So here's the thing; Crayfish is a big frickin' deal for us Swedes.
We throw actual parties in their honour. I kid you not. No summer can come to an end without dill and beer infused crayfish, Swedish cheese pies, vodka snaps, snaps songs, hats and lanterns!
As I haven't thrown a proper crayfish party in years, it was definitely time for one in 2014.
Thankfully, most of my London family have learned just to roll with it irrespective of the funny Swedish traditions they get dragged into. Most of them involves vodka and that is generally good enough of a reason to play game for this group of friends.
As per standard party tradition, Hell's Bells was dragged to my house 10 hours before other guest to help me out with cooking and decorating as I was in my usual fashion three hours behind my own time plan. She usually get stuck stuffing olives, but this time she had to kill sea creatures. I'm not sure she considered it a promotion. But then again, she could have been stuck killing the lobsters like me.
Throughout the crayfish massacre we did also manage to cook what felt like every Swedish dish on the planet and go way over the top on decorations. To the extent where I still find crayfish confetti in my bedroom one month on.
In the midst of making chanterelle puffs, spicy cheese quiche and mini crayfish toast we also managed to invent the cocktail that may have been responsible for a lot of events to follow throughout the night; the Pearspectacular. It had boozy pears in it. Not to mention alcohol, bubbly alcohol and pear alcohol. It was too yum for everyone's upcoming wellbeing.
Following the hours slaving by the stove and a mingling session filled with pickamix and dill crisps, it was finally time to eat!
We had outdone ourselves if I may say so myself. Everything from the crayfish lanterns and garlands to the song books to the snaps selection to the red guests of honour had turned out awesome and once the crayfish newbies had got a hang of the how to crack, suck and eat the crayfish - I'd like go say that everyone had a pretty darn awesome time!
Once the dinner had been had and the beautiful cake brought by the Nordmen enjoyed, sophistication may have come to an end with me training myself a bit to hard in Cognac drinking and a cake fight commencing right by the balcony.
And the next day I learned, nothing tells you that you've had a party like waking up to the smell of crayfish and finding chocolate cake in the curtains.
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| For the Crayfish Virgins |
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| The Red Gold |
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| The Crayfish Crew |
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