Integration-In-Progress / Integració incompleta

With the exceptions of a Swedish speaking American and a Dane, the lunch which my wife and I organised on our balcony last Sunday became a “Swedes only” event. That was not what we had planned, since several of our Swedish friends are married to local people. However, that was how things turned out since our cultural sensitivity functions were switched off when we set the date. One of our "native" friends could not come since it would not be accepted for him not to visit his mother on el dia de la mare. Another one refused to drive anywhere near the coast, since this was the last day of a long weekend (pont) and traffic on the way back to the metropolitan area was predicted to be chaotic.

To celebrate our origin we treated our guests to Thai food - nowadays standard fare in the weekly menu of an average Swede. Ginger marinated chicken skewers with a peanut sauce, cilantro-spiced sausages, a chili-spiced cucumber salad, fried noodles phad thai gung, fish cakes, vegetables wok-sauteed in oyster sauce, a mild massamun curry and a slightly more spicy (with European measures, that is) red curry with pineapple and prawns was what we had cooked.

At the end of the lunch, some members of the currently leaderless SWEA choir improvised a little concert of Swedish spring songs. Sometimes it is nice not to fully be integrated.
- - -

Encara que ens agradi molt la cuina catalana, a vegades manquem del menjar tailandès que vam aprendre a apreciar durant els anys que vivíem allà. A Suècia d’avui hi ha restaurants tailandesos a cada cantonada, també a ciutats petites com la meva. A Catalunya no és així. Ni a Vilanova ni (més sorprendent) a Sitges no n’hi ha res. Per cert, n’hi ha uns a Barcelona però l'únic on serveixen plats que tenen el gust de Tailàndia, té un nivell de preus tan elevat que no podem permitir-nos anar-hi tan sovint com volem.

L’alternatiu que ens queda és cuinar nosaltres mateixos i el fem amb regularitat. Llàstima que prop d’aquí no hi ha botigues que vénen una àmplia gama d'ingredients asiàtics. A Vilanova és fàcil de comprar coses per a la cuina àrab, la llatinoamericana fins i tot per a la rusa, però, per aconseguir aliments tailandesos hem d’anar al altre costat de les muntanyes de Garraf. Tanmateix no em qeixo. Avui en dia trobem tallarines d’arrós i llet de coco ja als supermercats del centre de la vila. Fa tres anys, quan encara estàvem nouvinguts a la ciutat, això era imposible.