Umea, day 2 and 3
Not much happened on Day 2 of the conference. I attended some talks and in the evening they had the conference dinner. We were served arctic char on roasted parsnip, with a great butter sauce, but NO BREAD to wipe it up with!!! And then dessert was a mousse with a cloudberry almond mixture, but my mousse had only a tiny morsel, maybe a quarter, of cloudberry, while everyone else got a berry and a half. It was a really disappointing meal, because it was good, but so limited.
I decided not to go out with people that night, which was a good decision because I got tired quickly once I got back to my hotel. The midnight sun is really making it hard for my body to sleep well.
The following day I gave my talk. Rather than get into much factorization theory, I decided it would be more interesting to describe the group structure of the class group -- which abelian group was it exactly. People really perked up at the description and I my talk was extremely well-received.
I ended up walking back from the university into town with a Dane, Olav Geil. We had had lunch together and also sat next to each other at the banquet. I guess it stimulates conversation when we're the only two non-Spanish speakers among a sea of Spaniards. We had pleasant conversations each time, and so I invited him to have dinner with me, but he was busy that evening with work, so in the end I had dinner alone. While it would have been nice to have company, I have no regrets about taking the "easy" option and just having dinner in my hotel's restaurant. Oh... a meal like this can right every wrong.
I started with a perfectly made negroni with a big, oddly shaped, hand-cut cube of ice in the middle. Then they brought out fresh bread with a whipped butter with aromatic dill. Even though it's the same bread that they have at the hotel's complimentary breakfast, I was still enamored with it. It's just great -- chewy, yet resistant and with a hearty flavor. When I finally saw the menu, I was a little disappointed that there were only 4 choices, all of which had a fusion element and nothing distinctly Swedish. I finally ordered the "New Delhi", which was a lamb shank cooked in a frothy green curry broth with long green beans and a wedge of roasted almond-crusted cabbage. This was just amazing -- rich and delicate, unctuously creamy, yet refreshingly crunchy. Dessert was even better: the "Holmsund." This was thin ribbon slices of rhubarb, on top of rhubarb sorbet, which itself was on top of a layer of that crunchy, white crumble you get on a danish. That crumble covered some richly aromatic bergamot jelly. Next to this was a healthy dollop of roasted(!) white chocolate mousse, with candied rhubarb and chunks of sorrel spongecake that literally looked like someone had taken a green dish sponge and ripped off chunks and put it in the bowl. This dessert was just a fantastic mix of sour and sweet, crunchy and chewy, and so smooth. It was sublime flavors of a spring field with a bit of earthy sous-bois. I was sorely tempted to have the French sauternes wine they recommended with the dessert, but I couldn't justify the price to myself for something I could buy easily tomorrow when I get back to France. But, man, that just capped off a beautiful day.
I decided not to go out with people that night, which was a good decision because I got tired quickly once I got back to my hotel. The midnight sun is really making it hard for my body to sleep well.
The following day I gave my talk. Rather than get into much factorization theory, I decided it would be more interesting to describe the group structure of the class group -- which abelian group was it exactly. People really perked up at the description and I my talk was extremely well-received.
I ended up walking back from the university into town with a Dane, Olav Geil. We had had lunch together and also sat next to each other at the banquet. I guess it stimulates conversation when we're the only two non-Spanish speakers among a sea of Spaniards. We had pleasant conversations each time, and so I invited him to have dinner with me, but he was busy that evening with work, so in the end I had dinner alone. While it would have been nice to have company, I have no regrets about taking the "easy" option and just having dinner in my hotel's restaurant. Oh... a meal like this can right every wrong.
I started with a perfectly made negroni with a big, oddly shaped, hand-cut cube of ice in the middle. Then they brought out fresh bread with a whipped butter with aromatic dill. Even though it's the same bread that they have at the hotel's complimentary breakfast, I was still enamored with it. It's just great -- chewy, yet resistant and with a hearty flavor. When I finally saw the menu, I was a little disappointed that there were only 4 choices, all of which had a fusion element and nothing distinctly Swedish. I finally ordered the "New Delhi", which was a lamb shank cooked in a frothy green curry broth with long green beans and a wedge of roasted almond-crusted cabbage. This was just amazing -- rich and delicate, unctuously creamy, yet refreshingly crunchy. Dessert was even better: the "Holmsund." This was thin ribbon slices of rhubarb, on top of rhubarb sorbet, which itself was on top of a layer of that crunchy, white crumble you get on a danish. That crumble covered some richly aromatic bergamot jelly. Next to this was a healthy dollop of roasted(!) white chocolate mousse, with candied rhubarb and chunks of sorrel spongecake that literally looked like someone had taken a green dish sponge and ripped off chunks and put it in the bowl. This dessert was just a fantastic mix of sour and sweet, crunchy and chewy, and so smooth. It was sublime flavors of a spring field with a bit of earthy sous-bois. I was sorely tempted to have the French sauternes wine they recommended with the dessert, but I couldn't justify the price to myself for something I could buy easily tomorrow when I get back to France. But, man, that just capped off a beautiful day.