Oui Chef Chicago

Dinner at a classic Swedish restaurant Pelikan. My kiddo and my nephew both tried a venison “steak” for the first time. Loved it! Had a couple classic apps one herring based and the other is anchovy. And as a vegetarian, my options are limited, I had what seems to be the regular alternative of a goat cheese salad. But the goat cheese is different and I’m loving all the pickle veggies!!

I’ve been searching since we got to Stockholm for THE pastry shop and I found it this morning and only 1 block from our hotel!! Each time we walked past it previously it was closed. But this morning, jackpot!! Socker Sucker. We had a Croissant Cube filled with Elderflower Cream, Brioche with Raspberry Jam and White Chocolate Glaze and a wonderful Pain Au Chocolate. Unfortunately, they are closed tomorrow, but I will be there for sure on Tuesday!! PS Apologies for bites taken before pictures were taken!

Day 4 and 5 included travel back to Stockholm, ferry then train, a quick dinner of delicious Indian Street Food, gelato and sleep. There is gelato everywhere in Sweden. Don’t get me wrong, I love gelato, but it is EVERYWHERE. Today started at a Bageri having cardamom buns and cinnamon buns. I’m in heaven!! We then toured the royal palace and learned that it was the 50th wedding anniversary for the King and Queen and there were some festivities including them being rowed across this stretch of water in an insane rowboat, cannons fired and then a carriage ride thru the city with the waving at their subjects. It was FASCINATING. So very many people came out to see them. Tonight we had delicious Vietnamese food!!

Day 3 and 4- We are in Sweden as this was my Grandfather’s birthplace. My maiden name is Ericson. We feel so fortunate to be able to explore and connect to this part of our family’s history. On Wednesday we toured Visby’s amazing medieval architecture. And today we took a day tour to the island of Faro. I believe, even at 51, this was a core memory day. The beauty of that island was astounding. And we finished the day with a lovely dinner on the square and my kiddo was able to have one of her favorites, moules (mussels). Tomorrow it’s back to Stockholm and new exploring begins. I’m currently working on my list of bakeries and chocolate shops I want to go to.

We took a train from Stockholm and then a 3 hr ferry to the medieval town of Visby on Gotland. This place is so special!! We spent most of the day just walking around and taking in the beauty of this very old city. We finished the day with an amazing meal. I had a beautiful veg entree with locally grown asparagus while others sampled oyster, smoked shrimp and crayfish. One of my highlights was sharing 2 desserts with dewberries! Something I never had before!! Unfortunately I don’t think I’m going to be able get my hands on those for Oui Chef.

Chef Laura’s vacation chronicles…. Dinner night one in Stockholm… Swedish food of course!! People don’t give Swedish food enough credit. Our meal was fantastic!! In the pics are mushroom dumplings with brown butter and fresh lingonberries, a herring platter and Swedish meatballs. We stopped for ice cream on the way back to the hotel and my brother got salted black licorice ice cream. The salted black licorice is a Swedish treat that has never won me over. Tomorrow we head to Visby for a couple days.

We are officially on vacation. Oui Chef will be closed until June 22. Can’t wait to see you all when we return. Have a great start to summer!

This is the last week of our School year schedule and I thought we should go BIG with Sundaes. Oui Chef made chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream, kid made brownies and cookies to crumble in and topped off with , strawberries, bananas, homemade magic shell, caramel sauce and whipped cream. We’ve had a great week!!

I’m ready for these birthday kiddos!!

These brioche like breads have been so much fun to make (and eat) this week!!