I noticed a new poster at the Trollbäcken bus stop this morning. It’s an advertisement for alcohol free alcohol-like drinks. I really wonder why. After all, if wine is non-alcoholic, isn’t it grape juice? And, likewise, if cider is non-alcoholic, isn’t it apple juice? Could it be for people who don’t want to drink but don’t want people to think they don’t drink by drinking from bottles made to look exactly the same as the alcoholic versions? Or am I being too cynical?
And I have no idea why anyone would bother with a gin flavoured drink. Is it just crushed juniper berries? I dread to think. Maybe it’s all e-numbers.
I was shopping at Hemköp, it being a Friday, and surprised to find that the beggar that normally sits atop a pile of clothing wasn’t in attendance this morning. I think it’s the first time and I kind of missed her cheery ‘hej, hej’, as I walked by her.
I do wonder how beggars manage in Sweden given most people use plastic, and cash is a rapidly diminishing commodity. While I never have any cash, I always return her cheery greeting with one of my own as I walk by her and enter the Hemköp.
There were quite a few of us oldies in the supermarket this morning, and it was as if we had all entered at the same time. We all wanted the same things from the same bits of the store at the same time. We kept dodging each other or waiting patiently at the fridges to get milk.
I solved this by not getting my meat at the beginning and heading first, for the veg. I then turned back, heading against the flow, to get the meat. Then, when I started again, the way was clear. An excellent strategy.
That makes it sound like a deliberate ploy on my part but it wasn’t. The thing is, Mirinda had requested roast pork with green butter (a Delia recipe I’ve made for years) and I had to get a pork joint. When the only ones I could find in the fresh meat section were sans fat, I thought I’d try the frozen meat section. The freezer cabinets are down by the veg section. They don’t have frozen meat in any of the cabinets. So I had to return to the fresh meat and start again.
I have no idea why all of the meat in supermarkets here has all of the fat removed. When it comes to roast pork, the crackling is a wonderful part of the meal and, I’m afraid, will impact the pork negatively. And it’s not like you can’t get meat with fat on it. You do have to go to the butcher though. I’m afraid, my fore thought was sorely missing.
Maybe next time I go to the butcher, I can get a pork joint with fat. Like when I visit the Systembolaget and get gin which does have alcoholic content.
Incidentally, each week I try a single bottle of different beer from the Systembolaget at Tyresö. This week’s new beer was called Höga Kusten, ‘a bridge between ale and lager’, which I found to be very palatable. The thing is, I discovered that the brewery that makes Höga Kusten (Zeunerts Bryggeri) is owned by the same company that makes the monstrosities in the bus stop ad at the top of this post (Kopparbergs).
As you can see, this definitely has an alcohol content.
I guess it’s like the vegan thing of keeping the names of things that are considered ‘normal’ in order to not feel like an outsider. Though, for devoted drinkers like me, it’s important to always read the label and not to trust the name alone.
