Freyju Möndlur Klassic

I am sure these kidney beanesque candies from Iceland appeal to someone, otherwise they wouldn't sell them.

Hard outershell with an initial caramel flavour, these degenerate into something that is akin to black licorice oil on your palate.

A perfect treat for someone with short term memory loss.

-1/10 rating

Octopus Balls

No joke, this is what the Japanese translates to on this package - Octopus Balls.

Before I went to Nagoya, the boys gave explicit instructions about what they wanted me to bring back.  Kracie food kits were at the top of the list (see our first blog post).  Go to YouTube and enter kracie into the search function and you will see how cool these kits are.

So here we go.  Iron Chef William has googled English instructions for this kit and is underway.

Frankly, this is like an edible playdough kit with an Easybake oven overtone.

 

Melanie just passed by with a concerned expression on her face.

Octopus parts have been formed. Dough is being made.

 

Final product is surprisingly good.  Mellow seafood flavour with a curry sauce.  Japan, you crazy. 

The bread

We made our first rugbrød using the Venø starter this past weekend.

Friday evening involved mixing 1 tbsp of our Venø starter with 100g of rye flour and 100g of water and letting the mixture set over night.

First thing on Saturday morning, we mixed the Friday component with 400g of rye flour, 100g of cracked rye and 500g of water.  This was put into a buttered bread pan, covered, and set aside for 3 hours.

After 3 hours, the wild Venø yeast was very active and the dough had a distinct beery aroma.

In a 350F oven, we baked the loaf for 60 minutes.

The resulting loaf looked good, although in the taste department it was lacking the full punch of lactic acid that I was expecting.  This means that I need to leave the dough in the bread pan for a longer period of time in order for the yeast to work their magic.

Venø the starter

You can't bottle up your vacation and take it back with you but this might come close.

Last winter I tried to capture wild yeast to make traditional Rugbrød.  There wasn't much to it - mix equal parts of rye flour and water together, expose to the air, feed twice a day for a week and then use it to make bread.

My starter worked, but it was lacklustre.  It took twice as long to work as what most recipes called for but the final product turned out ok.

Fast forward to our vacation and our second to last day on the island of Venø in Denmark. I found some flour in the cupboard, mixed it with water and let it sit in a wild flower patch next to the cottage with a steady ocean breeze blowing over it.

On the day that we left, I took a teaspoon of the exposed mixture and put it into a sealed bag and brought it back to Canada.  

I inoculated a new rye flour and water mixture with the Venø mixture and the results have been spectacular.  It doubled in size in less than 12 hours and produced all of the tell tale signs and smells of being an exceptional sour dough starter.

First loaf of bread will be made this weekend.

My starter - now called Venø

Skalle

These are interesting little devils.

They are wine gums that are a mix of licorice and sour berry that we picked up in Sweden.  You would think that black licorice mixed with anything would be a disaster.

So these were a surprise - confusing flavour at first that was pleasantly nice after awhile.

Consensus is an 8.5/10

Look O Look

Not sure I would even classify this one a candy. The boys picked it up in the Netherlands. William said eetpapier translates into edible paper. 

According to Sam, this one rates a 2/10 for taste and 6/10 for novelty (tongue tattoo was a hit)

Gammeldags Lakrids

As part of the post vacation therapy regime, we are going to be posting reviews of some of the candy we have brought back from our trip.

"Gammeldags Lakrids" is a potent black licorice candy. I am not a fan of black licorice - others in the Team Chapman household are.

When I opened up our hardcase after we arrived, everything smelled like black licorice.  This sealed bag of Gammeldags Lakrids" was responsible hence the first in line to be consumed.

Black licorice lovers rate this 8/10.

A few more watercolour sketches

It was so beautiful and warm on Venø! These were done on the beach in front of and around the cottage.

Back in Iceland

The flight to Reykjavik from Billund was about 2.5 hours.

Sam's lunch included a play set. I played with it more than he did.

Icelandair has been a pleasure to fly with.

The Home of Lego

It was a short drive from Venø to Billund.

Billund is where Lego was invented and the Billund Airport has a pretty cool Lego store. 

Our flight was delayed by 45 minutes  but we should have no problem getting our connecting flight in Reykjavik.

Lunch was smørrebrød at the airport.

All packed

View out of our bedroom window.

Mønsted Kalkgruber

We started packing up today and cleaned the car out.

We drove 40 minutes to the Mønsted Kalkgruber, which is the the largest underground limestone mine in the world.

There are more than 60 kilometres of underground paths. Concerts have been held underground and part of the mine is being used to age cheese.  There is also a very cool multimedia theatre.