Mirthful's Comestibles

Well, maybe not.

Anyway, there is a student festival – or rather a culture festival arranged and mostly attended by students – in Trondheim called UKA. This year, as indeed some previous years, they are having a whisky course. They also publish a magazine, which is available free at cafés and bars around town, and there are articles in this magazine to compliment some of the events. In this case I was contacted – through the NMWL webpage – and ended up talking to a couple of very nice students on the telephone for a wee while on a couple of occasions, about whisky.

I ought to have been clever enough to request a draft to verify quotes. I didn’t. I should probably also have offered to proofread their article for factual errors on whisky lore. I didn’t.

On the whole, though, it’s quite a good article as these things go. There are only a couple of factual errors and I was only very sparsely misquoted. In fact, they did a much better job than most professional journalists I’ve come across.

As far as I know, it’s not available online. If it turns up electronically I’ll update here.

So, day one of Oslo whiskyfestival is over and done with. And what did we see? And, more importantly, what did we drink – and what did we think?

Well, I enjoyed myself. It’s not the sort of festival where you’re going to get the rarest samples. There is no competition to serve – or drink – the oldest whiskies. Well, I may be exaggerating, I heard you had to be quick if you wanted a sample of the Glenfiddich 40 years old – so I guess there was some competition for that. On the whole, though, it’s a good place to meet people and to sample a wide variety of bottlings, but most of the bottlings are standard range or special releases in reasonably large batches. Not so much the rarest of the rare. However, I don’t go to whisky bars very often (there’s not really a single one to go to in Trondheim) so I haven’t sampled it all. Therefore I found plenty to interest me.

We’re going back today, of course, but there won’t be too much opportunity for sampling, as we’ve volunteered to handle the practicalities of arranging the Norwegian championship in nosing. It was much fun last year, hopefully this year even more people will dare to enter.

Anyway, notes coming, obviously. Don’t hold your breath, though. Going for breakfast now.

I går spiste vi en skinkestek fra Rema med italiensk marinade, tilbehøret var ovnsbakte poteter og gulerøtter. Jeg synes det hele hadde en rar, bitter bismak. Mannen og mamma, som spiste det samme, syntes det smakte utmerket. Jeg konkluderte med at det måtte være et eller annet krydder jeg ikke likte, jeg er litt overfølsom på bittersmak uansett.

Så jeg tenkte ikke mer på det.

I dag morges hadde teen min en rar ettersmak. Jeg lurte vagt på om melka kunne ha vært sur.

Og tenkte ikke mer på det.

På jobb spiste jeg en banan. Den smakte skikkelig bittert.

Eh?

Google er vår venn. Via diverse diskusjonsforum fant jeg dette avsnittet på wikipedia, om pinkekjerner:

Risks of eating pine nuts

A small minority of pine nuts can cause taste disturbances, developing 1–3 days after consumption and lasting for days or weeks. A bitter, metallic taste is described. Though very unpleasant, there are no lasting effects. This phenomenon was first described in a scientific paper in 2001. Some publications have made reference to this phenomenon as “pine mouth”. This is a relatively new phenomenon and appears to be most common in nuts coming from China. It has been theorized that the nut trees are absorbing something and passing it on to the nuts, or the nuts themselves are being treated with something before packaging. It is also possible that the nuts have spoiled and are rancid, however the foul flavor is metallic and not rancid. Also, it has been hypothesized that this bitter side effect is caused by an allergy that some people may have to pine nuts, but this does not explain the recent appearance of this syndrome. Metallic taste disturbance known as metallogeusia, are reported 1–3 days after ingestion, being worse on day 2 and lasting for up to 2 weeks. Cases were self-limited and resolve without treatment.

På mandag var jeg på et arrangement med jobben hvor vi blandt annet fikk en “nøtteblanding” med pinjekjerner, som jeg forsynte meg godt av siden jeg syntes det smakte storveis.

Der har vi vel forklaringen.

To av kollegene mine spiste også en del, en av dem har samme symptomer, den andre ikke. Jeg har spist pinjekjerner mange ganger før, uten noen merkbar effekt, så så enkelt som en allergisk reaksjon er det neppe.

Opp til to uker? Ja, det kan jo bli en effektiv slankekur. Mat er nemlig ikke fristende. Alt smaker bittert, som om det var dynket i bitrex (løvetannekstrakt). Og verst av alt er at bittersmaken henger i bak i munnen lenge etter at siste bit er svelget. Vann går under tvil, kaffe går heldigvis greit, sannsynligvis fordi det er bittert i seg selv.

Jeg vurderer å leve på øl en uke. Det burde vel gå bra?

Kommer jeg noensinne til å tørre å spise pinjekjerner igjen? Se det, du, det lurer jeg på.

I finally remembered to do a search for a local delivery service providing organic fruit and veg. It’s not as if it was difficult to find it, once I remembered, but it’s taken me at least a year to remember… Anyway, I’ve seen their cars around, and now I actually managed to put in an order. Wonders will never cease. I chose the small crate and “every fourthnight” to start with, we’ll see how it goes.

For anyone in the area, this is the place: Økomat Innherred

For the rest of Norway, this place will provide the appropriate link: Økomat Norge

And the rest of you? Well, you know how to google, surely? Do it now!