I contacted White (down?) Because winter is approaching and I am determined to eat out for as long as I can handle it, and as long as health experts encourage eating out instead. than inside. I don’t just rely on my Minnesota roots to support me. In anticipation of a significant drop in temperature, my significant other purchased a fireplace and two large heaters, reassurance that friends in our bubble will continue to accept invitations to our backyard for my take-out comments if that is the case. is the home cooked dinners.
I’m not the only one who wants to sip and dine out for the foreseeable future. One of the great takeouts on Election Day, when I spent the evening with a few socially distant friends on a terrace with a big screen TV, was the host’s welcome which included electric blankets individual. As winter approaches, the restaurant’s greeting for al fresco dining enthusiasts has changed from “Let me tell you about tonight’s specials” to “Can I adjust your heater?”
At a time when the company is typically finishing its alfresco dining, the Washington-based ThinkFoodGroup has set up tents and secured 20 combination heater and blowers for Zaytinya, Oyamel and two Jaleo branches, where customers are offered hot chocolate as an appetizer when the temperature is 45 degrees or less. “We warm them up from the inside,” jokes Eric Martino, the group’s COO. Servers are also supported with insulated vests.
Meet Laura Cole, chef at 229 Parks Restaurant and Tavern in Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska, halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks. She looks forward to this time of year as a chance to collect ingredients, including spruce tips and juniper berries, in “the store outside my door” – an entrance with sled dog teams.
The chef, who keeps her own herd of reindeer, does all she can to take advantage of the cold, from throwing a pot of boiled crabs into snow banks to cool it down quickly to creating a bowling alley from her frozen pond at home. (The lanes are formed using snowblowers.) “We’re a warmer bunch,” says the Detroit native, who sets up a champagne bar near the makeshift bowling alley and greets neighbors with dishes designed for eat with gloved hands, including parsnip crisps and lamb chops. Pro tip: Alaskan birch plates can fit right into a bonfire.
“Winter is so magical. It’s an opportunity to embrace a whole different kind of restoration, ”says Cole. Not that this is a chosen environment, but it allows for “richer foods including fondue, and even“ backcountry picnics, albeit quick. ”Practicing what she preaches, Cole recently had a picnic outside in 30 degrees below zero.
The unspoken message is either “you can do it” or “get moving, eaters!”
In frigid Minnesota, the Twin Cities celebrate the coming season with an annual festival called the Great Northern. When life gives you a cold shoulder, “we have to invigorate mind, body and soul,” says Kate Nordstrum, executive and artistic director of the organization. “The season is going to be difficult for our restaurant community.” She sees the cold as a way for diners to be as creative as the industry and to find different ways to promote camaraderie outside. On his wishlist is the creation of the world’s longest ice bar, though tighter restrictions on gatherings in the state could push the idea into 2022.
Chef and caterer Sean Sherman, author of the acclaimed “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen,” is one of this year’s featured speakers at Great Northern and, like Cole in Alaska, sees the good in the cold. “We don’t mind,” Sherman says, member of the Oglala Lakota tribe. “Winter is very calming, especially in the woods, which are pleasant and quiet.”
While he advocates preserving things from other seasons to last during colder spells, winter offers a singular pantry, including highbush cranberries, a member of the honeysuckle family. Sumac fronds and rose hips, he says, “get better as they cool. Tea can be drawn to evergreens – cedar, pine, spruce – and tree bark is added to the embers for a “woodland flavor” which creates “food that tastes like where we are” .
The ice hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden, 200 miles from the Arctic Circle, owes its very existence to extreme temperatures. Like snowflakes, none of the destination’s 55 cold rooms are alike; each is designed by a different artist each year. The base of the beds is covered with ice covered with reindeer skin topped with a sleeping bag. The bedrooms are very dark and so quiet that “you can hear your heart beating,” says Josefin Lindberg, a hotel reporter.
Opened in 1989, the place also has 72 cozy rooms for visitors who don’t want to sleep like polar bears and ice-making facilities to design personalized tableware. “We use what nature gives us,” says Linn Fjärdbo, food and beverage manager. Look out for arctic char and reindeer on the menu and glasses of ice in the ice bar. (Don’t bother asking for Irish coffee.) The material for the cups comes from the pristine Torne River. In summer, says Fjärdbo, the custom is to throw a glass of ice in the water and make a wish.
Not convinced you want to eat pasta in a parka? You have sympathy in high places.
“After four years as Ambassador to Spain, I’m no longer fond of the cold,” says Lone Dencker Wisborg, Danish Ambassador to the United States. Still, she has a soft spot for hygge (say hoo-guh), Denmark’s national preoccupation with getting comfortable. “Winters in Denmark are long and cold, wet and dark,” a problem which the diplomat says can be solved by putting on sweatpants, sharing a blanket on a sofa, pouring hot chocolate or something. louder and illuminating the scene. When it comes to hygge, she adds, “candles are very important”.
The Finnish Ambassador agrees. “Darkness is far more of a problem than cold,” said Mikko Hautala, a recent arrival, whose last post in Russia should prepare him for any unexpected variables Washington might throw at him. “If it’s cold and white, then okay.” Finnish children are encouraged to play outside regardless of the temperature, he says, and one of the country’s biggest concepts is the pleasure-pain experience of the sauna, where an intense indoor heat wave is followed by dives in cold water outside. Hautala, who says saunas “harden the body” against colds and flu, has three saunas available to him, one at the Embassy and two at his residence, where invitations to become a member of the Diplomatic Sauna Society are charged. as the “hottest ticket in town.” (The heat seems to be a fetish for Finns. The diplomat says his people drink more coffee than any other country, about 26 1/2 pounds per capita per an. “Warm and refreshing. That rings a bell.”)
Winterbenders say the key to comfort is layered clothing. Explorer White draws on the ingenuity of the native Inuit, warming up with a bespoke anorak using Siberian wolf fur, as well as a canvas and flannel number that is a replica of what Roald Amundsen wore at the South Pole in 1911. Fjärdbo advises to wear your warmest clothes close to the body. “The heat of the food will help you stay warm” too.
“In Finland, we think there is no bad weather,” Hautala says. “Wear too many layers than too few. You can always take off the extra layers if you are too hot.” Essentials include woolen socks, hats and mittens. “If you stay still for a long period of time,” he says, “the cold starts to seep into your bones.”
These days I go through a mind checklist before heading to restaurants: Credit card? Mask? Blanket? Some places have introduced wraps to keep out the cold, but I prefer to bring my own. Ashish Alfred, chef and owner of Duck Duck Goose in Bethesda, Md., Encourages patrons to BYOB – bring your own blanket – in part to make alfresco dining more bearable for diners, but also to keep his business running. winter.
Even people who revel in the cold see the value of balance and moderation. Living in extremes requires protection from the elements, but also working with what you have, like the vitamin C-rich lingonberry tea that guests wake up to at Icehotel in Sweden.
Sometimes the best option is to curl up inside. Weekends at Earth’s southernmost feature feature “Adventure Movie Night with Wayne,” where White follows introductory screenings, say, “Race for the Poles,” with films set in the tropics. Hygge is something you tend to savor on the inside, as is the very Finnish notion of kalsarikannit, which sounds like the perfect accompaniment to a pandemic and which Hautala briefly explained in text:
“A drink. At home. In your underwear.
Huh. Kalsarikannit looks like a recipe some of us have been following since March.
