Cover from Hong Kong no. 6

Another great cover sent from Hong Kong by Brian, with one stamp from the series HK Delicacies, issued on 30 August 2012, with the first-day-of-issue postmark. The stamp features Wonton noodles. More about the whole set is here. Thank you very much, Brian!

Cover from France no. 14

A lovely cover from France with a set of four selfadhesive stamps, taken from one of two booklets issued in 2010, showing typical regional dishes... Merci, Eric!!

Cover from Singapore no. 5

A lovely, yummy cover received from Singapore with two fantastic stamps issued on 17 July 2009 showing Singaporean desserts. They are ondeh-ondeh (green glutinous rice balls sprinkled with grated coconut that is seasoned with fine salt on the outside and gula melaka inside as a fill) and ice kacang (sweetened dried beans, small dried fruits, strips of jelly and little droplets of starch in bright colors, preserved sugar palm fruit and seeds, chunks or long slivers of grass jelly are mixed with shaved ice and sugar syrup).

Just great, stamps showing the colours of this world:) Thank you, Daphne!

Cover from Portugal no. 5

Received on Monday 5 October 2009 and sent on 1 October 2009 from Coimbra - Mercado is this lovely cover with two appetising dishes from the series of six stamps and a souvenir sheet issued on 5 June 2009 in Portugal. The series is called Sabores de Lusofonia and if I am not mistaken, it means tastes of Portuguese-speaking countries. One stamps shows a meat-dish(?) "Leitoa num ar de sarapatel" (from Brazil), the other one "Bebinca das Sete Colinas" (from India). Fantastic! Thank you, Rodrigo'

Postcard from Indonesia

A postcard showing Jakarta's downtown, sent from the city of Semarang on 7 February 2009 and received on 17 days later, with an impressive set of 4 different stamps.

The Rp 1,000 is a 2001 greeting stamp from a series of six, presented in my earlier post about Indonesia. The gastronomy stamp of Rp 1,500, issued on 6 July 2008, (150,000 sets) shows sate bandeng - "this kind of food is grilled using champ made from bamboo trunk. Sate Bandeng is made of crushed fresh milkfish meat by releasing its bones then inserted back into its skin so it looks like a whole fish. This food is served as a side dish of rice."

Next to it is one of the three Indonesian stamps issued on 10 January 2009 (300,000 sets) in commemoration of the year of ox, and the last stamp is part of a series dedicated to the issues of global warming and protection of the enviroment, issued on 5 June 2007 in 200,000 copies, showing icebergs and floating ice.

Thank you, Shinta:-)

Postcard from Belgium

A postcard received on 27 January 2009 from Antwerpen (sent on 22/1/2009), just beautiful on both sides. The front shows the castle at Durbuy, province of Luxembourg, in the Belgian Ardennes. Durbuy claims to be the world's smallest town (population 10,500).

The two 46 eurocent stamps are taken from a miniature sheet called This Is Belgium, issued on 19 November 2006. And if this really is Belgium, it must be great:-) The first stamp shows a tomato stuffed with small shrimps, the other one the trappist beer from Orval (which I proved and is delicious).

Thank you Gerda for this excellent publicity of your country!

Postcard from Slovenia

On 3 January 2009 Leonardo from Ljubljana sent me this lovely postcard of the town of Škofja Loka in the northwest of Slovenia (population 22,000), the most beautifully preserved Slovenian medieval town.

Not only the picture is beatiful, the stamp is great too! It was issued on 27 Noveber 2008 with a print-run of 70,000, and is part of an ongoing series dedicated to gastronomy, my favourite topic.

Well, the dish itself is called Zgornjesavinjski želodec, which is "Upper Savinja Valley Stomach Sausage" and is a traditional dry-meat dish. The Slovenian Post page adds: "It had a strong ceremonial importance during the time of Eastern, when the maturity of this product was at the level, which enabled the determination whether the procedure of production, ripening and drying had been correct. Even on weddings the guests waited with anticipation to receive slices of »želodec«. The circle of lovers of this extremely high quality meat product has spread through the development of tourism in this part of Slovenia since the second half of the 19th century. Even the English king George VI. was among the enthusiasts of zgornjesavinjski želodec; namely, he tried it in Plesnik in Logarska dolina. Nowadays, the »želodec« is a protected food with a »recognized geographical mark«, while its quality is to an important extent co-shaped by the annual competition in Rečica ob Savinji."

The other stamp in the 2008 gastronomy se-tenant issue is ubrnjenik (also referred to as »ubrnjenk, obrnek, obrnenk«), which is "a filling warm or cold mealy dish in the form of a dumpling, made of roasted wheat, buckwheat or corn flour, poured over by salted boiling milk, in which they stir whipped cream and butter or buttermilk." It really makes me salivate:-)

And a note aside, what a nice price for sending a postcard to Europe! 45 eurocent! Here in the Czech Republic we have to pay some 20 eurocent more (applying the current rate of exchange).