Partway through our meal at Surfers, a Chinese restaurant in Sweden’s capital of Stockholm, Ludvig Saaf bursts into song. It is a Mongolian drinking song about fermented mare’s milk, but few in the dining room can understand the Mandarin lyrics.
We join in, though, answering each rousing “Hey!” with a rowdy one of our own. At the end, we shout “ganbei” – a Chinese term meaning “cheers” – and down our thimble-sized glasses of baijiu, a Chinese spirit.
Saaf, tall and blond with a pierced lower lip, chose a strong multigrain baijiu with an alcohol volume of 52 per cent to pair with the full-flavoured spread before us: blue and white porcelain dishes of peanuts with roasted chillies, lotus root in red oil, grilled oysters topped with confit garlic and chilli, and steaming dandan noodles.
Earlier, we sampled a jasmine tea lager from Master Gao, China’s first microbrewery, and a Tibetan pale ale, which is brewed 3,000 metres (9,800ft) above sea level.
We also enjoyed Cantonese shrimp balls and glossy stir-fried greens, and fish wrapped in banana leaf – a delicacy of the Dai ethnic group from the southern part of China’s Yunnan province. Saaf chose a far mellower baijiu with a rice aroma to match these more delicate dishes.
Ludvig Saaf is the Chinese drinks expert at Surfers.