(no subject)

[elainegrey]

My sleep Saturday night is best summed up as too hot, too narrow, too achy, and too much light. Sunday morning as too much anxiety about public speaking.

Sunday's breakfast in the hotel was amazing. Surely a special day buffet i thought as i restrained myself from binging. Being in a state about work, i didn't think to take a photo. I described it to a colleague who advised that, no, this is not unusual, and i'd probably see the same the next day. And lo!


Clockwise, from top: brown bread, cheese, and tomato, a second brown bread, cheese, and tomato, herring in mustard sauce, a green salad with cherry tomatoes, black olives, and generous amounts of lox.

Indeed, it is all here again, except i think there was a sweet, layered pastry (cake!) that isn't here this morning. Oh, and 7 minute eggs, which i think are probably runny in side? Soft boiled? I wont miss them. There's a fine tray of scrambled eggs from which i helped myself yesterday, today i was bold enough for salad for breakfast. The tomatoes are from Spain; i am advised by the fresh market i went to on Saturday. They are delicious. So much beautiful food. I shudder to think of the hotel breakfasts in America where the height of dining is making your own waffle.

Dinner last night was improved heartily by bumping into tow women from the conference who were going to a locals restaurant at the end of the street from my hotel. My random choice of a restaurant was closed: they swept me up and we went to Pööbel, on Google maps as a bar, but with a fine menu on the first page before three packed pages of beers and cocktails. I dined on Estonian sandwiches and a salmon salad.

"Barley bread with egg butter and beef liver pâté, black bread with mushroom salad and spiced sprats" which they adapted for me to leave off the beef, put the sprats over the egg butter and the mushroom salad stood on it's own. I did not notice the mushrooms.

"Salmon alder - smoked in the morning served with green salad" The fresh smoking was a revelation: a glaze of smoky flavor on the rich fish -- how can i describe how fresh smoke tastes?

We ate outside where the long evening light was wonderful, although the sun in the trees at nine pm was disconcerting.

I slept better last night, pushing the beds closer so i wouldn't toss everything to the floor. The feather comforter was already folded in the corner. And i kept the eye mask on more successfully, probably due to less tossing.

Yesterday was filled with crystal clear sunshine. Today it's overcast and i wonder if i will need a sweater today. Probably tonight. It is, of course, this morning that i have to wander a bit before the conference proper begins with the plenary at 11. I'll take the camera and wander more through the old city.

Comments

[annie_r]

It looks amazing! Glad you slept a bit better. I do not actually know what sprats are (other than Jack Sprat), or egg butter. Will look them up. Fresh smoked salmon, what a treat! I have had home-smoked fresh-caught salmon in the past, and it was such a different experience from the store-bought kind. Getting a smoker gadget is a possibility.

[elainegrey]

Egg butter seemed to be boiled egg squished with butter? Ah, here's a Finnish recipe:
https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/munavoi-finnish-egg-butter-180624

Mom would fix eggs this way growing up. We never had a name for it: i wonder if it was a remnant Swedish practice? Or is it so obvious....

[annie_r]

I wonder if the egg butter is either a Eastern/Middle or general European thing, or else maybe a common way to use eggs and butter, which keep well - my mom's favorite Passover food was what she called scallions and eggs, or eggs and onions, which was basically egg butter mixed in with lots of chopped scallions. Kind of like egg salad with butter instead of American mayonnaise. I'm not sure why she only ate it on Passover since it was so easy, but she considered it a Passover food and liked to keep those treats for the holiday and not make them an ordinary thing, maybe. Same with stewed fruit compote (not a favorite of mine at all, I like dried fruit on its own.) Wondering how far-flung the chopped eggs and melted butter combination is, and what it is called. We didn't have any other name for it.

[warriorsavant]

Breakfast looks yummy. Sometimes hotel buffets are a surprising introduction to local cuisine & tastes.

Re: Estonian, a place most of us in N. Am. don't think about much, am reading a historical mystery that takes place in Tallinn. Gives me an interest in things Baltic.

[elainegrey]

I read both the English-language mysteries of the Apothecary in Tallinn around the trip: it was an interesting way to get a feel for Tallinn before traveling, and to wrap up the trip as i finished the second in the long return layover in Chicago.