Ooooohhhh! Look at all these goodies!
"Let's eat them, let's EAT them," my co-workers chanted!
"Wait a minute!" I pleaded, "Let me see what I got first! Jeez!"
What a bevy of exotic treats! Included in this package were some lovely crispy lace cashew cookies, some spices, some interesting Russian tea, some little crunchy crackers, a jar of Eva's homemade plum chutney, a package of mix to make Swedish bread (Eva's actually Swedish, but has been living in various places the past ten years!) and a couple packets of yeast to aide the bread making. There was some Christmassy turkey and bacon flavoured potato chips from the UK. There is a gingerbread making kit, which is awesome! I haven't opened it, but hope it survived intact. Not pictured is a bag of ligonberry muffins which was a bit smushed, but still lovely and sweet-spicy. My middle school girls descended on them before I could take a picture. They declared them "delicious."
Look at my cute little students with presents from Eva! What do you have there Haley and Shelly?
Mmmmmm, a dark Belgian chocolate bar with pink peppercorn! Pretty! No girls, you can't have any, it's all for me. Your palates haven't developed enough to appreciate it. What else do you have there? AH! Salami!
Honestly, it was just last week I was absolutely craving some proper salami. You just can't find it here. Lots of "sausag-ee," (processed pork ham style stuff) but no good smoky salty chewy salami. I was thrilled to see it in Eva's package, but in reading the description of the items she kindly included in the package, I did a double take, and wrestled the salami out of Shelly's hand to get a closer look...
Reindeer salami!!
Well! I never!! AWESOME!!
Nobody here knows what a reindeer is offhand. Then I sang the Rudolph song, and most clued in and were shocked! There were jokes about Santa being mad and all that, but I didn't have to persuade my class full of grade six boys to have a try. They liked it, and would have gobbled up the whole thing if I'd let them. It fit in perfectly with our lesson on superlatives. I told them they now had a cool thing to say when asked "what's the most unusual thing you've ever eaten?" If asked by other Koreans, that is. If they are asked that in, say, Belgium, their reply should be "dog."
I could not get any of my co-workers to try the reindeer salami, which I found perplexing. No matter, more for me. And no, they can't have any chocolate either bwwaaa ha ha ha!
Eva included a snazzy booklet from a gourmet shop in Belgium which offered all sorts of interesting fare like pheasant, doe, wild boar, and rabbit, as well as some information on Saint Lucia and the Festival of Lights on December 13th and a couple recipes, including one for lussekatter, also known as "Lucia buns." I don't have an oven, but am going to go over to my boss's house this weekend to make the buns with the ingredients Eva included, and have already started the search for icing sugar to see if I can put the gingerbread house together before Christmas!
It was such a thoughtful and generous package, and really made my day. My co-workers commented they wished I would get things in the mail everyday, since it put me in such a fantastic mood. Thank you so much Eva, and I hope you enjoy some fantastic holidays! Also, my thanks to BBM3's host Cathy over at My Little Kitchen. It was a blast!
2 comments:
I am delighted that you liked it all, and that it also gave some extra spice to your pupils! Especially the reindeer salami!! Will gladly send you icing sugar if you like! Just email me.
Eva, you're TOO KIND! Actually, my co-worker has heard of icing sugar, and confirmed that by describing its powdery quality. I think it might exist here. (It's the sugar form of a unicorn, but it's possible!) I ate cake tonight, and it was covered in whipped cream, which may very well be the norm. Of it's here, I'll find it. ~Love a challenge. I'll let you know!
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