Monday, December 10, 2007

The 2007 Nobel Prize Dinner in Stockholm

Well, I’m watching bunch of fancy people on TV eat dinner. It’s the 2007 Nobel Prize Dinner in Sweden and the winners were awarded their prize today and then the fancy dinner was tonight. This year, as I mentioned in earlier posts, there were some very old winners. Two of those were unable to make the trip due to poor health, Doris Lessing and Leonid Hurwicz. And of course, Al Gore wasn’t in attendance because the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo not Stockholm.

The dinner is a fancy part of the whole event. In fact, the menu is kept secret until the actual dinner. One of the people involved in the whole thing said in an interview today that the menu is almost as secret as the actual award. Despite the award being Swedish, Alfred Nobel being Swedish, the menu’s main language is given in French.

There were quite a few American winners this week, and the TV personalities covering the event actually discussed the American table manners. They referred to the “Yankee” way of eating with only a fork and keeping it in your right hand instead of the fork in your left hand and knife in your right hand. They suggested that if an American wanted to be eccentric this would be a good way to eat at the Nobel Prize Dinner. Good. The reputation of our table manners precede us the world over.

But enough about that. Let’s get to the meat of the evening. The actual dinner. And so without further ado, the December 10th, 2007 Nobel Prize Dinner menu as brought to us by (as in I copy and pasted) the Nobel website:


Lobster aspic with dill-baked halibut and Kalix bleak roe

Young cockerel with cockerel sausage, accompanied by
almond potato and celery root terrine

Raspberry and blackcurrant parfait on beds of pistachio,
with vanilla ice cream

VINS
Jacquart Brut Mosaïque Millésimé 1996
Magnum

Corton Grand Cru Grèves Bourgogne 2002
Domaine Jean-Claude Belland

Tri de Vendange Coteaux du Layon 2003
Raymond Morin

Café
Remy Martin VSOP
Cointreau

Eau minérale Ramlösa

Next, I would like to present you with the December 10th, 2007 Hairy Swede Dinner menu as brought to you by me:

Chocolate shaped teddy bear from Advent calendar

Young Chicken Top Ramen, accompanied by tuna fish flavored with
lemon pepper herbs and moutard sandwich on buttered bread

Vanilla yogurt accompanied by sugar cookies

VINS
N/A

Apple Juice

Eau

A quick note, apparently vegetarian options were offered at the Nobel Prize Dinner, but this wasn’t shown on the website. In regards to the Hairy Swede Dinner, no vegetarian options were available.

And there you have it, the difference between living in a very small apartment and just having found a real job, and being a Nobel Prize winner. It’s the food you get to eat on December 10th.

10 comments:

  1. You are funny. I hope your new job gives you many writing opportunities. Thanks for the laugh.

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  2. ahhh...yeah we are quite the barbaric type when we eat, us americans, how silly we are. what makes us think we can eat with only one utensil?...hehe

    actually to be honest i ..hmm.. i think ill save the rest for my blog. you gave me and idea..thanks hairy!

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  3. you make me laugh. thanks.

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  4. glad you liked it!

    @ Mrs. I thought it was interesting though that one of the possible explanatons the reporters gave as to why Swedes eat with thei kife in the right had dated back to Viking times and the need to have a knife at the ready for protection. So I guess eating habits come down to a matter of persepctive. Is it more barbaric to have a knife in your right hand ready to stab someone during dinner or to shovel food in with your fork in your right hand?

    These are the questions that keep me up at night.

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  5. so basically all americans are not ready for war...interesting..hehe

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  6. oh, i just had an entry about the nobel ceremonies, too! good that i focused on the awarding instead. :)

    i think it is more barbaric and bloody merciless to stab someone to death with a fork! hahaha! on a side note, the reason why the brits have been driving on the left side of the road is because it is a remnant of the old feudal times when swordsmen (who are mostly right-handed) travel with their horses on the left side of the road, such that their right hand can easily access the sword in the scabbard worn on the left and swing it immediately when needed to his opponent at his right.

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  7. They've must been joking then, hairy. :P All Europeans and probably most other cultures except South East-asian and USA eat with knives and forks. It's not weird, it's the norm.

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  8. ATM and BMW Menu Tuesday Night


    Fluffy Baked Potato
    Crispy Swedish Meatballs
    (3 for ATM 11 for BMW)
    Smothered in Lingonsylt
    Sparkling water
    Lemon Tea



    Thats right we made a trip to Ikea.

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  9. @mogli, these are the sorts of tidbits I have come to expect from you. I love it!

    @anonymous, see I was under the impression that all Europeans ate like that also, but they were dead serious in their assertions that it might date to viking times. Maybe the Vikings were just trend setters. Or maybe all of Europe felt the need to have a knife in hand at dinner just in case

    @Alaska4Life, clearly the common lines of latitude that Alaska and Sweden find themselves on lead to a finer palate. What else could explain the shared love of meatballs and lingonsylt? Luckily this palate does not escape us when moves are made to small towns in Oregon.

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  10. @mrs. cecrux, I forgot to respond. oops. Yeah I thought that was an interesting tidbit of information considering current events.

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