One of the best parts of being a food blogger is all the people that you get to know from all over the world. And it’s extra fun when you actually get to meet them in person. I havn’t met that many food bloggers yet, but I meet Anne at a regular basis and I’ve met Pille and Kristina. Last Sunday I had the opportunity to meet Courtney from Coco Cooks, who was visiting Sweden. We went for a brunch together with Anne and Courtney’s host Britt-Helene. The weather was lovely and we had a wonderful time at Hasselbacken, where we sat on the terrace eating brunch and talking about all sorts of things, but of course with a big focus on food. I hope to see lovely Courtney soon again and of course other food bloggers! Wouldn’t it be fabulous to have a huge international food blogger meeting somewhere?

(more photos from the brunch can be seen at the end of Courtney’s post about her Sweden visit).

It’s December and for the fourth year in a row food bloggers from all over the world are raising money to the United Nations World Food Programme by offering wonderful culinary prizes to tempt people to donate money. For every US$10, the donor receives a virtual raffle ticket toward a prize of their choice. Last year we collected the incredible sum of $60,925.12!!! This year once again, all money will go to the UN World Food Programme. However this year the money are earmarked to a school’s feeding program in Lesotho. We chose to support the school lunch program because providing food for the children not only keeps them alive, but helps them stay in school so that they learn the skills to feed themselves in the future.

To read more about Menu for Hope 4, who benefits from it, what percentage of the funds actually goes to those we help etc, go to this link on Chez Pim.

So what does A Cat in the Kitchen do to contribute to Menu for Hope 4? Well, I’m donating a very special prize to the raffle, to tempt my dear readers. My prize for Menu for Hope 4 is a baking collection for all Moomin lovers! It’s Moomin Mania, a special irresistible baking collection for all Moomin lovers (prize code EU15) that consists of:

1 Moomintroll cake mold
1 Moomintroll cookie cutter
1 Moominmamma cookie cutter
1 Moominpappa cookie cutter
1 Lilla My cookie cutter
1 Snork maiden cookie cutter
1 Groke cookie cutter
1 Snufkin cookie cutter
1 Hattifatteners cookie cutter
1 Grooke cookie cutter
1 Stinky cookie cutter
3 popsicle molds with Stinky, Snufkin and Moomintroll
Moomin band aid (if you get hurt in the kitchen while cooking)

Everything is brand new in their original packages and I’ve been struggling really hard to prepare this prize. I’ve been searching everywhere for the cookie cutters and luckily I had to go for an unplanned business trip to Helsinki last month where I was finally able to buy the cookie cutters and the cake mold in the official Moomin shop in Helsinki, Finland. The popsicle molds were bought in a small shop in Gothenburg and the band aid was bought in a Swedish pharmacy.

We first went for a morning coffee at Double Coffee in the shopping mall Viru Keskus where I enjoyed a banana latte, with whipped cream and banana liquer, which wasn’t quite what I had expected but it was really good. Maybe not the ideal breakfast though :-)

Pille, Kristina and Anne at Kuldse Notsu Kõrts.

After some strolling in the shops it was finally time to meet up with Pille at the Town Hall. It was so nice to finally meet sweet Pille and she directly took us for lunch at Kuldse Notsu Kõrts, a restaurant with traditional Estonian food, where we first exchanged gifts and then had a lovely lunch. We got Estonian recipes and a nice soap that smells like tar (!) which will be perfect when I’ll go for a sauna with Fredrik to the bath house the next time. Kristina and Anne received marzipan figures while I got a cute clay cat as I had already received a marzipan frog with the blogging for post parcel that Pille sent me before summer. And we gave Pille cups from Höganäs to match with her teapot.

Meat in jelly with potatos and a very hot tasty Estonian mustard.

For starters we shared meat in jelly with potato and a very hot Estonian mustard, which I really liked. Pille told us that the dish is very typical in Estonia especially for special occasions; just as in Poland. For main I had a great casserole with chicken liver and mashed potoates which was very nice. Liver is underestimated and really tasty.

Chicken liver casserole.

I enjoyed the food very much at Kuldse Notsu Kõrts, it was hearty and delicious. Instead of eating dessert at Kuldse Notsu Kõrts, Pille showed us beautiful Tallinn and we then went to Chocolats de Pierre where we had lovely chocolates and desserts together with coffee. I loved the interior and I wish that we had a place like this in Stockholm. After the coffee we had some more sightseeing and shopping and then it was finally time to get back to the ferry again. Thank you so much kind Pille for our lovely day and that you took your time with us. Thank you for the lunch, the gifts and for showing us Tallinn! And a big thanks to Anne and Kristina for the great travel company.

Coffee, cake and chocolates at Chocolats de Pierre.

The cosy interior at Chocolats de Pierre.

Overcrowded with an annoying amount of people Smaka på Stockholm, or “Taste Stockholm”, is on again. It’s an annual food event in Kungsträdgården in Stockholm. 27 of of Stockholm’s restaurants offer different dishes starting from 25 SEK and of course a lot of beer, cider and wine. There are competitions, entertainment and wine tastings. The event started on June 1st and will end on June 6th, so you still have time to visit. We passed by yesterday and even if we were curious on some of the dishes being sold we decided to go to a restaurant instead as we didn’t want to stand in queue for ever and then have to eat standing due to all people occupying all tables. For more info on Smaka på Stockholm in English, look here .