Nobel Prize Banquet Hall, Sweden
The Stadshuskällaren, or the town hall cellars, is the site of the Nobel banquet, which takes place every 10 December. The rest of the days of the year, you can visit the restaurant and eat a banquet of past ceremonies.
All banquets, of all years, are available. The 2017 Nobel banquet, for example, with its crisp lamb chair and frozen blueberry bavarois, is lined with the green and gold Nobel porcelain as it is used in banquets.
For a unique historical experience, visitors can have a one-year Nobel banquet celebrating one of their cultural heroes.
Fans of author Gabriel García Márquez can enjoy the 1982 banquet (with Arctic charcoal in a dill cream sauce and Nobel ice cream), and devotees of Marie Curie can toast his 1911 chemistry award by dining at fonds d’artichauts duchesse and poularde fermière (“Duchess style” artichoke bottoms and free-range chicken).
Unfortunately, Nobel banquets are not cheap. The previous year’s banquet price is currently Skr1,865pp (£ 155). Older menus (anything older than the previous year) are priced variable, require a group of 10 or more, and must be reserved at least a week in advance. If that sounds too luxurious, you can always stop at the restaurant for lunch and take in the vaulted ceilings and lush décor of the Stadshuskällaren.
How to test it: The Stadshuskällaren (stadshuskallarensthlm.se/en) is open for lunch from Monday to Friday and for dinner from Wednesday to Saturday.
Cafe on snowmobiles in the Hugging Tree Forest, Finland
The Campfire Barista, Steffan Wunderink’s one-of-a-kind coffee shop, offers exceptional drinks prepared over a campfire dragging behind a snowmobile through a forest in the far north of Finland.
The forest, which belongs to his wife’s grandfather, was a gift from the Finnish state after the family lost their home during WWII.
Rather than use the forest for wood, the family decided to put the trees up for adoption and invite tourists to spend time with them. It was while working as a guide in this land, now known as HaliPuu Forest (Embraced Tree), that Wunderink became a Campfire Barista (CFB).
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Using an open fire as its stove, Wunderink built a reputation for its wonderfully smoky espresso-based drinks, as well as a chai latte made from an antioxidant-rich native mushroom called chaga.
When a local complained about having to walk into the woods to get his daily dose of caffeine, the CFB moved. Wunderink bought a snowmobile and built a sled that could safely hold a log grill.
Then he partnered with a friend linked to a single farm biodynamic coffee farm in India, which also operated a solar-powered coffee roaster in a converted sea container in the city.
During the winter months, you can have Wunderink coffee in front of the tourist office in the city center, in your family’s forest, or at a number of public events. In the warmer months, without a snowmobile to ride, you are restricted to stationary events and festivals. Their menu has expanded beyond espresso and chaga chai-based drinks to organic teas, warm blackcurrant juice, and fire-roasted lingonberry marshmallows.
How to test it: HaliPuu Forest (halipuu.com) is a 25-minute drive from Kittilä Airport.
Manna bakery from Sicily, Italy
For centuries, scholars have debated the origins of manna, the mysterious substance that, according to the Bible, God provided as food for the Israelites as they traveled through the desert. But in Pollina, a region of Sicily’s Madonie Mountains, there is no debate: manna is the dried sap of Fraxinus angustifolia, the narrow-leaved ash.
A substance with ancient roots, manna has been cultivated in Sicily since around the 9th century, when the Arabs introduced the practice of collecting resin from the ash tree. Today, a small group of growers, many of them over the age of 70, collect the manna during a fleeting harvest window in late summer.
With the advent of cheap sugar and modernization, it’s a declining tradition, but a local confectionery is working to put mana back on the map.
Fiasconaro is an artisan bakery in the town of Castelbuono. Among its specialties is a panettone, Italy’s traditional Christmas bread, dipped in manna glaze. Sicilian manna has a delicate, natural sweetness that some describe as a cross between honey and maple syrup.
The substance, all hand-sourced from the region’s harvest, also adds flavor to the bakery ice cream and a thick, spreadable cream that is well worth a culinary pilgrimage.
How to test it: Fiasconaro is located in Piazza Margherita de Castelbuono (fiasconaro.com). He ships his panettone around the world, but those who can visit the bakery are generously rewarded with samples.
A legendary fish head pie, Cornwall
Tom Bawcock’s Eve, a Christmas festival in the Cornish seaside town of Mousehole, celebrates the night that 16th century Mousehole folk hero Tom Bawcock set out to fish despite dangerous storms.
As the story goes, he returned with enough fish to end a local famine. In some versions of the tale, Bawcock brought his cat, who helped calm the storm.
To honor the brave fisherman, revelers enjoy a starry pie, a classic salty fish cake of potatoes, eggs, and white sauce, with the added touch of intact fish heads (and sometimes tails) crawling through the crust. , as if they were looking up. to the stars.
Anchovy-like sardine is typically used, but in reality any small fish will do, as long as it has a head.
How to test it: Tom Bawcock’s Eve is celebrated annually on December 23. The Ship Inn (shipinnmousehole.co.uk), a historic pub perched on the edge of the harbor wall, offers free stargazy cake to celebrate, often handed out by a local fisherman dressed as Tom Bawcock.
This is an edited excerpt from Gastro Obscura: a gastronomic guide for adventurers by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thura, available now (Workman Publishing, £ 32)