Which is More Delicious, Reindeer or Red Deer?

After drinking beer on the boat-café, we took an underground train to return to the hotel. The underground stations were indicated by a blue sign of ‘T’ on a white background. The underground trains in Stockholm appear often in the Martin Beck series. As Beck hates driving, his main transportation methods are by taxi and underground. In the novel, the underground is always described negatively; crowded and dirty. Beck always catches a cold on the trains at the change of the seasons. However, the stations and coaches of the underground gave me a positive impression; clean and tidy. The only complaint I had was the way that the train accelerated and decelerated, a bit too extreme, which made me anxious.

After resting for half an hour at the hotel, we went out at six o’clock for an early dinner. We started walking down Drottninggatan again, but this time to the opposite direction of the old town. Julia wanted to eat something Swedish. After walking for five minutes, we found a quite nice-looking, modern restaurant.

A few days before our departure, my wife called her mother and told her that we would be visiting Sweden. During their conversation, my mother-in-law mentioned deer meat in Sweden. On the menu of the restaurant I found dishes of ‘reindeer’ and ‘red deer’. Although I had eaten deer meat in Germany several times, I had never tried reindeer. However, I avoided the risk of trying new thing and ordered ‘red deer’ steak which sounded a bit more familiar to me. My wife and Julia ordered the same fish dish. We also ordered an Australian white wine. It was a Chardonnay but the price was only one third of the French Chardonnay. The wine was excellent. Julia also tried the wine and looked totally satisfied.

‘Daddy, please write down the name of this wine, so that we can find it in London.’ Julia said. She was 16 years old and already knew so much about wine.

When I ate deer meat for the first time in Germany, I received an impression that the meat was dry. However, the red deer steak in this restaurant was grilled medium; nice and juicy. A temptation to try reindeer was getting bigger and bigger in my mind, but I knew I had no capacity in my stomach any more. I decided to try reindeer next time I visited Sweden. The fish dishes ordered by my wife and Julia were also gorgeous. They had some small lobsters! We ordered one more bottle of the same wine. At the end, everyone agreed that we could not eat any more. We paid nearly 80 pounds for our dinner, but it was worth the money.

We went out from restaurant at half past seven. It had started raining outside. However, there was still no sign of evening. We came back to the hotel and I lied down on the bed. It was still raining outside and I could see the milky colored sky through the window. I switched on the television and there was a live athletic competition. I fell in sleep while I was watching the woman’s high jump. After some time, I heard the voice of my wife saying,

’Let’s go out again.’

But I ignored it and slept further.

It was three o’clock in the morning when I woke up. Julia was sleeping between my wife and me. It was already bright outside and it had stopped raining. The color of the sky was the same as the last time, a milky color. I wondered whether it had become dark once while I was sleeping. Then, I fell asleep again.