Sjømatfestivalen 2022, Tromsø, Norway

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Grilled salmon at the Tromsø Seafood Festival / Sjømatfestivalen 2022, Norway.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2022

It has been some years since the Arctic City, Tromsø, saw such a great buzz of activities that appealed to people of all age groups. It seemed like the majority of city folk and its suburbs were out on the streets this morning with the Seafood Festival weekend for 2022.

There were several activities on-going simultaneously, and I was eager to catch them all in action at the same time. In Tromsø harbour, at one pier, starter guns and flares were up in the air at regular intervals for a rowboat race. The participating crowd dressed in festive costumes for the race. Two teams caught my eye, the first was a group of women who wore black t-shirts and gym tights, paired with colourful tutus, and the second team who had beautiful costumes chose the more elegant bunad or Norwegian folk dress.

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Julebord at Scandic Ishavshotel Tromsø, Northern Norway

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Christmas Table at Scandic Ishavshotel Tromsø, Norway. Crisp pork ribs (ribbe) and cured lamb chops (pinnekjøtt) are the staples at Norwegian Christmas Tables.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021

A PLOS ONE study on periodic human activities and high word frequency occurrences showed that we speak what we think, and what we do [1]. Language not only reflects thoughts, experiences and realities but it also helps create realities. The study methodology is not particularly ground breaking. The authors analyzed an historical corpus from American and British daily newspaper articles from between 1836 to 1922 to uncover patterns in language use that correlated with seasonal human activities. Still, what I personally found interesting was the concrete illustration over decades, that people did indeed speak their lives in the fashion of their daily, monthly, and yearly activities. Certain words were used more frequently during certain times of the year than in others, thus reflecting an underlying social reality of the people. The top 25k frequently occurring words in the historical corpus reflected activities and concerns around annual weather patterns, hunting, harvesting as well as religious and civil activities. Taking my own n-of-1 writings as a small, specialized corpus, I can see how much I love Christmas Table sittings, particularly at year’s end.

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Yuletide season 2021 at Graffi Grill Tromsø

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Graffi Grill Tromsø in full festive decorations for yuletide, Norway.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021

While it isn’t that often that I dine out in Tromsø, for the occasions that I do, it’s been an absolute pleasure.

Graffi Grill Tromsø is one of my favourite places to dine. Located along Tromsø harbour at the port terminal at Prostneset, the restaurant is easily accessible, and for the moment, fully decked for the festive yultide season. My favourite is the grill sample platter, with a variety of grilled meats and accompanying side dishes. We went crazy this time, and settled for a medium rare entrecôte. Totally enjoyed the yuletide vibes at the restaurant, and looking forward to the next occasion to visit.

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Early spring, Tromsø, Northern Norway

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A neighbourhood that is close to the city centre of Tromsø, in Northern Norway.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021

There was intermittent snow whilst I was on my walk, with little speckles of light reflecting from the falling snowflakes.

The spring equinox on 20 March 2021 marked the beginning of some very long summer days in the city of Tromsø, in Northern Norway. I´ve spent slightly more than two and a half years here in this cozy and compact city, moving here in the summer of 2018 to work and live. When I first arrived, my first impressions of this Arctic city was that it was quaint, and a little magic. Those first impressions of Tromsø hasn´t as yet faded with me.

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Neighbourhood weekend walk, Tromsø, Norway

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Daylength today on 24 Jan. is about 3:38 hrs. Here, the sun casts a warm glow over the coastline of Tromsø, in Northern Norway.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021

Short compilation of video and photos of the day´s walk.

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Norsk ribbe and reflections on environment adaptation

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Norsk ribbe, oven grilled pork belly with crackling over the top. The signature feature of the Norwegian style grilled pork belly is its thick layer of ultra crispy crackling.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2020

This festive season, my personal reflections are on questions of personal adaptation to new environments, and new living conditions. Adapting to a new environment and culture can be challenging. In my case, I´ve found myself adapting to being in new places and living conditions elastically, meaning to say, some fittings are easier done in some contexts than others. Taking the example of local food appreciation, it took me several years of living in Sweden before I stopped shopping at local Asian grocery shops. Food is closely connected to personal childhood experiences, the reason why from Proust, madeleines can have their moments that draw you into another world that once was yours. And there were so many petite madeleines that made up my personal Singapore narrative that it would have been a point of decision to live forward. So it took me a few years before I began to genuinely enjoy Nordic foods, from where they were cultivated at local farms, to how they were processed (salting, drying, smoking etc.) and how they were served. So while even some Swedes would disagree with semla hettvägg, I am for one, loving it.

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Festive egg halves

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Egg halves topped with skagenröra, trout roe and dill.
Text Photo & Video © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2020

One of my favourite appetizers is the Swedish style egg halves. I love the festive and luxurious look of them sitting polite and snug on the plate, patiently waiting for you to pick them up and savour them. They are no doubt, a staple at the Swedish julbord (Christmas table), where restaurants and homes will each have their favourite versions.

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