Saturday, May 19th, 2007: Restaurant (tag) in Helsingborg

What I think:

Uh-Oh. I got tagged by Tug.

This particular Meme is kind of interesting though.

On the one hand, it's cool because it's one that will spread quite widely, if everyone plays how they're supposed to. It's actually gone around the world already.

On the other hand, it's a bit of a nightmare for me; you'll soon discover why.

Here's what you're supposed to do:

1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the city/state and country you’re in.

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, United States)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
Andi (Dallas [ish], Texas, United States)
Lulu (Chicago, Illinois, United States)
Chris (Boyne City, Michigan, United States)
AB (Cave Creek, Arizona, United States)
Johnny Yen (Chicago, Illinois, United States)
Bubs (Mt Prospect, Illinois, United States)
Mob (Midland, Texas United States)
Yas (Ahwatukee, Arizona USA)
Alicia(Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA)
Tug (Hell, Colorado, USA)
Mark Base (Helsingborg, Sweden)

2. List out your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location.

3. Tag 5 other people (preferably from other countries/states) and let them know they’ve been tagged.

Here we go:

Actually, what makes this particularly tough for me is that Helsingborg is not exactly the culinary capitol of Scandinavia. So I don't really go out to eat much.

Actually, all pubs here are also "restaurants", in the sense that they're obliged - by law - to have a menu of hot meals available to order, at least until a certain time of the evening. Bet you didn't know that, did you!?

Picking five of my favourite places to eat is no easy task; not because I'm spoiled for choice, but because there's not much here that's really worth mentioning. But if I have to pick five, I'd go for the following:

1. Olssons Skafferi - I'm not sure what a "skafferi" is, but it sounds funky, don't you think? This is right in front of a nice church called Mariakyrkan (Maria Church), in the centre of town. It's a small Italian restaurant, very cozy, and with good food at reasonable prices. This is one of the very few places I'd recommend. Another would be:

2. Zoo Bar - This is also in the centre, close to a few decent pubs. Yes, it's a bar, but they do some really good stir-fries in woks here. Very good prices, and you get a decent amount for your money.

3. Gyllene Prag - This is a Czech restaurant/bar. The prices are OK for what you get, plus they've got good Czech beer, of course.

4. Thai Corner - I've only ever been here at lunch, but it seemed pretty good. It seems like the Swedes have a thing for all things Thai (Thailand is one of the top holiday destinations), so there's no shortage of Thai cuisine, if that's your thing.

5. Charles Dickens Pub - I'm mentioning this because it's probably the place where I've eaten at most (I was going to say "eaten out" at, but this would be open to a rude interpretation, and I'm trying to keep this blog as family-friendly as possible; avoiding situations in which someone would guffaw, and some kid would ask one of his parents, "Why is that weird man laughing at 'eating out'?". And we don't want that, now do we? Oops.). Food at "Dickens" is actually quite good, and fairly inexpensive.

All "restaurants" I mentioned have a vegetarian option: lettuce.

There is not nearly enough variety in restaurants here in Helsingborg, and it's time that the Swedish government did something about it. That's what I think.

Here are the people I choose to tag:

1. Emilie from "Chroniques d'un blog annoncé". She's from Montreal - this might be in French.
2. Jay from Kill The Goat. She's from Toronto and drinks far too many Martinis, so she might not remember: a) to do this, or b) the names of any restaurants she may or may not frequent. I know that we already have a Torontonian on the list above, but Jay's - erm - special.
3. Clarissa from "I Love The Smoke" - reporting from London. Yeah, I know there's another person from London on the list, but London's big, and it's worth hearing from someone else. And Clarissa's - erm - unique. Ish.
4. High Prietess Kang from "The World According to Kang", from one of those Carolina things they have in the States.
5. SinisterDan from "The Reasonable Ego". Another Canadian, this one from New Brunswick. I believe that he's too funny. He must die.

I hope these good people will honour us with some tastly little titbits (stop sniggering) about restaurants where they are...