Julbord

I just got back from Christmas party #2 (and yes, it's only 12/5!). Tonight was the spinal cord group's Christmas party. We went to a nice restaurant for a Swedish Julbord (literal translation = Christmas table). I'm assuming it's the Christmas version of the smorgasbord - because that's what it looked like.

Luckily, I was sitting near the Swedish and Finnish girls from my lab so they explained how to attack the buffet. You are suppose to take food in courses. Of course, the group is very international - so where most followed the traditional meal, it was followed pretty loosely. The order of courses is cold fish, hot fish, cold meat, hot meat, and then dessert. You can have more than one round of anything and you could combine rounds - but meat and fish aren't suppose to be on the same plate. Basically, rather than cramming a ridiculous amount of food onto one plate, you are expected to go up several times (in the newspaper today, there was an article on Julbords and it said 7 trips to the buffet is acceptable).

I didn't make 7 trips, only 4. I took my cold fish and hot fish together. The cold fish was mostly herring (there were around a dozen different sauces that the herring were marinated it), but there were also little shrimp and caviar served on hard-boiled eggs. The only hot fish they had was salmon but they had 3 or 4 different versions, in addition to cold salmon (marinated and smoked). Next, I had cold meats and veggies. Cold meats were basically cold cuts. Everything else was labeled except for the cold meats, which were most in need of signs. Aside from ham, I think I had reindeer, deer, elk, and a few mystery meats. Veggies included peas, asparagus, and carrots. My third round was the main dinner, which was, literally, meat and potatoes - which included Swedish meatballs and new potatoes, of course. The main course was good but I thought it was the least impressive part of the spread, probably because it was more ordinary. Lastly, I squeezed in some chocolate mouse and candies for dessert. Everything was great but I'm full even thinking about it.

I almost forgot......Before the dinner, we decorated the Christmas tree in our corridor. Actually, it was decorated by the time most of us got there. But, we got to admire the tree while eating gingersnaps and drinking glogg.