Nordic Bakery, a hop, skip, and a jump across the pond.

Any bakery hunters in the London Area? I would love to visit Nordic Bakery over in the UK!

This month, Hollywood went Scandinavian for the 8th annual time

A few weeks ago, I gave a Great American Bakery Hunt shout out to the Scandinavian film festival. The event took place at the Writer's Guild Theater in Beverly Hills, and was organized by the American Scandinavian Foundation of Los Angeles.

Though the festival spanned two weekends, I was only able to attend one of the Friday screenings on January 12th.

I would have loved to watch all of the films, but time did not permit me to attend every screening. So my friend and I chose to watch "After the Wedding (Efter Brylluppet)", which was directed by Susanne Bier and starred Mads Mikkelsen, a well known Danish actor who also played a supporting role in the recent James Bond movie.

Although it was highly dramatic, After the Wedding was a really beautiful, human story, and I'm not surprised that it just received an Oscar nomination for best foreign film.

The best part about it was that it contained that very Danish element of dark humor, the one which has you feeling awkward and emotionally drained at one moment and full of hilarity at the next. (The best analogy to this technique within American entertainment is seen in the HBO television series Six Feet Under.)

For all you film geeks out there, the movie was somewhat reminiscent of Festen, though not as intense. And Bier kept it light by including the 1982 (thanks, Wikipedia) Weather Girls classic "It's Raining Men" in not one, but two scenes. Is that a European thing?

I really enjoyed watching the movie, a large portion of which was filmed in Copenhagen. Watching the film and listening to the Danish brought back a lot of great memories, although in all honesty, there could have been more bakery scenes! Humor me Susanne Bier!

It was really enjoyable and interesting to be able to speak with other members of the audience after the show. Naturally, we were curious about what led everyone else to this event, to a small theater that screens Scandinavian films for two weeks out of the entire year.

We thanked the organizer of the event for a great film, a man who, as it turns out, is not Scandinavian at all. Much like my friend and I, he said he became involved in the culture through "life experiences."

We also talked with an older fellow for quite awhile about his interest in Scandinavia. After establishing that none of us were Scandinavian, we asked him the next logical question: "So...what brings you here?"

The man, who is a local L.A. actor, spoke openly about his younger days, when he had once fallen in love with a Swedish girl back in the 70's.

We understood. "It happens to the best of us," I said. My friend nodded. Not that I am in the business of falling in love with Swedish girls, nor is my friend who accompanied me to the film festival. But we do understand the charming nature of Scandinavia and its people. If you've been there, you know this charm as well.

During the festival, we threw back a Carlsberg for old times sake. As Denmark's national beer, it was only appropriate that it should be on sale during the event. I can still remember when I had just arrived in Denmark, only a few weeks into my program, when we went to tour the Carlsberg brewery.

They loaded our entire program, mostly Americans, into a big group of buses, and shuffled us into a room with some company representative. He gave us an entertaining presentation about the beermaker's brand, which carries the famous slogan "Probably the best beer in the world."

Then we were shuffled into a huge hall and told that we could drink whatever we wanted, but for only one hour. Needless to say, Carlsberg is one smart brewer, because in all of those wide-eyed barely legal Americans, they found many customers for life by opening up their beer supply to us. And, they gave us a refreshing view of the world by allowing us to be human instead of giving us a one beer limit and worrying about what lawsuits might occur if they dispensed more alcohol. (That's right, people in Denmark just don't sue each other with the litigious zeal of folks in the United States...Imagine how Budwieser could increase its revenues just by giving one hour's worth of beer to a few hundred foreign exchange students!)

No matter how many other beers I may like better, Carlsberg will always be the one that tastes like Denmark, the one that tasted so good ice cold after going outside and pulling it out of the snow at a house party. It was the beer that welcomed me to the country, warmed me on long walks and train rides home, and a beer that made my Danish better with each sip that I drank.

It's just too bad you can't get the seasonal Easter version here in the U.S.

If you want to check out more Scandinavian film, you can try Babette's Feast, which tells the story of a French woman taken in by two old Danish sisters in a small rural Danish town. To my amusement, I discovered that there is a bakery in Long Beach named after this very film, but sadly the bakery's offerings make no comparison to the glorious food featured in the movie. The film can be a bit slow at times, but has an awesome, seriously mouth- watering dinner scene if you're into that sort of thing.

Anyway, thanks to the ASFLA for a great film festival, I will surely be returning next year for more Nordic delight!

Scandinavian film festival comes to Los Angeles

For all of my fellow foreign film geeks out there, I want to give a Great American Bakery Hunt shout out to the Scandinavian film festival, which is in full swing this weekend in Los Angeles.

Organized by the American-Scandinavian Foundation of Los Angeles, the event is featuring contemporary films from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Eager audiences can make reservations and check out the line-up online, a selection that includes both full length features and shorts.

The event will also feature the "Nordic cafe" in the theater lobby, where film fans can "network and nosh" and "enjoy refreshments and the good company of others who share a love for Scandinavian film and Hollywood". I'm hoping that there will be some tasty pastries to munch on, but I'm not going to get my hopes up.

Jeg elsker dig Scandinavia, and I can't wait for the festival!

Merry Christmas Bakery Hunters!

Ah, the obligatory Christmas post. Today was a gorgeous Christmas day in Southern California, and I had plenty to be thankful for-- I was surrounded by my whole family and an excess of baked goods.

My family was more than generous in their holiday giving, and many of their gifts will help me to contribute more content to The Great American Bakery Hunt in the future. I acquired an entire library of treasures including:

• A 2-year subscription to Nordic Reach, a magazine dedicated to Scandinavian culture. (In its own words, Nordic Reach "covers people, places, and stories of interest to everyone with a foot-or soul- in both the Scandinavian and American cultures, as well as to those who wish to appreciate them more deeply.") With articles like "In Cod We Trust", how can I go wrong?
• A selection of expatriate novels, including Peter Mayle's Provence A-Z (I really enjoyed reading his book French Lessons because of all of his adventures with French food, so I'm hoping it will be another good read)
• Not one, but three, repeat three books about the greatness of cheese! My selection includes The Cheese Plate, Cheese: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best, and The Cheese Board: Collective Works. Oh happy day! (Side note: The great thing about a cheese book is that it will always pick you up when you're feeling down. A good friend of mine once mailed me "The Cheese Companion" after I suffered a break-up. Since she had temporarily relocated and couldn't provide a shoulder to cry on, she sent the Companion to me as a substitute. Perhaps the healing power of cheese doesn't work for everyone, but that cheese companion sure saw me through some tough times. God knows my Connoisseur's Guide will come in handy one of these days!)
• The Cake Bible. I have been wanting to get the Cake Bible ever since acquiring the Bread Bible about a year ago. Clearly they belong sitting side by side on my bookshelf, in holy baking communion with one another.
• A pastry cookbook from the La Brea Bakery
• A cupcake cookbook, titled "Crazy about Cupcakes"-- Just how crazy will it get? Only time will tell.
• the Tartine cookbook, from the San Francisco bakery I have been dying to try- one of the bakery's founders has Scandinavian (Swedish) roots, so I am already a fan...
• The 3rd edition Food Lover's Companion, an alphabetized culinary reference book from which I have already learned that "Abbacchio" is Italian for a very young lamb. I sneaked a peak at the end of the book, confirming that exciting discoveries await me throughout the whole reference guide. Zwieback, my friends, is a "twice-baked" German bread often served to people with digestive problems. Who knew?

Aside from all this reading, I really do need to make more time to bake, especially because my parents also got me three silicone Le Creuset pastry brushes! They are so adorable, and go perfectly with my new "drop, smidge, pinch, and hint" measuring spoons. A new whisk, measuring cups, and ceramic pie weights will also be welcome additions to the kitchen.

As we approach the New Year, I am armed with plenty of reading materials and baking tools to aid me in future bakery hunts and baking endeavors. Time to get to work! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good pastry...

Live each season

It's my first semester after college and officially in the working world, which means there is no nearing "Christmas vacation" to speak of. I will have two days off for Christmas, two days off for New Years, and then it's back to reality. It is clear that four days is simply not enough to fully appreciate the good tidings and cheer of the holidays.

To address this dilemma, my friend and I started brainstorming several weeks ago. We needed to have a low-key celebration for the ages, one that would end 2006 with a jolly good helping of food and some drink to toast the coming new year. We planned it for a Saturday night, since I work Saturday mornings at the farmer's market. I was to work the market, pick up any fresh market goods that struck my fancy, and head down to his house.

I must say, I gathered a particularly delicious array of farmer's market loot that day. Among the culinary booty, there were fresh tomatoes, potatoes, and onions from Jacque the produce vendor, amazing hickory and chile lime almonds from Andre (who recommended these flavors as his favorite with beer), fresh sea bass from Marvin the fisherman, and German bakery cheese bread from Eddy.

To go along with the food, I picked up a selection of craft beers at Hi-Time Liquor (a Costa Mesa legend!), where the staff gave me some friendly advice about their seasonal (winter ales) and all-season favorites. (My favorite ended up being The Three Philosophers by the Ommegang Brewery, a Cooperstown, NY based brewery that makes Belgian style beers. I have heard this brewery is a mecca for beer lovers, so naturally I am already planning a trip in my future.)

I tried to make a cheese dip with my "Cooking with Beer" book, an impulse buy I snatched up while waiting for a price check at the grocery store. The dip turned out horribly (I secretly knew it would), but there was plenty of other good food to go around.

The great thing about the night was the spirit behind it--good friends and good eats. It mattered little if there were a few flops in the kitchen. We stole our inspiration from Thoreau: "Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each."

At the end of the night, we ended with some chocolate kalua cake, made by the cake company I work for. It was the perfect late night snack, but not as good as my early morning, on- the- way -home A & W Root Beer Float. As I changed lanes to pull into the parking lot and slowed to the drive-thru ordering spot, I fully acknowledged that this craving was ridiculous. But then I thought to myself, it's never too early for a root beer float. It's five o'clock somewhere. Mostly it reminded me of how different my lifestyle is here in the United States versus when I lived in Denmark. Surrounded by the metal heap of my Volvo station wagon, I am at one with my American roots, slurping away at my sugary-soda concoction. I pause at a stoplight, and think "My dear readers! What would they think if they were here with me, patroning fast food establishments while driving around in my not so fast '88 Volvo??" I have taken a picture for you all, to appropriately capture this very stereotypically American moment. It's at times like these that I am reminded how much I miss wandering the streets of Europe and interacting with people outside of the constraints of a moving box. While I have the convenience of personal transportation and fast food here, I miss the contact of the outside world, and the pleasure of being free from an automobile.

Someday I will go back to Europe. But no matter where I am living, my worlds will continue colliding in American-European fusion. As I drive along the 405, I often get the urge to hear the sounds of Europe, and I reach back to grab my Danish listening CD's. The next day, I use the French ones. And in January, I'll attend the Scandinavian film festival in Los Angeles, crossing the barrier from Orange to LA County in none other than a Scandinavian made automobile. Fitting, no?

Time to Scandinavianize!

SAS Airlines is offering travelers a chance to "Scandinavianize" themselves. By visiting the SAS website, you can send Scandinavian phrases to your friends and family in the language of your choice. Whether you choose Finnish, Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian, who doesn't love a friendly reminder of dejlig, lovely Northern Europe?

One of the funniest phrases SAS includes to lure travelers to Scandinavia? "I'm so bored with the sun."