International Gasque

Friday, February 25th, 2011 was the night of the International Gasque!  This event was highly anticipated, as our orientation packet describes it thusly:

"The highlight of your orientation is undoubtedly this traditional Uppsala formal dinner party!"

A 'formal dinner party' is a very short, but not completely inaccurate, definition of a gasque.  A gasque does indeed have a formal dinner, with students seated boy-girl-boy-girl at long tables, and dressed formally - the exact degree of formality depends on the gasque, but at this gasque it was dresses, and suit-and-tie (including jacket).  There's likely to be an afterparty, as well.  Gasques are a longstanding tradition of Swedish university life, and 'gasque' is one of the few Swedish words containing a 'q'.  Most gasques at Uppsala are hosted by nations (this one being an exception, as it was organized for all international students), and it's my impression that most Upplanders go to at least some of the gasques their Nation organizes.  As such, I can't think of any equivalent in the American university system.  The closest equivalent we would have is probably prom, but the dinner is as important as the afterparty at gasques, and is a dinner for all attendees, not organized individually.  Richmond's Ring Dance is similar in that it is a formal dance, but most Richmond students only attend it once, and there's no parental involvement at gasques.

The gasque began at 5:30 at V-Dala Nation (which has the largest rooms, quite useful as this is an unusually large gasque), although as is often the case with dinner events, that was a 'soft' start, and the dinner part itself didn't begin until sometime between 6:00 and 6:30.  Until then, we were socializing in a large (but crowded) room a floor below the dinner room, with an open bar with either white wine or relatively sweet champagne - I've heard both ways and can't tell by taste myself.  Then sometime between 6 and 6:30, we entered the dining area, and found our assigned seats.  Just as at the V-Dala Welcome Reception, there were a number of long tables aligned in front of the stage, but this time I was near the stage.  The first course was reindeer capriccio.  Yes - reindeer!  The organizers made sure there was some Swedishness in the gasque!  I actually didn't realize it was reindeer until I'd already eaten some - I guess that's the surest way to be sure you don't turn something down without trying it.  I've shamelessly pilfered a quality photograph from another attendee's Facebook as an illustration:

Reindeer does not taste too much like chicken.  As such, it isn't exceedingly easy to describe.  The taste I'd consider generally agreeable to most people, and the texture, while unique, is also generally agreeable - not spongy or suction-cupp-y like octopus, and not tough either, although not especially tender, either.  It's something that you have to try to know what it's like, but it's not a food to be afraid of trying.

Also visible in the picture is the snaps (in the shot glass).  We had two choices of snaps beverage - I didn't catch what the name of one of them was, so I went with akvavit, which I knew to be a Swedish beverage.  Basically, snaps are drinks for toasting, although (at least at gasques) you don't drink the entire thing at once, but rather about a third at a time.  What occasion had we for toasting?  Well, several, but the most common one was singing Swedish songs that we largely didn't understand.  We each had a menu of sorts, containing both the actual menu, and about 20 Swedish songs. There were two English songs hidden under our plates as well.  All more or less had to do with drinking.  The two English ones were to Oh Susanna and Camptown Races, but with lyrics changed to make them Swedish drinking songs.  Throughout the dinner, we sang about half the Swedish songs and one of the English ones, and after each one (and in the middle of a couple of the longer ones) we'd take a drink - snaps while it lasted, and later beer or wine.  The other occasion for toasts was after speeches or performances.

And of the performances, there were several.  Not as much of the evening was taken up by performances as at V-Dala's welcome reception, but we didn't have the Swedish songs at the welcome reception either, and the performances here were good, as expected.  One group was V-Dala's traditional Swedish music group, which performed mainly on guitars but also had a banjo, an oboe, and a brass instrument that I couldn't see due to another performer in my line of site.  A fellow diner observed that the music sounded rather Irish, which it did, but traditional Swedish it was.  Also performing was Vastgöta's international men's choir (band?), which entered as while performing La Marseillaise.  They then performed a German song (perhaps the anthem?  I don't have the German one memorize - although it certainly wasn't the WWII era German anthem), and they sang to both La Marseillaise and this one.  It was nice to be able to understand a good part of La Marseillaise, unlike the Swedish songs, and their French singing was good to the best of my estimation.  They then played another song, while members took turns recounting stories in their native languages, which probably would have been insightful had I been able to understand them.  These languages included Russian (I could pick up a few words), Irish, Swedish (from the southern Skåne region, and thus not quite the same as in Uppsala), and French, which I was able to pick up some of but not enough for the story to make sense.  Finally, they made a recessional to, appropriately, The Internationale (instrumental version).  There's a traditional toast in Sweden where the toasters sing several lines about what a great performance/speech they've witnessed/heard, and the toasted then sings an impromptu reply, and the toasters then sing a final line praising the toasted, after which the toast is consumed.  We attempted to make a toast to this choir, but unfortunately they seemed to have forgotten that we might do so and didn't stick around for the 'reply' part of it.  After our second attempt to get a reply failed, we continued with the third part and the toast anyway.

The main course was moose steak with juniperberry sauce, and Jerusalem artichoke puree.  Again, a shamelessly pilfered illustration (without the juniperberry sauce):

 The moose was completely new to me.  It's not bad tasting, although not the most flavorful meat either, but unfortunately it was rather tough.  Not as tough as most Swiss (beef) steaks I've had back in the states, but more tough than would have been ideal.  I don't know if this is just because it was moose meat, or due to the preparation.  The juniperberrysauce helped with this, though, and unlike some steaks I've had it was certainly edible.  But of the two, I certainly preferred the reindeer.  The Jerusalem artichoke puree was probably new to most students, or at least most American students, but I'd tried Jerusalem artichokes a few weeks ago, so the taste was not entirely new for me, and the Jerusalem artichoke puree was good and enjoyable.

Our toastmaster does deserve mention.  He was a Swede, older than university students after having had somewhat of a military career, but still fairly young, and was named Oscar.  Apparently this was at least his second appearance as toastmaster.  One of his friends was at my end of the table, and had the misfortune of his reindeer capriccio being devoured by a hungry Belgian girl, and his snaps split between the Belgian and an Australian, because he was quite late to the point of it looking like he wasn't coming at all, due to having to come in after work from Stockholm.  Fortunately this didn't seem to bother him, and he was in a good mood.  Anyways, Oscar had a good sense of humor and kept us entertained - according to his friend, he was completely disregarding proper procedure, but Oscar always did this and it was just as well for the humor value.

It must have been close to 10:00 when dessert came, a panna cotta with chocolate and raspberries.

But, not to give up the Swedish food theme completely, another round of snaps came, with a choice of either punsch, or the non-Swedish Bailey's Irish Cream.  Being at a Swedish event, of course I chose the former.  Both the dessert and the second round of snaps were good, although the chocolate was a bit hard, especially relative to the soft panna cotta and raspberries.  Punsch is sweet and tastes just like you would expect it to after having a punsch roll.  Unfortunately that doesn't help you much if you've never had a punsch roll.  Suffice to say it has a pleasant flavor and, like akvavit, doesn't have nearly as much of a sting you'd expect considering its alcohol content.   Punsch seemed to have a stronger flavor, which in this case was good.  Apparently, punsch has a rich tradition in Uppsala, too; according to Wikipedia,

"The high point of the Punsch consumption in Sweden came during the nineteenth century and focused on the students and teachers in the universities of Uppsala and Lund. Many traditional songs from that time are about the consumption of punsch or are meant to be sung during the collective festivities that were part of the cultural life in the universities' student associations at the time and still is."

I don't know how many of the songs we sang related to punsch, but Uppsala University is definitely one of the universities in Uppsala this statement is referring to!

All told, the meal was both tasty and a good introduction to some of the Swedish foods that aren't common outside of Sweden.  It was also the longest meal I've ever had - it ended at 10:40, after starting sometime between 6 and 6:30.  That bests the previous 4-hour meal I once had in Belgium.  At 10:40, we sang one last Swedish song, and then headed downstairs to socialize for 20 minutes or so while the student workers cleaned upstairs, moved the furniture, and the live DJ set up (as Oscar said, we wouldn't want a dead one).  Then at 11:00, the upstairs opened for anyone who wanted to to dance, while the downstairs remained open for socializing, with bars with limited selection open on both floors.  The gasque then continued until 2:00, at which point the music stopped and the attendees slowly filed out.  It was too late to get to the bus stop before the last bus, so I didn't try and walked back along St. Johannesgatan instead.

 The International Gasque was certainly worth going to, both to learn about Swedish food and culture, and to meet more international students (and perhaps even some of the Swedish students who decided to attend!).  It may not have been the best night of my life or worth canceling vacation plans for if I'd already had some this weekend, but it was definitely the place for an exchange student at Uppsala to be last Friday night.  If you find yourself as an international student at Uppsala, do yourself a favor and go to at least one gasque.  Even if you don't like dancing, and even if you don't eat meat (there was a vegetarian option, too, and special requests were possible).  Just buy your ticket quickly, especially if you are here in the fall - according to the Belgian student at my table, they sell out especially quickly then.  You'll be glad you went!