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mrissa and I were chatting about in email recently was Swedish meatballs. As it happens, there is a place I can get Swedish meatballs for lunch: it's just enough of a walk that it feels a little far for a normal workday* but my office is now on "summer hours," meaning we work longer Monday-Thursday and get to leave at one on Fridays. So, I'm at 32nd and Madison. Penzey's is in Grand Central. Scandinavia House is between the two, on Park Avenue around 38th Street.
Scandinavia House is a cultural outreach sort of project, from the Nordic countries collectively to the United States. They have a cafe. The cafe is run by Aquavit restaurant. A short menu, but including the aforementioned meatballs; a herring plate; smorgesbord; sandwiches; soup; maybe a couple of other things. And beverages including lingonberry soda.
The Swedish meatballs come with lightly pickled cucumber salad; some lingonberry jam/sauce; mashed potatoes; and bread. All of which were very good. I am not a mashed potato fan, generally. I finished these, happily. The real surprise of the meal was the bread. There was a piece of a crusty whole wheat bread, which was good for mopping up the gravy at the end, and there were some crackers or flatbread: someone has figured out to make a bread (I think rye) that is all crust. Yay them!
There were little cards on the cafe tables, advertising an exhibit upstairs of recent Icelandic art. After lunch, I went upstairs. As I was waiting for the elevator, someone stepped out of the gift shop, asked if I was going to the art exhibit, and when I said yes, told me that there were rooms behind black curtains that were worth looking in. There were three such rooms, each with a multimedia exhibit. I really liked one, which was changing colors projected onto the walls of the room. Another left me cold, though I think I saw what the artist was trying to do. The third, which I actually saw first, had me step away quickly, glad that they had it behind a curtain, for those of us who don't handle flashing lights well. (And anyone who did could have stepped into the room and watched a while, as I did with the one I particularly liked: someone involved with this exhibit knows what they're doing). I was also quite taken with the piece on the ads for the exhibit, "Icelandic Love Corporation," a mixed-media work showing black birds and a nest mixing eggs with magpie- or dragon-style treasure. (There were also paintings, including one set of abstracts that fit well together; photographs; and other sculpture/mixed-media works.) The exhibit, "From Another Shore: Recent Icelandic Art" is free and runs through August 15; "recent" in this case covers ten or twelve years, and all the works are from the collection of the National Gallery of Iceland.
* though I suspect it's no further than some of the places I do go for lunch during the workday
mrissa and I were chatting about in email recently was Swedish meatballs. As it happens, there is a place I can get Swedish meatballs for lunch: it's just enough of a walk that it feels a little far for a normal workday* but my office is now on "summer hours," meaning we work longer Monday-Thursday and get to leave at one on Fridays. So, I'm at 32nd and Madison. Penzey's is in Grand Central. Scandinavia House is between the two, on Park Avenue around 38th Street.Scandinavia House is a cultural outreach sort of project, from the Nordic countries collectively to the United States. They have a cafe. The cafe is run by Aquavit restaurant. A short menu, but including the aforementioned meatballs; a herring plate; smorgesbord; sandwiches; soup; maybe a couple of other things. And beverages including lingonberry soda.
The Swedish meatballs come with lightly pickled cucumber salad; some lingonberry jam/sauce; mashed potatoes; and bread. All of which were very good. I am not a mashed potato fan, generally. I finished these, happily. The real surprise of the meal was the bread. There was a piece of a crusty whole wheat bread, which was good for mopping up the gravy at the end, and there were some crackers or flatbread: someone has figured out to make a bread (I think rye) that is all crust. Yay them!
There were little cards on the cafe tables, advertising an exhibit upstairs of recent Icelandic art. After lunch, I went upstairs. As I was waiting for the elevator, someone stepped out of the gift shop, asked if I was going to the art exhibit, and when I said yes, told me that there were rooms behind black curtains that were worth looking in. There were three such rooms, each with a multimedia exhibit. I really liked one, which was changing colors projected onto the walls of the room. Another left me cold, though I think I saw what the artist was trying to do. The third, which I actually saw first, had me step away quickly, glad that they had it behind a curtain, for those of us who don't handle flashing lights well. (And anyone who did could have stepped into the room and watched a while, as I did with the one I particularly liked: someone involved with this exhibit knows what they're doing). I was also quite taken with the piece on the ads for the exhibit, "Icelandic Love Corporation," a mixed-media work showing black birds and a nest mixing eggs with magpie- or dragon-style treasure. (There were also paintings, including one set of abstracts that fit well together; photographs; and other sculpture/mixed-media works.) The exhibit, "From Another Shore: Recent Icelandic Art" is free and runs through August 15; "recent" in this case covers ten or twelve years, and all the works are from the collection of the National Gallery of Iceland.
* though I suspect it's no further than some of the places I do go for lunch during the workday