While I spent the summer labouring away over my dissertation, Dr HH made the most of his holidays with a solo jaunt to Gothenburg. Here is a special Dr HH guest post to tell you all about it!

Dr HH is back! It wasn’t long after Ms. HH’s return that she was tapping me up for a guest post and a solo summer trip to Gothenburg this summer provides the perfect opportunity for me to oblige.

Flights between Gothenburg and Prague were incredibly cheap this summer so I decided to go for an early August trip. I booked this back in June, fully expecting Prague to be unbearably hot at the start of August and thought that a little trip north to slightly cooler climes would be the perfect break. When I left Prague it was about 15 ⁰C and raining, so my master plan wasn’t quite perfect.

I arrived into the city at about 8am and was ready for a little something to eat to keep me going between my 4am breakfast and a more regular lunch time. My online search didn’t lead to me many places open at that time so I went for a quick eat at Happy Me in the central station. This was a little café that was gluten free and almost all vegan offering sandwiches, salads, bowls, etc. I think all of the dishes were vegan but you could add salmon as an extra to some things. I had the veggie toast and it was fine. There was pesto, vegan cheese, a bit of tempeh  and some tomato. There wasn’t a huge amount of flavour from anything but it did the job as a light vegan bite to tide me over until lunch time.

After my snack and a rest, I headed off to the Gothenburg City Museum to learn about the history of Gothenburg. This wouldn’t have been my first choice but it was raining outside and this was the first attraction that opened in the city at the late hour of 10am.

It was the 400th anniversary of the city being founded and a lot of the museum was dedicated to taking you through how the city had evolved. There was a good exhibition about objects and places that were significant to the residents, with people being allowed to submit their own suggestions for consideration. The big draw was a replica of a Viking boat, apparently the only one of its kind to be found intact. I got into a disagreement with another visitor here; I was reading the information plaque about the boat and I was asked to move out of the way because I was in their photo. I rather crossly told them that I would not be organising my museum visit around their photos and told them off for being extremely rude for asking me to do so.

After dealing with the ridiculousness of the other museum goers I was feeling hungry, so my next stop at lunchtime was at Sayur, an all vegan Indonesian restaurant. It was quite a small space with only two options on the menu, a salad and a mixed plate (Nasi Campur). I love a mixed plate! The idea of trying a little bit of everything and making my own wild and exciting combinations is exactly what I am looking for.

On the plate I had a corn fritter, noodles, a bit of aubergine in a tomato sauce, some nicely cooked tofu, fried tempeh, jackfruit in a peanut sauce (think gado-gado salad), a blob of chilli sauce, salad, tempeh brittle, and a big pile of nicely seasoned rice with more peanut sauce in the middle. Everything tasted great. There was a really good variety in the plate which led to a new and exciting mouthful each time. The tempeh brittle was sticky, sweet, and salty, and was like nothing I have ever had before. I really enjoyed the peanut sauce, it was sweet and well spiced. Previous versions I’ve had in gado-gado salads have just been very sweet.

After lunch I paid a visit to the Gothenburg Museum of Art. I had read that they had some famous paintings from some of the impressionists, along with a good sculpture hall and a selection of local art. This museum was excellent. They had some great stuff from well known artists such as Van Gogh, Monet, and Picasso. The sculpture hall was filled with modern art that I thought was extremely fun. The ground floor had quite an interesting photography exhibit. The temporary exhibition was about the Gothenburg colourist movement. I don’t know a lot about art but I do love visiting a gallery and having a good look around. When people ask me about the art I like I always say I like it brightly coloured and a bit blurry, so this exhibition was absolutely perfect for me.

I had a little wander around the city before working out where to go for my dinner, and stopped for a coffee (Oatly was available almost everywhere as far as I could tell ) at Cafe Jacob. They did have a few vegan sweet treats but I stuck with just a drink while I made my plans. I chose to go to Bastard Burgers for my dinner. This is a bit of a chain with restaurants in multiple cities in Sweden and in some of the other neighbouring Scandinavian countries. It is a fast food style place with vegan options – most of the burgers on the menu had a vegan version and all the sides and drinks were clearly labelled too. Despite being fast food style, it took quite a long time for me to get my burger, that may have been because there were a couple of big orders ahead of me so I just had to be patient.

I had the Beyond Los Angeles burger and it was a bit hit and miss. It was a bit small, with a 65g Beyond Meat patty (we have Beyond Meat sausage sandwiches at home and they normally have two 100 g sausages in there). There was sweetness from some caramelised onions, which was pleasant, some bacon that I didn’t really notice until it fell out of the bun, a spicy dressing, and some jalapenos that added a bit of heat but I felt the whole thing could be spicier. The crinkle fries were excellent, nice and crispy and well salted. I washed it all down with an Oreo milkshake, it was enjoyable but maybe just a little bit too sweet for me. If I were back in Gothenburg I would probably try somewhere else for my burger fix.

For day 2 in Gothenburg, I planned a long day out on some of the islands of the Southern Archipelago. A couple of the islands did have listings on Happy Cow but they didn’t quite fit into my schedule, so I got through the day on my snack pack and a bit of a resupply in one of the little supermarkets. I did spot a shop which had some vegan Magnum flavours that I hadn’t seen before, but I was getting close to the end of my day out and by that time I very much had my eyes on a cold, fizzy drink. It was a great day of walking in perfect conditions, sunshine and 18⁰C, and I definitely recommend it as a day trip, but don’t go for the food! 

By the time I got back to the city, I had been out for about 12 hours, done about 45,000 steps, and walked over 30km. I was ready for a big meal, so I went to Blackbird. This is the oldest vegan place in the city and prides itself on making everything in house – cheeses, bread, burger patties, sauces, everything! It’s also a very busy place, I had tried to get in the night before but it was fully booked, so I made sure I booked ahead this time.

To start, I had the cheese plate. It came with 3 cheeses: a creamy dessert cheese, a smoked cheese, and a hard cheese with apricot and caramelised red onion. The creamy dessert cheese was excellent, it was smooth and creamy and had quite a strong taste that was a bit pungent. I probably wouldn’t want it in my dessert. The other two cheeses were quite similar to each other, they tasted good but the textures were a bit grainy. The accompaniments were all good: a crisp, seedy cracker, a little round cracker that reminded me of an Indian Mathi, and a slice of sourdough that was covered in herb butter. There was a rhubarb marmalade with a hint of earl grey (that I couldn’t pick), and some red onion marmalade which was more like some lightly pickled slices of red onion. They were both enjoyable accompaniments, but nothing wild. It was a hearty plate for a starter, which was reflected in the price, with it being about 50% more expensive than the other available starters.

For mains, the menu didn’t excite me too much. There were a couple of quite salady looking options on the menu, so I shunned them and went for the summer burger: a seitan burger in sourdough bread with mayo, lettuce, rocket pesto, and homemade mozzarella. Of course, I paid extra to get the fries too. The patty was fine, nice and crispy on the outside, with a good savoury taste. The mozzarella was very enjoyable with a good texture and taste. It was a tasty burger overall and I preferred it to the one from the night before. The chips were the real star of the show, they were round crinkle cuts that were folded into a V shape. They were incredibly crispy and perfectly seasoned, I could have eaten them all night long. I was a bit too full for dessert and again nothing really jumped out at me as a must try. I enjoyed the meal and would definitely go back on another visit if the menu looked a bit more enticing to me.

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week, featuring another mixed plate, some spicy ice cream, and a cinnamon snail the size of your head!