Sweden has amazing bakeries. I visited Sweden, Finland, and Denmark over the summer, and Sweden's food and bakeries were the absolute best. I was expecting more from the bakeries in Copenhagen, but their baked goods were just variations of croissants. Sweden though...amazing. Everything a person could want. Socker Sucker in Stockholm blew my mind, but honestly most of the bakeries were incredible. So much good food.
yes that is true i reaguraly driving 140 km to by a special bread Sourdew bread At Utgårds Bakery in Fjällackla sweden thatt tase just amasing bread and butter is the way to eat it. It has gotten a Price on this year Eldrimmer Competition silver and Brons Eldrimmer has the Swedish championship. :D
While I understand the source of the comment about bland food, I disagree! I travel to Sweden quite often. I find the food in Sweden to be very good-even 7-11 sells artisan bread. The commitment to quality ingredients is very strong. And yes, as noted, there is excellent seafood (many options from both the Baltic and the west coast-not just surströmming). I make nässelsoppa here in the US with foraged nettles-it is quite healthy and I find the taste to be very good. The foraging culture for wild mushrooms, vegetables (e.g. ramps), and berries is very strong. The baking culture is also quite strong with many breads made from wild yeast (sourdough) and a variety of whole grains. The rise of small dairies making handcrafted traditional cheeses has been on the rise-Jämtland is an excellent exemple of this. I diagree about the lack of spices-black and white pepper, herbs like dill, are all used; I do not find Swedish food to be bland at all. As for Swedish restaurants, they are exceptional: Matthias Dahlgren’s restaurants (particularly Rutabega), Nicholas Ekstedt (cooks over open fire), Titi Kvanstrom, Magnus Nilsson (although his Fäviken, which was amazing, has closed.) In general, I find the food quality and culture in Sweden to excellent!
That's fair enough! I think that many think that Swedish food is bland though - or at least they believe that it is, because they haven't really tried proper dishes. But then again tastes always differ so maybe it's simply a set of flavors that appeals to certain palates but not all.
I didn’t find Swedish food all that bad when we were there, a little under seasoned but you can always add your own to taste, on the others hand if it was over seasoned you can’t take it away. Sweden had the best bakery’s by far, I could live off your cinnamon rolls and many others we ate during Fika. The staple to any taste experience is beer😂 and Swedens was quite good. Stay safe till next time and thanks for the insight into Swedish food.
Hey happy to hear that! I personally think it's a lot about the reputation rather than that the food actually is bad. But no one can deny that the baked goods here rock 😀 Cheers and have a great one!
I cooked korvstroganoff for a friend when he visited Sweden for the first time, and he liked it! He also liked most other Swedish food that he tried during his visits. Even if I don't make Swedish food super often, I still enjoy eating it from time to time. I also like to experiment with more obscure dishes, like when I made korvkaka once. I was quite happy with the outcome! On travels to the Baltic countries in recent years, I've found that the food is similar to Swedish food, and maybe that's why I enjoy it :D Funny side note: when I was in Kosovo a few years ago, I went to some restaurant where I ordered what I assumed to be qofte (Albanian/Kosovar meatballs), but they tasted more like Swedish meatballs, and they were served with a sauce that was very similar to the bearnaise you make with the powder from the supermarket 😂
Oh wow, that's really interesting about the Kosovo meatballs! If I ever get around to do a tour of the Balkans I'll definitely have to try them. I like cevapcici and pleskavica and stuff like that too. But good job on the korv stroganoff! And korvkaka too? That's typically a bit of a harder sell even in Sweden since there's liver in it.
@@ThreeStarVagabond The place I went to was like a cafeteria next to a supermarket in some small town I visited. It's likely the meatballs were mass produced, while I assume authentic qofte would be more similar to cevapi in taste. I lament not getting any... I do have the concept of a plan for a Balkan trip next summer so I will finally get to eat a lot of tasty dishes if that's the case! :D
@ yes, and one more time , grateful of your videos genuine content , has helped me to organize this visit to Stockholm , today I visited by walking Gamla Stan , stadshuset ….great weather yesterday and today 🇸🇪👍🏼🙏🏽🇸🇪👍🏼
Fingers crossed that the mild November weather keeps up! Sounds like you're taking some very nice walks around town. And thanks a lot - really glad to hear that 😊
My grandparents came from Sweden so I grew up with a lot of Swedish food. Its very fresh at its best. I just tried rusks from an east indian store hoping as they had cardamon in them. Nope. Will have to make the Christmas bread and dry it out. I am hoping you can recall the name of a dish my Grandma made for me. It was boiled beef with a creamy dill sauce. Somehow the beef was chewable. I cooked it with her but cannot remember. Also, she always grew what I think are called Russian potatoes....small and peanut like with a yellow interior. That is the world's best potato, especially with fresh dill and butter. Or the gravy from that boiled beef.
Hmm... I'm trying to think of what dish that could be. We have one called "Pepparrotskött", and it's beef in a creamy sauce with horseradish flavor. It might be something similar to that. And I wonder about those Russian potatoes. We have nothing called that here (well, mostly because we wouldn't name anything after Russia) but we have small potatoes called "almond potatoes". And we also have small root vegetables called "jordärtskockor" (Jerusalen artichokes). Maybe it's something like that!
Probably almond potatoes, and the dish is probably "dill meat" or "dill pot". There is a little vinegar or vinegar essence and sugar in the gravy, which gives it a sweet and sour touch. If you want the Swedish recipe, search for "dillkott" (dillkött).
@@ThreeStarVagabond Hi, and thank you for your response. I have to research pepparrotskott a bit more on the weekend. The technique might be what I can't figure out. Almond potatoes look like what I remember and im already searching for some here in Canada. Thank you.
What are you talking about? !! I have never heard that Swedish food have bad reputation. It is your own choice to make the reputation bad with your video. I have also followed so many international food travellers that have admired very much what they have been served at Swedish restaurants. I don’t like or agree with your twist in this video at all, nor the title and the content you choose to present. What is your goal with this negative agenda?
Thank you for another cracking video. You never fail to entertain us. So one of my favorite cookbooks is called the Little Swedish Kitchen, and it's definitely not boring food. I love svamppölsa, klimp gjorda made with horseradish and cheese, gobbröra and dinkelgröt at Christmas is delicious, although why just then? It's so yummy. We have black pudding (blood pudding) here too. I guess it's left over from those pesky Vikings. I make gravlax regularly. Nettle soup too although I have made it in the late summer too when you can still find tender new grown nettles. I remember in the 1960s/70s when Scandi design (long before the spread of IKEA) was fashionable, restaurants that did smorgasbord were all the rage. There is a Scandi café and supermarket in London, not far from Oxford St. It's always busy. As for flavours and spices; while they seem limited to mostly cinnamon, allspice, black / white pepper and cardamom, you find other things are used for flavouring, like horseradish, pickled green elderberry and herbs. Personally, I like proper Swedish food, (not the IKEA stuff) but then a lot of our own food is similar in Scotland and also the north of England. So yes, it's a geography thing too, I guess.
I imagine that Scotland is pretty similar to Sweden in many ways, so why not in food too! (But we don't have anything to compare with the deep fried Snickers bar) Very interesting to hear! And yeah, there's a fair bit of variety when it comes to the dishes - but I think it's still food that some/many people might find less flavorful than many other countries' foods. Still, happy to hear that you've had pleasant experiences with our little kitchen (and our little red book) :D
My impression of Swedish food was that it was nice and hearty but could be expensive if you ate out in mid- to upper-priced restaurants. My favorite restaurants in Stockholm are Sturehof, Lisa Elmqvist, Pelikan, Wardshuset Ulla Winbladh AB.
Very true! It can get pretty pricey at quality Swedish restaurants. But at those places you of course get high cuisine and not "normal" Swedish food either :)
I've spend a lot of time in Rome, a city world-renowned for its amazing culinary delights. Most of the restaurants and other eateries in central Rome are completely worthless, including the majority of the establishments in the famous restaurant quarters of Trastevere. Of course there are several exceptions, but tourist traps dominate most of the food scene in central Rome. Same thing in for example Barcelona and Paris (a friend of mine, who is a native Parisian, says there are almost no good restaurants at all in Paris). Anyhow, as I am fortunate to have friends in Rome, I've been to restaurants where the locals go. Those experiences were incredible, but pricey. If you want to eat something that tastes ok in Rome but doesn't ruin you, where do you go? To IKEA! Same thing in France, Spain, Germany, the UK, USA - and Sweden. There's a reason why IKEA sell one billion meatballs a year. Swedes sure understand something about food. There are two other strong arguments for this claim. Firstly, have a look at how Swedish chefs (and Scandinavian ditos in general) perform in international cooking competitions like Bocuse d'Or. Secondly, are tourist traps like the ones described above common in Sweden just like they are in so many other countries? No, there are almost no tourist traps in Sweden. The restaurant standard is exceptionally high compared to most other parts of Europe. I understand if foreigners dislike certain Swedish seafood products like surströmming and tube caviar, but on the other hand at an IKEA store I visited in Rome a lot of Italians were munching away on sill and seemed to enjoy it!
Please you are delusional. There is no way that you can eat better food in IKEA. All the countries you have mentioned especially Spain, Italy and France have very strong food cultures that Sweden will never have not even in their dreams. The variety of food those countries have is incredible, every region has its own type of cuisine. Rome, Barcellona and Paris are the most visited cities in the world Stockholm is not and they have a bigger population. Of course there is higher chance to find bad restaurants in those cities. Sweden does have overpriced and terrible restaurants too. Most food at IKEA are not even fresh but frozen stuff they just reheat.
Those are some interesting points... Now, I believe that "proper" Swedish chefs are quite good, so I'm mostly talking about the everyday food you can find in Sweden. But even then, maybe you have a point that tourist trap places in Sweden are still pretty decent. It's pretty Swedish to be "lagom" after all - maybe not super high peaks, but not super deep valleys either. I don't think I agree about the IKEA food thouh, personally. It's fine but just...very "lagom", very decent.
Only slight differences for Finnish cusine. But i have recently noticed from traveling vloggers tht most of them enjoys Finnish cusine. Salmon soup, reindeer, Karelian pies whit egg butter and many other stuff has got embraces from the people. I have slightly different taste as you what comes for the fish. I love fish and crabs. There is way better selection of prawns in Sweden than in Finland. Blood pudding were one of my favourite dishes as i were kid and lived in Stockholm. I usually had have it at least once after ward when we visited in Sweden. Skogaholms limppa were my other favourite thing to eat in Sweden. But i don´t eat bread anymore. Well we do et sometimes macaroni with sausages, but mostly we do "nistipata" (nisti is slang word for drug addict and pata means stew) that is basicly fried ground beef with mac. Reason for the name is that it is cheap and anyone can cook it.
I now have a word for the stews I make! 😀 But yeah I wonder if Sweden pretends to be more "metropolitan" so people expect the food to be more adventurous or something. While Finland is more seen as close to nature. Nah I'm probably just making incorrect guesses here - maybe the food is just more interesting over there and that's why many people enjoy it
@@ThreeStarVagabond Well i don´t think tehere is very big differences in food for whole Nordic area. Mostly pure food and not much of seasoning. Except these days people are useing way more spices than in my childhood. I like spicy food. Taste comes first so not too hot, but just a little kick to fortify flavors.
i have never heard that Swedish food have a bad reputation, and that's despite me having friends and family scattered throughout over more than 30 countries. In fact it's quite the opposite, mainly because the swedish food is based on the french school, so, if swedish food is bad you also have to say the same about french cuisine, and nobody does that
@@ThreeStarVagabond Sweden and France have long historic ties, and as early as the 17th century, French influences started creeping into Swedish cuisine, giving rise to the rich, creamy sauces loved by Swedes still today. In 1810 French Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, who served under Emperor Napoleon, was elected as the heir-presumptive to King Charles XIII of Sweden, who was childless. This influenced the swedish cuisine even more. The House of Bernadotte is the Swedish royal family to this day.
@@LegoLazze Hmm, rich creamy sauces - that might be worth looking more into. There could be an interesting connection there with French cuisine. It still doesn't change the fact that Swedish food has a reputation as bland and tasteless, but it's definitely interesting!
Löksås och Fläsk kan vara det godaste rätten i hela världen. Sedan är stuvade makaroner och falukorv helt otroligt. Makaronerna ska vara som en gröt i konsistensen.
Berätta inte för någon, men jag älskar stuvade makaroner med falukorv (eller med köttbullar). Men jag kan inte riktigt hävda att det är så spännande mat.
Misleading concept. Not high cuisine, but there are some high points in there. The blandness is due to lack of access to the spice trade. But we have horse radish, several kinds of onion…
I think there's a mix of both good and bad with Swedish food - there's definitely a lot of flavors in there, but I can imagine that it's not as obvious as in many other cookings.
As a half Swede living in Sweden.. And a collector of cook books. I have to disagree with you Three Star Vagabond. Blandness of Swedish food.. In general.. lack of spice, Is a modern thing. Or should I say.. Came about in the late 1800's and 1900's due to economic depression among working class society and lack of trade goods. (World War rationing) So the generation before ours had to make due without a lot of spices that would have previously been available to generations before themselves. In older Swedish cook books mid 1800's. Swedes are quite generous with traditional medieval spices in savoury meals.. (the kinds we generally use in baked goods today) and several of these spices have fallen out of fashion today. In general. Medieval Swedish food seems to use a LOT of spices. And depending on what social status you had, the more spices you would consume.. But even before.. People grew and used a lot of aromatic herbs in their gardens or what they found in nature. Wild oregano, ransoms, bear garlic, savory, marjoram, tarragon, fennel, anise, thyme, chives, dill, fenugreek are all found in nature or grown in home gardens... That were also used in cooking.. So I disagree with the "bland" food. That is in my view "a misconception" to be fair based on lack of knowledge.
That's an interesting take on it! I've seen some Swedes disagree in the comments, but this is the first historical approach to it - and I guess it does make sense. When I talked about "Swedish food" I mostly talked about everyday food from modern times after all. I can't really argue with what you're saying, so I guess that I'll simply have to read up on Medieval recipes and herbs used. Maybe I'll have to do a follow-up to this video at some point.
Swedish food has a bad reputation? Says who? The swedes? The only country having a bad reputation about their food, that i have heard of, is good ol'america 😂 too sugary, too fat, too salty
Swedish food is bland to me. I just like their dairy products. Also went to a fancy seafood restaurant(had to take a ferry to an island to get there) it wasn't that tasty. However, i like the hotdog wrapped in flatbread with mashed potato and shrimp salad inside of it. Goodies are always yum and pastries are ok just dont like cardom in my semla.
As we say in Sweden: tastes are like behinds - everyone's got one :) I'm pretty amazed at the number of Swedes in the comments that seem surprised that Swedish food isn't seen as the highest form of culinary experience. But yeah the baked goods are really good!
@ThreeStarVagabond well my swede wife, likes the weird stuff they use to feed her in elementary school. Its like a rotten like milk yogurt. I also cook her, pytii panna on occasion. I wanted to love Swedish food but my palate doesn't agree. The only swedish cuisine restaurant near me is a swedish meatball shop that serves traditional swedish meatballs and fusion of other ethnic like curry, Mexican, Greek, etc. I always go for traditional swede meatball tho.
@@Joe-eg7ml Good of you to give it a shot though! And I guess the rotten milk thing is "filmjölk". I love it with Captain Crunch ;D And it sounds pretty interesting with a fusion of different types of meatballs like that - I think I'd enjoy trying the different ones aside from the Swedish
Aww, come on world..! Yes, Sweden has some horrendous dishes that I (a Swede) have never tried and would never try - all those cured but raw fish items, the infamous fermented herring, the so called "kalvsylta" (shredded beef enveloped in jelly?!) etc - but even if you don't include all the adopted "Swedish" foods like pizza, kebab, hamburgers and what have you, there are still many classical Swedish dishes that are very tasty! Swedish meatballs, falukorv, green pea soup with pork, blood pudding with bacon and lingonberry jam.. the list goes on. :)
Haha, I think all cultures has some good and some...pretty awful dishes. Sweden is probably no worse than other countries in that regard. And I think it's all a matter of taste, if using fewer spices is good or not. I'm sure there's a good argument for natural flavors too!
Äsch då, lite måste man få racka ned på sig själv ibland! Men tack, och jag blev lite fundersam på det där med vikingar och salt... Vissa verkar spekulera att de importerade salt från Baltikum på den tiden. Och salt fanns tillgängligt senare under Medeltiden iaf. Men jag blir lite osäker på om vikingar faktiskt använde salt.
I've never heard anything bad about Swedish food.. On the other hand, foreign food like kebabs and shit like that. they hide the rotten meat with loads of spices
Sweden has amazing bakeries. I visited Sweden, Finland, and Denmark over the summer, and Sweden's food and bakeries were the absolute best. I was expecting more from the bakeries in Copenhagen, but their baked goods were just variations of croissants. Sweden though...amazing. Everything a person could want. Socker Sucker in Stockholm blew my mind, but honestly most of the bakeries were incredible. So much good food.
Really happy to hear that! Some people like Americans think that Swedish pastries can be a bit dry but I much prefer them myself
yes that is true i reaguraly driving 140 km to by a special bread Sourdew bread At Utgårds Bakery in Fjällackla sweden thatt tase just amasing bread and butter is the way to eat it. It has gotten a Price on this year Eldrimmer Competition silver and Brons Eldrimmer has the Swedish championship. :D
Im sorry, but this Is wrong. I have lived in Sweden and your bread stinks.
@@PierreSimonsson Oh wow! That does sound quite amazing - but I think it's too far for me to drive to get a loaf or two :D
While I understand the source of the comment about bland food, I disagree! I travel to Sweden quite often. I find the food in Sweden to be very good-even 7-11 sells artisan bread. The commitment to quality ingredients is very strong. And yes, as noted, there is excellent seafood (many options from both the Baltic and the west coast-not just surströmming). I make nässelsoppa here in the US with foraged nettles-it is quite healthy and I find the taste to be very good. The foraging culture for wild mushrooms, vegetables (e.g. ramps), and berries is very strong. The baking culture is also quite strong with many breads made from wild yeast (sourdough) and a variety of whole grains. The rise of small dairies making handcrafted traditional cheeses has been on the rise-Jämtland is an excellent exemple of this. I diagree about the lack of spices-black and white pepper, herbs like dill, are all used; I do not find Swedish food to be bland at all. As for Swedish restaurants, they are exceptional: Matthias Dahlgren’s restaurants (particularly Rutabega), Nicholas Ekstedt (cooks over open fire), Titi Kvanstrom, Magnus Nilsson (although his Fäviken, which was amazing, has closed.) In general, I find the food quality and culture in Sweden to excellent!
That's fair enough! I think that many think that Swedish food is bland though - or at least they believe that it is, because they haven't really tried proper dishes. But then again tastes always differ so maybe it's simply a set of flavors that appeals to certain palates but not all.
Sweden has amazing food. I loved the bakeries and coffee. Plus, the food is healthy without all the chemicals.
Yeah I think the Swedish fika is quite excellent actually! We do some things quite well 😊
I didn’t find Swedish food all that bad when we were there, a little under seasoned but you can always add your own to taste, on the others hand if it was over seasoned you can’t take it away. Sweden had the best bakery’s by far, I could live off your cinnamon rolls and many others we ate during Fika. The staple to any taste experience is beer😂 and Swedens was quite good. Stay safe till next time and thanks for the insight into Swedish food.
Hey happy to hear that! I personally think it's a lot about the reputation rather than that the food actually is bad. But no one can deny that the baked goods here rock 😀 Cheers and have a great one!
I cooked korvstroganoff for a friend when he visited Sweden for the first time, and he liked it! He also liked most other Swedish food that he tried during his visits.
Even if I don't make Swedish food super often, I still enjoy eating it from time to time. I also like to experiment with more obscure dishes, like when I made korvkaka once. I was quite happy with the outcome!
On travels to the Baltic countries in recent years, I've found that the food is similar to Swedish food, and maybe that's why I enjoy it :D
Funny side note: when I was in Kosovo a few years ago, I went to some restaurant where I ordered what I assumed to be qofte (Albanian/Kosovar meatballs), but they tasted more like Swedish meatballs, and they were served with a sauce that was very similar to the bearnaise you make with the powder from the supermarket 😂
Oh wow, that's really interesting about the Kosovo meatballs! If I ever get around to do a tour of the Balkans I'll definitely have to try them. I like cevapcici and pleskavica and stuff like that too.
But good job on the korv stroganoff! And korvkaka too? That's typically a bit of a harder sell even in Sweden since there's liver in it.
@@ThreeStarVagabond The place I went to was like a cafeteria next to a supermarket in some small town I visited. It's likely the meatballs were mass produced, while I assume authentic qofte would be more similar to cevapi in taste. I lament not getting any...
I do have the concept of a plan for a Balkan trip next summer so I will finally get to eat a lot of tasty dishes if that's the case! :D
What an interesting and cozy video! 🇸🇪❤️ thank you
Thanks for checking it out 😀
I still like nettle soup, but I would never make it myself...
Not that amusing to be stung when collecting them :)
@ThreeStarVagabond Yes, thats why... :-D But the soup is delicious!
@@SteamboatW Fair enough! I must admit that I haven't had it for ages so I don't really remember the taste that well
Me too, although I do make it. It's supposed to be good as a detox from all the salted winter foods.
I’m now in Stockholm , I’m enjoying it and the food love it, I appreciate your videos , are genuinely unique ! Tack så mycket !🙏🏽🙏🏽🇸🇪👍🏼
Thank you so much! And I hope you're having a lovely time in Sweden 😀
@ yes, and one more time , grateful of your videos genuine content , has helped me to organize this visit to Stockholm , today I visited by walking Gamla Stan , stadshuset ….great weather yesterday and today 🇸🇪👍🏼🙏🏽🇸🇪👍🏼
Fingers crossed that the mild November weather keeps up! Sounds like you're taking some very nice walks around town. And thanks a lot - really glad to hear that 😊
My grandparents came from Sweden so I grew up with a lot of Swedish food. Its very fresh at its best. I just tried rusks from an east indian store hoping as they had cardamon in them. Nope. Will have to make the Christmas bread and dry it out. I am hoping you can recall the name of a dish my Grandma made for me. It was boiled beef with a creamy dill sauce. Somehow the beef was chewable. I cooked it with her but cannot remember. Also, she always grew what I think are called Russian potatoes....small and peanut like with a yellow interior. That is the world's best potato, especially with fresh dill and butter. Or the gravy from that boiled beef.
I'm in Canada.
Hmm... I'm trying to think of what dish that could be. We have one called "Pepparrotskött", and it's beef in a creamy sauce with horseradish flavor. It might be something similar to that. And I wonder about those Russian potatoes. We have nothing called that here (well, mostly because we wouldn't name anything after Russia) but we have small potatoes called "almond potatoes". And we also have small root vegetables called "jordärtskockor" (Jerusalen artichokes). Maybe it's something like that!
Probably almond potatoes, and the dish is probably "dill meat" or "dill pot". There is a little vinegar or vinegar essence and sugar in the gravy, which gives it a sweet and sour touch. If you want the Swedish recipe, search for "dillkott" (dillkött).
@@pakhew3904 Dillkött, that's got to be it. Nice work!
@@ThreeStarVagabond Hi, and thank you for your response. I have to research pepparrotskott a bit more on the weekend. The technique might be what I can't figure out. Almond potatoes look like what I remember and im already searching for some here in Canada. Thank you.
I thought the food was fine when I was in Sweden. Meatballs were really good! There were a few weird things.. but the sweets and baked food was great!
I think the food is perfectly fine - but it can be a bit dull sometimes. I'm used to it though, so I enjoy it :)
Miro, you rock! Loving your replies to this particular video 😅....klok vis man❤
Haha thank you! Even if it's more like grumpy old man 😀
What are you talking about? !!
I have never heard that Swedish food have bad reputation. It is your own choice to make the reputation bad with your video.
I have also followed so many international food travellers that have admired very much what they have been served at Swedish restaurants.
I don’t like or agree with your twist in this video at all, nor the title and the content you choose to present. What is your goal with this negative agenda?
Then you are obviously deaf. Step outside of your little bubble sometime.
@@ThreeStarVagabond 😳Immature answer
You're not worth a second more
@@ThreeStarVagabondYou were never worth a single second.
"I have fond memories of getting shit-faced."
Lmao, me too. Subscribed.
Drunkards of the world, unite! :D
Swedish is food is simple, not bad.
Very well said. I should have had that in the video!
Thank you for another cracking video. You never fail to entertain us. So one of my favorite cookbooks is called the Little Swedish Kitchen, and it's definitely not boring food. I love svamppölsa, klimp gjorda made with horseradish and cheese, gobbröra and dinkelgröt at Christmas is delicious, although why just then? It's so yummy. We have black pudding (blood pudding) here too. I guess it's left over from those pesky Vikings. I make gravlax regularly. Nettle soup too although I have made it in the late summer too when you can still find tender new grown nettles.
I remember in the 1960s/70s when Scandi design (long before the spread of IKEA) was fashionable, restaurants that did smorgasbord were all the rage. There is a Scandi café and supermarket in London, not far from Oxford St. It's always busy.
As for flavours and spices; while they seem limited to mostly cinnamon, allspice, black / white pepper and cardamom, you find other things are used for flavouring, like horseradish, pickled green elderberry and herbs.
Personally, I like proper Swedish food, (not the IKEA stuff) but then a lot of our own food is similar in Scotland and also the north of England. So yes, it's a geography thing too, I guess.
I imagine that Scotland is pretty similar to Sweden in many ways, so why not in food too! (But we don't have anything to compare with the deep fried Snickers bar) Very interesting to hear! And yeah, there's a fair bit of variety when it comes to the dishes - but I think it's still food that some/many people might find less flavorful than many other countries' foods. Still, happy to hear that you've had pleasant experiences with our little kitchen (and our little red book) :D
My impression of Swedish food was that it was nice and hearty but could be expensive if you ate out in mid- to upper-priced restaurants. My favorite restaurants in Stockholm are Sturehof, Lisa Elmqvist, Pelikan, Wardshuset Ulla Winbladh AB.
Very true! It can get pretty pricey at quality Swedish restaurants. But at those places you of course get high cuisine and not "normal" Swedish food either :)
I've spend a lot of time in Rome, a city world-renowned for its amazing culinary delights. Most of the restaurants and other eateries in central Rome are completely worthless, including the majority of the establishments in the famous restaurant quarters of Trastevere. Of course there are several exceptions, but tourist traps dominate most of the food scene in central Rome. Same thing in for example Barcelona and Paris (a friend of mine, who is a native Parisian, says there are almost no good restaurants at all in Paris). Anyhow, as I am fortunate to have friends in Rome, I've been to restaurants where the locals go. Those experiences were incredible, but pricey. If you want to eat something that tastes ok in Rome but doesn't ruin you, where do you go? To IKEA! Same thing in France, Spain, Germany, the UK, USA - and Sweden. There's a reason why IKEA sell one billion meatballs a year. Swedes sure understand something about food. There are two other strong arguments for this claim. Firstly, have a look at how Swedish chefs (and Scandinavian ditos in general) perform in international cooking competitions like Bocuse d'Or. Secondly, are tourist traps like the ones described above common in Sweden just like they are in so many other countries? No, there are almost no tourist traps in Sweden. The restaurant standard is exceptionally high compared to most other parts of Europe. I understand if foreigners dislike certain Swedish seafood products like surströmming and tube caviar, but on the other hand at an IKEA store I visited in Rome a lot of Italians were munching away on sill and seemed to enjoy it!
Please you are delusional. There is no way that you can eat better food in IKEA. All the countries you have mentioned especially Spain, Italy and France have very strong food cultures that Sweden will never have not even in their dreams.
The variety of food those countries have is incredible, every region has its own type of cuisine.
Rome, Barcellona and Paris are the most visited cities in the world Stockholm is not and they have a bigger population. Of course there is higher chance to find bad restaurants in those cities. Sweden does have overpriced and terrible restaurants too.
Most food at IKEA are not even fresh but frozen stuff they just reheat.
Those are some interesting points... Now, I believe that "proper" Swedish chefs are quite good, so I'm mostly talking about the everyday food you can find in Sweden. But even then, maybe you have a point that tourist trap places in Sweden are still pretty decent. It's pretty Swedish to be "lagom" after all - maybe not super high peaks, but not super deep valleys either. I don't think I agree about the IKEA food thouh, personally. It's fine but just...very "lagom", very decent.
Choklad is better than here in America. Marabou > Hershey’s
Everything is better than Hershey's. Raw turnips is better than Hershey's!
@ I also think Espresso House is miles better than Starbucks.
@@LoxytocinYT Agreed! I was there yesterday to have a saffron bun :D
I love Koetbular😢.
Jag också!
My kind of Asian fusion is to cook instant ramen and fry some meatballs to have in it. Amazing combo 😀
@ThreeStarVagabond mmh, have to try this😅😊.
Only slight differences for Finnish cusine. But i have recently noticed from traveling vloggers tht most of them enjoys Finnish cusine. Salmon soup, reindeer, Karelian pies whit egg butter and many other stuff has got embraces from the people.
I have slightly different taste as you what comes for the fish. I love fish and crabs. There is way better selection of prawns in Sweden than in Finland. Blood pudding were one of my favourite dishes as i were kid and lived in Stockholm. I usually had have it at least once after ward when we visited in Sweden. Skogaholms limppa were my other favourite thing to eat in Sweden. But i don´t eat bread anymore.
Well we do et sometimes macaroni with sausages, but mostly we do "nistipata" (nisti is slang word for drug addict and pata means stew) that is basicly fried ground beef with mac. Reason for the name is that it is cheap and anyone can cook it.
I now have a word for the stews I make! 😀 But yeah I wonder if Sweden pretends to be more "metropolitan" so people expect the food to be more adventurous or something. While Finland is more seen as close to nature. Nah I'm probably just making incorrect guesses here - maybe the food is just more interesting over there and that's why many people enjoy it
@@ThreeStarVagabond Well i don´t think tehere is very big differences in food for whole Nordic area. Mostly pure food and not much of seasoning. Except these days people are useing way more spices than in my childhood. I like spicy food. Taste comes first so not too hot, but just a little kick to fortify flavors.
@@ArchieArpeggio Yeah I like a little bit of spice but not super hot. Like, native Thai hot is just a bit too much for me. Lagom is best ;D
i have never heard that Swedish food have a bad reputation, and that's despite me having friends and family scattered throughout over more than 30 countries. In fact it's quite the opposite, mainly because the swedish food is based on the french school, so, if swedish food is bad you also have to say the same about french cuisine, and nobody does that
Never heard anyone say that Swedish food is based on French cuisine
@@ThreeStarVagabond Sweden and France have long historic ties, and as early as the 17th century, French influences started creeping into Swedish cuisine, giving rise to the rich, creamy sauces loved by Swedes still today. In 1810 French Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, who served under Emperor Napoleon, was elected as the heir-presumptive to King Charles XIII of Sweden, who was childless. This influenced the swedish cuisine even more. The House of Bernadotte is the Swedish royal family to this day.
@@LegoLazze Hmm, rich creamy sauces - that might be worth looking more into. There could be an interesting connection there with French cuisine. It still doesn't change the fact that Swedish food has a reputation as bland and tasteless, but it's definitely interesting!
Löksås och Fläsk kan vara det godaste rätten i hela världen. Sedan är stuvade makaroner och falukorv helt otroligt. Makaronerna ska vara som en gröt i konsistensen.
Berätta inte för någon, men jag älskar stuvade makaroner med falukorv (eller med köttbullar). Men jag kan inte riktigt hävda att det är så spännande mat.
Misleading concept. Not high cuisine, but there are some high points in there. The blandness is due to lack of access to the spice trade. But we have horse radish, several kinds of onion…
I think there's a mix of both good and bad with Swedish food - there's definitely a lot of flavors in there, but I can imagine that it's not as obvious as in many other cookings.
What are you talking about?
Swedish food does not have a bad reputation!
Of course not, and Swedes aren't bad at smalltalk either. I'll roll my eyes now.
As a half Swede living in Sweden.. And a collector of cook books. I have to disagree with you Three Star Vagabond. Blandness of Swedish food.. In general.. lack of spice, Is a modern thing. Or should I say.. Came about in the late 1800's and 1900's due to economic depression among working class society and lack of trade goods. (World War rationing) So the generation before ours had to make due without a lot of spices that would have previously been available to generations before themselves. In older Swedish cook books mid 1800's. Swedes are quite generous with traditional medieval spices in savoury meals.. (the kinds we generally use in baked goods today) and several of these spices have fallen out of fashion today. In general. Medieval Swedish food seems to use a LOT of spices. And depending on what social status you had, the more spices you would consume.. But even before.. People grew and used a lot of aromatic herbs in their gardens or what they found in nature. Wild oregano, ransoms, bear garlic, savory, marjoram, tarragon, fennel, anise, thyme, chives, dill, fenugreek are all found in nature or grown in home gardens... That were also used in cooking.. So I disagree with the "bland" food. That is in my view "a misconception" to be fair based on lack of knowledge.
That's an interesting take on it! I've seen some Swedes disagree in the comments, but this is the first historical approach to it - and I guess it does make sense. When I talked about "Swedish food" I mostly talked about everyday food from modern times after all. I can't really argue with what you're saying, so I guess that I'll simply have to read up on Medieval recipes and herbs used. Maybe I'll have to do a follow-up to this video at some point.
In short, you are wrong
In short, you are ridiculous
9:31 I would recommend Flygande Jakob to anyone who has not tasted it before
Agreed! I mean, it sounds weird but it really is tasty
What I'd give to have kebab pizza in Mexico 😭
Kebab pizza is the eight wonder of the modern world :D
Swedish food has a bad reputation? Says who? The swedes? The only country having a bad reputation about their food, that i have heard of, is good ol'america 😂 too sugary, too fat, too salty
Swedish food is bland to me. I just like their dairy products. Also went to a fancy seafood restaurant(had to take a ferry to an island to get there) it wasn't that tasty. However, i like the hotdog wrapped in flatbread with mashed potato and shrimp salad inside of it. Goodies are always yum and pastries are ok just dont like cardom in my semla.
As we say in Sweden: tastes are like behinds - everyone's got one :) I'm pretty amazed at the number of Swedes in the comments that seem surprised that Swedish food isn't seen as the highest form of culinary experience. But yeah the baked goods are really good!
@ThreeStarVagabond well my swede wife, likes the weird stuff they use to feed her in elementary school. Its like a rotten like milk yogurt. I also cook her, pytii panna on occasion. I wanted to love Swedish food but my palate doesn't agree. The only swedish cuisine restaurant near me is a swedish meatball shop that serves traditional swedish meatballs and fusion of other ethnic like curry, Mexican, Greek, etc. I always go for traditional swede meatball tho.
@@Joe-eg7ml Good of you to give it a shot though! And I guess the rotten milk thing is "filmjölk". I love it with Captain Crunch ;D And it sounds pretty interesting with a fusion of different types of meatballs like that - I think I'd enjoy trying the different ones aside from the Swedish
@@ThreeStarVagabond I go to Sverige every year and always give swediah food cusine a try/chance.
@@Joe-eg7ml You do a good job of exploring a lot of different aspects about Sweden :D
Aww, come on world..! Yes, Sweden has some horrendous dishes that I (a Swede) have never tried and would never try - all those cured but raw fish items, the infamous fermented herring, the so called "kalvsylta" (shredded beef enveloped in jelly?!) etc - but even if you don't include all the adopted "Swedish" foods like pizza, kebab, hamburgers and what have you, there are still many classical Swedish dishes that are very tasty! Swedish meatballs, falukorv, green pea soup with pork, blood pudding with bacon and lingonberry jam.. the list goes on. :)
Haha, I think all cultures has some good and some...pretty awful dishes. Sweden is probably no worse than other countries in that regard. And I think it's all a matter of taste, if using fewer spices is good or not. I'm sure there's a good argument for natural flavors too!
never heard that Seden has a bad rep about food... quite the opposite 🤣
Varför sågar du Svensk mat?
Högst troligt fanns det inte salt i Sverige under vikingatiden.
I övrigt lika underhållande video som vanligt.
Äsch då, lite måste man få racka ned på sig själv ibland! Men tack, och jag blev lite fundersam på det där med vikingar och salt... Vissa verkar spekulera att de importerade salt från Baltikum på den tiden. Och salt fanns tillgängligt senare under Medeltiden iaf. Men jag blir lite osäker på om vikingar faktiskt använde salt.
Gårdsfisk! :) I have learned to use tilapia from their products. Great fish that fits in most dishes. :)
It did look quite nice! Unfortunately it's pearls for swine when it comes to me 😅
4:31 Only 7% of the Swedish people eat sour herring!
And those 7% are clearly insane!
Better than British food. I had a steak and kidney pie in London and throw up for three days.
I'm not going to argue against that actually 😅
I've never heard anything bad about Swedish food.. On the other hand, foreign food like kebabs and shit like that. they hide the rotten meat with loads of spices
How ironic - I've never heard anyone complain about kebab and other exotic food
Swedish Carnivore
Swedish food isn't bad......................................When you compare it with our English Muck! 😃
Give me English food any day....
@@TheDarkLandsMusiccrap
We should have a competition about which country has the worst dishes 😅
@@ThreeStarVagabond i have been in all countries in Europe and I vote for Britain.
As an Italian I love British food.
Nice vid.
However, your audio is whack!
Yep I thought I'd be okay filming inside the exhibition. Nope - picked up noise from all over
@ThreeStarVagabond As it should be 😈
That'll teach me to be among people!
Nothing wrong with Swedish food.
Problemet med regeringen.
Haha they're definitely salty and sour and bitter - so there's a lot of "flavor" there