In the groove

What I was going to write about yesterday, before my thoughts wandered away into the meaning of friends, acquaintances and networking..., was that those friends also know pretty much everything there is to know about eating out at different odd places in the part of Sweden called Roslagen. Places you'd probably never would have discovered otherwise, since they're not exactly always run-of-the-mill-easy-to-find-places.

So now and then we take the Toy Car, meet up with their equivalence of a toy car - of course not nearly as cute and perfect as the #1 Toy Car, but a car that for some odd reason make car-buffs almost bow in awe... - and head out in the unknown, for us city folks.

Those drives mostly involve archipelago and a ferry trip or two. And this time it was an old, far from common in Sweden anymore cable ferry which took us over the Furusund inlet to the island of Högmarsö. Fascinating stuff, even for someone as utterly uninterested in things technical and electrical, yours truly for example.

The place of dining this time was a place owned and worked by the proprietor of a restaurant in Norrtälje by the name Ett Glas/One Glass. The shrewdness of the restaurant though, was that it was being lodged with the old ship yard at Högmarsö. Not the average place for a restaurant, amongst all that hotchpotch junkyard stuff, there's actually a restaurant, and quite a good one too. Cool!

One of the larger things that could be found at the ship/junkyard was actually a small submarine from a James Bond-movie. It was a bit fuzzy as to which movie it had played a more or less significant role in. Since I'm far from a James Bond-fan I'm not sure, can it be "Dr No"? Anyone who has a clue?

Trying to figure that out I stumbled over this rather fun list of vehicles used by James Bond. I'm not sure which is my favourite, the BMW Z8 do has quite a resemblance to the Toy Car *surprise - not*, but I am more of a Rolls Royce and/or old British sportscar kind of gal in heart... Do you have a favourite James Bond-vehicle?

Back to the restaurant. You can choose from eating indoors or outdoors by the water - this time of year that choice is easier than easy... But even so, it was really lovely renovated indoors.

If it rains they use this huge level-luffing crane to lower down a tent over the outdoors eating-area. Love the ingeniousness of all the details, and to work with what's already there!

My favourite part of the whole place was the newly opened bar and lounge area at an old ship, with old, comfy furniture and a well-stocked bar of pretty much all you might want to have, alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic beverages. Very unpretentious and - as I've already mention James Bond and the 60ies... - groovy!

For dinner it was the perfect time to try the new xider-flavour Strawberry Desire. Cute bottle, yummy content, I'd say dangerously delicious and non-alcoholic tasting...

And here are some selected pictures of the food we had - and if someone perhaps harbour the thought that I slurped everything of it myself, that's just not the case... -

Garlic bread

Delicious fish-marmite with saffron an aioli

Yummy rhubarb & strawberry pie

Chiliglazed pineapple with coconut icecream

Chocolate truffles at sunset

After that very enjoyable dinner we had a walked around and then a drink at the bar. Oh my, that comfy old armchair on deck welcomed me like a long lost friend and if I'd been able to I'd probably never ever leave...

Kind of awesome to be able to enjoy the Sunday evening sunset on deck, with friends and a delicious drink - Vanilla Sky - overlooking the junk/shipyard in one direction and the picturesque archipelago in the other, with those huge Finland ferries breaking the horizon line now and then.

If you don't arrive with your own boat - which I guess is a rather lovely spur-of-the-moment thing to do, take the boat and head for a good restaurant in the archipelago neighbourhood if you don't feel like cooking - you have to adapt yourself to the ferry timetable. The ferry runs about once every half hour from 6 am to 10 pm.

And if you're lucky on your way back home, you might be able to enjoy a glorious Swedish summer sunset. Bliss.