Monday, August 27, 2012

SWEDEN – such a pity that its food is not available globally

Last month I was in Stockholm, in widen that is, not Stockholm, Wisconsin—interesting place that, Wikipedia states it is a village in Wisconsin, US, founded in 1854 by immigrants from Karlskoga, Sweden, and the 2010 census puts the population at 66. The Stockholm Merchants' Association, however, paints a different picture—a small village… big arts, captured under the banner:
Fine Arts, Culinary Arts, Performing Arts, The Art of Living Well
One of the "Best Small Town Getaways" in the Midwest: Midwest Living Best of the Midwest 2010
And either the census is wrong, or many of the establishments listed—antique shop, restaurants, hotels, B&Bs, winery and cidery, gifts, and many more—are located in the larger area, not within the Stockholm village boundaries.
But that is all an aside. What I wanted to write about is Swedish food. So good and so rarely found outside Sweden. While there I enjoyed the meatballs, the crispbreads, salted butter (really salted with coarse sea salt), fried herring & mashed potatoes, salmon in a variety of ways… and Polish ice cream—Polish? how come Polish? Don't know, but it was goooood.
The Swedish institution, IKEA, sells, apart from it furniture and household articles, a nice variety of Swedish food items. When back in Holland I went to the nearest outlet and bought the crispbreads that would not have survived the return trip from Sweden, together with the best cake you can imagine. No idea what it is called, but it consisted of an almond and chocolate filling inside a delicious crispy pie.
I have read that an IKEA shop (for household items, not furniture, if I remember correctly) will open in a year or two in Jakarta. With a bit of luck food will be included.
Till then, for those not living near a Swedish food outlet, here is a wonderful cookbook with delicious recipes and ingredients that should be available in most locations, except maybe for the lingonberries or cloudberries. The title is  VERY SWEDISH, and the writers are  Annica Triberg, Per Ranung and Tore Hagman.
Enjoy.