Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Swedish west coast late summer BBQ. Kebabs on the grill, cubes of marinated meat with cut up vegetables on skewers.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

For as long as I can remember, my life has been punctuated with barbeque events as something to look forward to and a weekend thing to do in Singapore. Needless to say, it’s one of those events that I so desperately miss when not in Singapore, especially the East Coast beachside barbeque where friends and family would toss on the grill, a variety of marinated meats and seafood.

In Singapore, barbeques are most often causal events with everyone in standard shorts and tees or alternatively, swimwear and wrapped around beach towels. Paper plates, plastic cups, and plastic forks and knives (if we even bothered using these and not eat with our fingers instead!) are the norm at these events. And of course, paper towels to clean up.

Then in most of my Singaporean experience, there’s always the general chaos of who’s mending the grill pits. In my family, it was more or less ‘to each their own’, so like the steamboat around the table, you look after whatever you’ve put on the grill yourself and there isn’t one grill master to see that things don’t burn. And things eventually always end up burnt, but we’ve all come to expect this and it would hardly be a heartwarming barbeque event without charred food. In fact, it was only when I arrived in Sweden that I realized that barbequed food is not synonymous with burnt food, but there were techniques to apply that would render succulently grilled meats served to the table.

Amused in the midst of chit-chat, making Singaporean style satay sticks to go with the warmed and waiting peanut sauce.

The Swedish barbeque is casual by Swedish norms but compared to Singapore, it would come across as slightly more formal, with proper designated seating places for everyone, and the use of porcelain plates, with proper glasses and coffee mugs. Serving the grilled food with red or white wine is not uncommon and there’s generally less movement of people between the grill pits and the dining table. There’s indeed a grill master, and no chaos whatsoever.
Continue reading “A Swedish late summer BBQ” →

Swedish west coast in mid-spring.
Photo © Jan-Erik Nilsson for Cheryl Marie Cordeiro 2010

The weather in Sweden, one of the most discussed non-academic topics at work, where even so, we end up trying to theorize why it is that we’re so fascinated with talking about the weather.

Academics can’t help but even in their spare time, seek out truth, certainty and burn to create foundations for abstract concepts. The weather is something that completely escapes us. Even the met station gets their forecasts wrong, a lot, which leaves us at work grappling with it. Too funny to observe.

Sailboat.

Here are pictures from an clear skied mid-spring day along the Swedish west coast. It’s the time of year where layered clothing works best because it’s warm in the sun and cold in the shades, and a gust of wind can still run chilly. The day before these pictures were taken, rainy. The day after, rainy.
Continue reading “The Swedish West Coast, mid-spring 2010.” →