Barista Cup 2007

Sweden's top barista!

Last night, I was invited to the awards ceremony for Barista Cup - a competetition to find the best barista in Sweden. (Read more, in Swedish, here.) It was a lot of fun, and the winner was Costas Pliatsikas, who actually did very well last year too. Impressive! Unfortunately, I have no idea what his coffee is like, because he works at News Café in Umeå - where I've never been. (But if I'm in that neck of the woods sometime, I'll make sure to seek it out.)


Emma, far right.

However, the winner of the Beige Award, for best lattes, does work in Stockholm - Emma Andersson. And I'll definitely go visit her at work - she's at Espresso House in Gallerian. Both winners seemed very sweet and friendly, and I'm happy for them!

I hung out with Dagmar and her husband Fredrik, and I also met my fellow bloggers from Ragazze - lots of fun! It looked as though we wouldn't get to join the dinner party for a while as more people had showed up than they had planned for, but eventually they managed to find places for us. Thank goodness, I definitely hadn't wanted to miss out on the spectacular dinner!



The menu was long and elaborate - everything was served on large platters or bowls in the middle of the table, to get a bit of social interaction. The chef was Karl Ljung, who won Swedish Chef of the year in 1999.

Appetizers:
Bleak Roe on Vasterbotten cheese Cream with Soured Onions (verrrry good)
Beets with Goat's Cheese and Truffle on dark Rye Bread
Smoked Halibut on rose-flavored Cream Cheese (this was really weird)



Starters:
Smoked Ham with Cheddar cheese Cream
Marinated Scallops
Cheesecake topped with Bleak Roe
Vasterbotten cheese Salad
Grilled Tuna with Cinnamon and Ginger
Cumin Yogurt



Main courses:
Roasted Red Pepper Cream
Roasted Sweet Potato Salad
Red Quinoa Salad with Vegetables
Grilled Vegetables (mostly asparagus, carrots, zucchini)
Salt-roasted Potatoes
Coffee-Roasted Fillet of Lamb (heavenly!)
Blackened Salmon
Herb-filled Chicken with Orange Glaze



Desserts:
Rosehip-Curd with Coffee Cream
Coffee Ice Cream (yum!)
Coffee Creme Brûlée (oh my god) with orange sugar
Truffles (including one with mint toffee that was very, very good)

And of course, coffee. Which I didn't stand in line for. And plenty of wine - champagne for the appetizers, white for the starters, followed by red, and finally sherry. I didn't look at any lables - stupid, I know - so I didn't really pay attention. Which probably made me drink a liiiiittle too much, I'm pretty beat today. Guess I'm not 20 anymore...

All in all, it was really fab - I'm so glad I got to go. I met some really nice people! And I loved those little glass cups that some of the desserts were served in. I really want a bunch of my own - but it'd have to be quite many, they're *very* small.