Donsö Hamnfest or Harbour Festival 2022, Swedish west coast, Sweden.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2022
Summer solstice and Midsummer’s Day 2022 Styrsö
The Midsummer Pole at Styrsö Bratten, Swedish west coast, Sweden 2022.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2022
The summer solstice on 21 June marked the day of maximum sunlight in the northern hemisphere. In Gothenburg, Sweden, these are the days when you can see the rim of the sun lightly touch the horizon and then rise again.
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Sjømatfestivalen 2022, Tromsø, Norway
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.
Flickorna på Färjenäs, Karl IX:s Göteborg
At Flickorna på Färjenäs Café, Karl IX:s väg 1, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2022
Karl IX:s Göteborg is the city of Gothenburg before present day Gothenburg. It was founded in 1603 by Karl IX at Färjestaden on Hisingen with the intention of creating a trading post and an enclave for Dutch naturalized foreigners to the Swedish west coast. The Danes weren’t happy about the idea of a thriving and competing trading post near Denmark, so Karl IX:s Gothenburg was burnt to the ground in 1611. What to do? Well, move the city upstream and build fortresses with as many cannons Denmark facing as possible. That new city upstream is now present day Gothenburg. Power of attorney was given to Dutchman Cornelius Corneliusson on November 9, 1603, to construct the new city of Gothenburg.
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Passau, Lower Bavaria, Germany 202205
It could have been a Prinzregententorte, a Kaiserschmarrn or an Apfelstrudel. But when in Passau, in Lower Bavaria, in Germany, I of course just had to go for a homemade chocolate gelato. I attribute this choice to identifying with the Boii tribe who technically came from northern Italy in 2 BC?
Text & Photo © Angeline Lim, CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2022
There is something about the heavy historical presence and influences of the monastery founded by Severinus of Noricum (c. 410 – 8 January 482), and the confluence of the three rivers Danube, the Inn (river from the south) and the Ilz (river from the north) that made me feel at home walking the narrow cobbled streets of the city of Passau in Lower Bavaria, Germany. I went to school in a Convent run by French missionary nuns in Singapore. The Convent was the next best choice as I understood from my parents, after failing the criteria of being a silent child and one who would do well in a life of prayer and solitude for the Carmelite order.
Easter treats, Swedish west coast 2022
Red cabbage Easter egg dye that renders Danila teal blue eggs.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2022
I love colored eggs. In Asian tradition, red dyed hard boiled eggs would be seen at month-old baby celebrations and birthdays. As a child growing up in Singapore, I more loved looking at the red eggs sitting in a pile than eating them. The other festive occasion where colorfully painted hard boiled eggs would make an appearance was at Easter. A memorable childhood event held in the convent in which I grew up, was the annual Easter egg hunt in the school garden. The decorative hard boiled eggs looked so cheery and bright that having found one such egg in that large school garden was a prize in itself. Chocolate Easter eggs the size of my little girl head came in the later years of my childhood, and those were seen wrapped in shiny tin foils and placed on the kitchen table from my parents, for the unwrapping, and eating.
Lamb pâté
A basic lamb pâté with just about two main ingredients, lamb mince and eggs.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2022
New Year’s Eve 2022
New Year’s Eve 2022, postcard.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021
This New Year’s Eve, I’m revisiting some pages of my own copy of Ken Wilber’s 2014 book, The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development.
I totally enjoy reading books written by Wilber. He is a brilliant mind, and a brilliant scholar with a wonderful sense of humour. He is also superb at synthesizing theories and thought models of transpersonal psychology, human knowledge and behaviour.
So instead of the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, of Everything being 42. I would just as well go for turtles.
The answer (in part and in whole) are holons. Turtles all the way up, turtles all the way down.
Sjömagasinet julbord 2021
At Sjömagasinet for a Christmas table sitting, 2021, Swedish west coast.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021
Sjömagasinet has become a signature restaurant to visit for the family julbord during the yuletide season. I love family Christmas table sittings in Sweden, and I began writing about the julbord spreads at the restaurant from 2007, 2008 and 2009 when the restaurant was helmed by Guide Michelin Chef, Leif Mannerström.
Långedrag Värdshus julbord 2021
At Långedrag Värdshus for a Christmas table sitting, 2021, Swedish west coast.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021
It was special to come back to Långedrag Värdshus for a Christmas table sitting. My absolute favourite dish from the 2020 julbord, of which I devoured a generous amount, was their honey roasted duck. Already then by New Year’s 2021, I was looking forward to my next julbord with them. I knew too, that duck would be my first dish at the 2021 julbord, breaking all Swedish julbord serving traditions that begins with the cold dishes, particularly, the preserved herrings.