I've talked a bit about food in my blog, but today, I've provided an extensive overview of food habits in Sverige.
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| This is just the start of the dairy section |
I finally brought my camera to the the supermarket. It was definitely awkward trying to *inconspicuously* and casually take pictures (with the occasional accidental flash) of the shelves in front of suspicious shoppers. But I really had to show you just how much the Swedish diet relies heavily on dairy. I mean, they do like their meat and vegetables, but if Swedes don't have some form of dairy for their daily consumption...well, that would be impossible.
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| Butter. Lots of it. |
I've already mentioned this before, but I still can't get over how important butter is in Sweden, not to mention for the rest of Europe. Forget Canada's Food Guide of a minimal serving of butter per day (2 tsp or something like that). They slather butter on their knäckerbord like I slather my peanut butter on my sliced bread. Bread without butter? Unheard of over here.
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| Bricks of cheese galore |
Every Swede (unless he or she has some kind of allergy or lactose intolerance, or is vegan) has a large Bregött container of margarine, some form of cheese, yogurt or creme fraiche, milk or filmjölk, and eggs. You know these products are important for them when they have their own kitchen tools specifically made to
perfectly slice cheese or to
smoothly butter their bread. It's just natural for them; dairy products must be in the fridge and available for consumption 24/7.
An interesting thing about milk is that it expires much faster here than in Canada, and you have less than a week to consume your carton of milk before it goes bad. At the same time, cartons of milk are rarely sold in quantities larger than 2 L. Could this be to maintain the freshness and quality of the milk, or less preservatives/chemicals are found in the milk?
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| Suspicious-looking package |
Vegetables may be important for some Swedes, but for a lot of them, it's not as essential as having meat as a part of their dinner meal. Sausage is extremely popular, maybe more amongst students. Sausage is cheap, flavourful, and doesn't have to be cooked before eating. A popular kind of sausage is falukorv, which is produced in Falun, Dalarna. It was first created when leftover scraps from oxen was formed into sausages. Falun is the location of an old copper mine, and the oxen were used at that time. Of course, meatballs are consumed here in my corridor, but not to the same extent as sausage is, since making meatballs takes time, which we tend to lack in our busy lives. Many Swedes purchase (gasp!) frozen meatballs from the supermarket.
Pasta or rice with sausage is common to eat, especially with the addition of ketchup ("sauce"). No kidding eh? The Italians must be disgusted at the thought of ruining their precious farfalle with a couple squirts of Heinz!
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| Mayo-madness! |
Skagen Röra is basically mayonnaise and creme fraiche mixed with some herbs (dill) and seafood (shrimp, crabmeat) and served on knäckerbröd. You can buy it pre-made and it's a nice mid-day snack.
Swedes
love potatoes. Boiled, mashed, or baked.
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| Again, eaten with ketchup |
Pytt i panna is a type of hash that is common; it's really a way to get rid of your leftovers, and should always have cubed potatoes and some meat. Not gourmet by any means, but it's filling and quick to prepare. You can also buy it pre-made in the frozen section of the supermarket.
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| Swedish Polar Bread |
Right, and bread. Many of my friends from other European countries complain that the bread here is too sweet. Personally, I think the bread selection here is quite good, and similar to what we have at home. One bread that's quite different is Polarbröd, otherwise known as Rågkakor. It's a flat bread that contains fennel, and can have a strong licorice flavour. At first I didn't like it, but it's grown on me, and is nice for breakfast or lunch (slathered with butter, obviously).
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| Not straight-up juice; you've been forewarned! |
As for drinks, they aren't so much into pop and soft drinks as they are into water/tea, milk (obviously), coffee, and
fruit juice concentrate. Juice here comes in small tetrapaks, like the ones your mom packed in your lunchbox for school. Except in this case, it's fruit concentrate. Very tricky for the everyday foreigner. You open what you think is a single serving of juice, and it turns out to be enough for 10 people. I'll never forget Noemie's horrible punch - she used about 5 of the tetrapaks, which made for a disgustingly sweet punch that nobody could finish.
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| Kladdkaka with coconut |
In my corridor, we eat
kladdkaka almost every week or so. It's a crazy easy recipe to make, and is the Swedish equivalent of a brownie, the difference being that there is no leavening agent. This makes for a dense, fudgy ("kladdy") treat that can be whipped up in just 10 minutes:
Mix together 100 dl flour, 3 tbsp cocoa powder, 3 dl sugar, 2 eggs, 100 g melted butter, and a splash of vanilla or vanilla sugar. Pour into a pan and bake at 375 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or so, until the outside of firm but the centre is still fudgy. According to my dear Elvira, "it must be kladdy!"
Being an increasingly multicultural country, and especially in a student city like Uppsala, where there are influences from many different countries, Swedes do venture out into the land of curries, tortillas, and other ethnic cuisines. In the end, what they eat in Sweden is not to far from what we eat in Canada or in other Western countries. Interestingly enough, there are no Starbucks to be found in Scandinavia, excluding the overpriced ones that are permitted in the international airports. And yes, they do eat the occasional burger from "Macs."
Swedish food isn't quite as "sophisticated" as French or Italian food, nor is there much of a wow factor when learning about what they eat over here, but there are some good things going for it. I'll be honest, most of what I've shown you is probably representative of
Swedish students, not the entire population. In any case, I've made it my goal to make at least one
traditional Swedish meal every week - wish me luck and bon appetit :)
