ 6 Comments

Well, yesterday was definitely busy. But it was also great fun. Also I got to be on two different local radio programs, which is excessive even for me.

The first event of the day was an appearance on the Outlook show with Paulette on Ujima Radio. This is a radio station based in St. Pauls’, and area with Bristol with a lot of immigrant families. Ujima, unsurprisingly, plays a lot of Afro-Caribbean music. Outlook, however, is a community interest chat show, and I had been invited on as part of their Sound Reads project which, very splendidly, encourages listeners to read. You can listen to the part of the show I was on here. There’s some material about the Bristol Pound before the book panel comes on, and that might be interesting too. I got to plug a lot of good stuff, including Christmas stories, Colinthology and Doctor Who writers.

Part FoodAfter the show, there was a party for the station staff and guests. As you can see from the photo, there was a huge amount of food (and mulled wine too). The things on the skewers were particularly delicious. And down the other end of the table there were mini cheesecakes and mince pies. The filling in the mince pies was obviously home made because it tasted way better than the shop pie stuff. And all of this was done by one person. Yvonne, you are amazing. If I ever need someone to cater a party, I’ll come calling.

I didn’t eat again all day.

Many thanks to Paulette and her colleagues at Ujima for a lovely time. Hopefully I’ll get invited back.

Also, one of my fellow guests on the program was Rebecca Lloyd. As you’ll see from the website, she’s one of us. Halfling is a kid’s fantasy, but she tells me that her real love is creepy Gothic fantasy. And I’m very interested in Pangea, the anthology of stories from around the world that Rebecca edited with Indira Chandrasekhar. Apparently they are planning a second book. I know some people who would be good in that.

After that I went to see Bristol-based artist, Penny Clark, about the portraits she has done of her friend, Martine Shackerley-Bennett. I’m hoping we’ll include one of Penny’s pictures in the LGBT History exhibition that we are putting on in February.

New leather jacketI had a bit of time to kill before my final appointment so I decided to do some shopping. Everywhere seemed to be having a sale, so I figured I should look now in case all of the good stuff is gone by Boxing Day (anyone remember when it used to be the “January sales”?). As it happens, I found myself a rather nice new leather jacket at 33% off. And the original price was very reasonable too. I was very pleased. Then, much to my surprise, I bought a new ballgown, at less than half price. No photos of that as I may want to wear it to an award ceremony one day. Also it is the first time in my life I’ve been able to fit into something sold in Jane Norman. Progress!

The final event of the evening was the live Christmas party show for Shout Out, the LGBT show on Bristol Community FM. We were broadcasting live from the Bristol Bear Bar, a pub in the gay quarter of the city. Mostly it was a silly hour of party games, but I did get to do a quick plug for the exhibition.

New leather jacketThe highlight of the evening, however, was a fellow guest, Louise Goux-Wirth. That’s a genuine London Olympic torch she’s holding, and it belongs to her because she was an actual torch-bearer. London had a system whereby people could be nominated as potential torch-bearers because of the good work they have done for their local community. That’s how Louise got the job. US readers might be interested to know that the part of the UK where Louise carried the torch was the small North Devon town of Bideford. That’s the place where most of the colonists for the Roanoke Colony came from.

Louise’s next project is to go and work with orphan children in Rwanda. There’s a fundraiser going here to get the money for her trip. There’s also a blog here that explains a bit more about how the money will be used and what Louise will be doing. She’s amazing.

7,500 Year Old Cheese

~ Cheryl

Don’t worry, I haven’t been eating it. But archaeologists and chemists from Princeton and Bristol have discovered evidence that cheese was being made in Poland some 7,500 years ago. Nature has the details.

There will, of course, now be a mad scramble to provide evidence that cheese was being made in Somerset before then. Can’t let the Poles win that one. 🙂

Monkey Business

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

I have spent most of today in Bristol doing bookish things.

It started out at Forbidden Planet where the manager, Tim, had kindly laid on a signing for Gareth L. Powell’s latest novel, Ack-Ack Macaque. Gareth was in full flying gear for the event, his hero being a monkey who flies spitfires against the Nazis in a very odd version of WWII. (And if you think that’s weird, the first chapter of the book features a woman cyborg investigating her ex-husband’s murder in near-future London.)

Alongside the book were copies of the new issue of 2000 AD, which contains a short strip trailing the novel. Tharg and his buddies have clearly been busy in the many years since I bought a copy of their magazine. Not only have they surpassed the date in which their stories are supposed to be set, they appear to have surpassed 2000 issues as well (correction: they are not quite there yet). Amazing, though it does make me feel rather old.

After a quick sojurn in the pub, many of us trooped down to St. Nicholas’ Market for Fairies at the Bottom of the Market, a reading featuring three local authors. The location was the Indian/New Age shop, Lunartique, which has recently moved into the catacombs below the market. They have a small store room decked out as a grotto which is a nice spot for readings, though we do need to find a source of good quality temporary seating.

The event was organized by Scott Lewis who is one of the contributors to Colinthology. He was also one of the readers, along with Emma Newman and Jo Hall. Roz Clarke chaired the event. We got a good crowd, and sold a few Colinthologys along with some of Emma and Jo’s books. We shall do this again, I think, though hopefully with better seats.

Finally I took myself along to My Burrito. They have a couple of seasonal specials on at the moment. The first is a Mexican-spiced lamb, which I tried a few days ago and very much enjoyed. The other is steak with a jalapeno & coriander pesto, which was also delicious though flash fried steak (which they cook to order) doesn’t work as well in a burrito as the traditional shredded Mexican meats.

All in all, an excellent day out, despite the ever-present danger of Christmas “music”. As Eugene Byrne commented on Twitter today, no, I do not wish it could be Christmas every day.

Cheesebloggery

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

Today I went shopping in Bath. I wanted to take a look at the Christmas markets, just in case they had anything good. They didn’t, of course, but now I have looked. I was vaguely tempted by the guy selling wine made to an “ancient Roman recipe”, but I figure that wine-making has probably come on a bit since those days.

Anyway, I did pay a visit to the Fine Cheese Company shop, and have come away with a couple of new things to try. The first is an artisan Wensleydale that is actually make in Yorkshire (Bedale, to be exact, which is not that far from Wensleydale itself). The cheese is called Richard III, which is a bit scary, if proper Yorkshire. Hopefully it won’t murder anyone, especially me. (And all you RIII fans out there, yes, I know, he wuz framed by teh evil Tudors. But the Tudors were Welsh, you see.)

Talking of Wales, the other new cheese is a Caerphilly. They didn’t have any Gorwydd in stock, but they did have a similar cheese made in Somerset. I think it is the one listed here.

I shall sample those over the weekend. If you don’t hear any more you an assume that they were yummy.

Fortuitous Cheese

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

While we were in Bath yesterday we noticed an ad for a cheese festival, in Bath, today. How could we resist? We had time to pop in for an hour in the morning, so we did. There were a number of well known cheese makers there, including Sparkenhoe Red Leicester, Appleby Cheshire, and the 2010 World Champion cheese, Cornish Blue. The discovery of the day, however, was a cheese flavored with wasabi.

No, I’m serious. Julianna Sedli of The Old Cheese Room (based in Sorhsam near Swindon) specializes in French-style cheese made from unpasteurised milk from Jersey cows. However, she loves the taste of wasabi, and decided to try to make a cheese from it. The result was Wasabi Pearl, which is surprisingly yummy, and does not blow your head off. Julianna doesn’t appear to have a website. Doubtless some specialty cheese shops, for example Fine Cheese Company who organized the festival, can get the cheese for you. Alternatively Juliana has a regular stall at her local farmers’ market.

In the afternoon we went on to Bristol for the BristolCon debrief session, and to see the Harbour Railway, M-Shed and Great Britain.

Bristol: Trains and Brains

~ Cheryl

Yesterday, as advertised, I had a day out in Bristol with Feòrag. One of the highlights was getting to travel on the Bristol Harbour Railway, which was in steam over the weekend. Feòrag has some video, which hopefully she’ll post to YouTube later. The service has no enclosed coaches, just open wagons with seats in them, so there’s nothing to protect you from the locomotive’s smoke. I now know why steampunk characters wear goggles all the time. I suspect that we both smelled of coal for the rest of the day.

Two important things to know about Feòrag are that she’s an expert on beer, and a vegan. This poses challenges for a tour guide who knows little about beer and is a carnivore. Thankfully Feòrag had come well prepared, including with an impressive iPhone app for the beer connoisseur. Of course being so close to Somerset we ended up drinking in The Apple, a pub specializing in cider located on a canal barge. Over dinner I was pleased to hear Feòrag give the thumbs up to the Bristol Beer Factory. I have been happily drinking their wheat beer at the Arnolfini for some time, but it is good to have my preferences supported by expert opinion.

Talking of dinner, we took ourselves out to Clifton to visit one of Bristol’s best known Indian restaurants: the Thali Cafe. I’m pleased to report that their vegan options got the thumbs up, and from my point of view the meat-based food was fine too.

In the evening we joined my friend Marjorie at the Colston Hall for a concert by Jonathan Coulton and his regular support band, Paul and Storm. Fortunately for the musicians, the stars were not right and we were unable to wake Fluff Cthulhu in time to get him to the gig. However, here’s Jonathan performing a song that I think Fluff would approve of (well, apart from the bit about compromise — Elder Gods don’t do compromise).

By the way, I asked Jonathan if he’d consider playing Worldcon. He said there were scheduling issues as PAX is generally held over Labour Day weekend, but he’d love to do it. Were Kevin and I running Events for 2014 as we did for 2005, I’d be working out how to get him over, though I suspect he’d need to do it as part of a tour to make it possible.

Salami

~ Cheryl

Some of you remember from my Finncon report that I mentioned buying a bargain pack of salami at a farmers’ market in Tampere. Because I am an idiot, I didn’t look closely at the bag in which they came. Today I finally did that, and discovered to my amazement that it mentioned a UK website: Continental Cottage. I got more than 6 salamis, but I recognize several of those I got from the package they sell. I haven’t eaten the black pepper yet, but the others have all been very good, and the chorizo was excellent. (I put it in a pork & chorizo chili – adding it late on, not for the whole six hours in the slow cooker). So I think I shall be ordering from the website.

Finncon Now In Progress

~ Cheryl

Yesterday we did the press conference, drove to Tampere (via a chocolate factory), and did the sauna thing. Today has been academic conference for me, and Moomin Museum for Liz and Lois. Later there will be fine viking food and cinnamon beer.

Yesterday’s culinary experiment was smoked reindeer cheese. That’s smoked cheese made from reindeer milk, not cheese made from a smoked reindeer. It was part of a dish rather than on its own, so I can’t comment much on flavor, but now I know it exists and can seek it out.

The academic conference was good, though most of the papers were fairly unimaginative. I have come away from it with a great idea for a paper that I probably won’t have time to write.

Also Edward James (who is here researching a book he’s writing about Lois’s work) told me about this interesting conference on gender in literature that is taking place in Bristol in September.

Tomorrow I’m going to be busy at the convention for about 12 hours solid. The only blogging I’m likely to do will be the results of the Translation Awards.

Slow Train to Helsinki

~ Cheryl

Bloggage will be intermittent over the next few days as I wend my way slowly to Finncon. Today I have come as far as Oxford, where I am talking publisher stuff with Juliet McKenna and meeting up with Fabio Fernandes who is here for a conference. Fabio recommended a Lebanese restaurant called Al-Shami, and all I can say is that he has astoundingly good taste in eateries. I am stuffed. Now I am going to catch up with the email and go to sleep.

Morgan Doyle Exhibition

~ Cheryl

I had to go into London yesterday, and took the opportunity to meet up with my friend Judith Clute. As it happened, she had an invitation that evening to attend the opening of an exhibition at the Bankside Gallery, and she kindly took me along. The artist in question was Morgan Doyle, whose work you can view here. It’s not the sort of stuff that gets you onto the Hugo ballot, but like much modern art it looks so much better when you see it full size from a distance. Judith had contributed a nice appreciation of her friend’s work which was displayed by the entrance.

As we needed to get dinner we had a look around at South Bank restaurants. We ended up at Tas Pide, which is an Anatolian restaurant. It was definitely different, and the food was good. It is right next to the Globe, if you happen to be down that way.