Kalamaja event in Bistroo Kukeke - Jan 9, 2014
On the second Thursday of the year, the members of the DECC had a hyggelig event to get to know more about fish, Fishouse = Kalamaja and about Danish wines.
Emmanuel Wille, chef of Clazz and Olde Hansa gave us tips on where to buy good fish and how to recognize a fresh fish from a not as fresh fish. Though, even the head chef of the leading restaurant Olde Hansa said that it is very difficult to get hold of good fish in Estonia. Fish from the lake Peipsi is being exported, which drives up also prices locally. Logistics seems to be the other big problem.
Local Baltic sprats are considered delicacies by chefs. There's an easy rule also for the people who like to prepare fish: choose the fish that is easy to get, easy to handle and that the people like. To the question of how to make a good fish dish, Mr Wille said: "Cook it with love." His recepy included a description of how to prepare a really tasty, tender fish at home. One needs to smear the fish with herbs and spices, put it into plastic bag and put it into boiling water. Depending on the size and type of fish, it takes from 30-45 minutes to get a juicy ready-made fish dish.
Our next guest was a journalist and editor, inhabitant and lover of Kalamaja, Mrs Koidu Raudvere, who has read lots about the areas' history prior to moving to this once a rather "ill and scary" place. Koidu was introducing us legends of how Kalamaja got its name (one of which was a wife of a fisherman called Kallamai), what an idyllic place it was in the beginning of the 20th century, and how the area has developed within the last 5-10 years. Koidu said that luckily, the area has developed into a well established place that allows people to stay there, fullfil daily needs (shopping, kindergartens, dining places, etc) without really moving away too far. Everything is handy and reachable. Streets are being renovated promoting walking and enabling cycling, wander with babyprams.
The last guest, hobby-importer of wines, Marco Iovino told us about his dual-life of being half Dane and half Italian. Made us take a glimpse of his passion for wines and why he is importing wines from Italy, and what are the criteria for wine in his eyes. Marco, being so knowledgable about wines, is not a sommelier, and has chosen not to be a full-time wine importer. Instead, he has chosen to delight his friends and acquaintances with good quality of wines that they can purchase bulk directly from Marco.
At the Fish In Fishhouse event, Marco organized a Danish wine tasting. The specific wine comes from the area of Lolland, the 4th biggest island of Denmark. It is cherry wine in four different categories. One may read further details about the wine http://www.frederiksdal.com/
We thank all our speakers Emmanuel Wille, Koidu Raudvere and Marco Iovino for making this evening a special and hyggelig one!
Thank you!
Merli Lindberg
Manager of DECC