There's Always Room for Fika [Sweden 2019]

Fika [fee-ka] Swedish (n.) a moment to slow down and appreciate the good things in life.

After a brief stopover in Poland, Elizabeth and I continued our European food tour in Sweden. Don't worry, we walked almost 70 miles over the course of a week, so eating our way through Europe wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. 

Tunnbrödrulle, caramel cat candy, and semla

Before I start RAVING about the best food in Sweden, let's cover the runners up. First, tunnbrödrulle, which is pretty much a hot dog in a wrap. Ours came with mashed potatoes and mustard for a truly interesting treat. And honestly, I didn't hate it. It was an odd combination of foods and kind of tasted like a heart attack going down, but it was pretty good. And it was from a food truck on the banks of the some body of Swedish water and felt very cultural. The caramel cat candy from Vete-Katten did not feel very cultural, but it was CAT SHAPED CANDY and it was the same color as my kittens, so it was a must. And lastly was semla, which is a Lent pastry and was kind of a let down. It tasted like air. There was some tiny bit of flavored something in the middle was a pretty dang good, but the rest of it, both the filling and the bread, was kind of tasteless. Maybe we just didn't get it from the best bakery?

But now to the real winners of the culinary scene. Drum roll, please.

Kanelbulle and hot chocolate from Espresso House

So basically these are cinnamon rolls, but skinnier? And they have glaze flakes instead of liquid glaze. I don't know, man, these were amazing. Elizabeth and I also tried ones that were cardamom flavored and both became daily snacks. I will spend the rest of my life dreaming about kanelbulles. 

A sausage bun, moose lasagna, and reindeer with lingonberries

I. Did. Not. Hate. This. When creating our Scandinavian Bucket List (which clearly was all food related), Elizabeth and I knew we wanted to try reindeer. Could we BE any more Scandinavian? Anyways, we didn't find any in Oslo, expect the smoked one, so when we saw a sign for reindeer at The Hairy Pig in Gamla Stan, we knew we had to stop. As an added bonus they had moose, so all right, twist our arms. The moose lasagna was BOMB. To be fair, it was mostly cheese and how can you go wrong with cheese? But regardless, it was amazing. The reindeer was kind of a let down after all the hype, but even ground beef isn't anything to write home about when you just cook it up with little/ no seasonings. The lingonberries were actually my favorite part of the reindeer/ lingonberry mix. And they sell lingonberry jelly in Epcot, so heyyyyy.

Glögg-- aka, hot wine

After long days of freezing temperatures, we had to warm up with some hot wine. Plus we saw it advertised on one of our boat tours and then just really wanted it. We stumbled across Cafe Sten Sture, which, in retrospect, might have been my favorite restaurant we went to in the whole trip. I mean, we ended up going there two days in a row, so we must have liked it? It's this bar that's underground and in an old dungeon. So it was dark and stone, but also spacious and cozy. And the bar tenders were so nice. They had lots of recommendations for things to do and had lots to chat about. We got some glögg both nights and desserts the second night-- think apple pie that was more like a cake with ice cream.

Swedish meatballs

Maybe these were a little heavy for our last meal (literally ate these and went straight to the airport), but holy cow, they were divine. I could eat kanelbulle for breakfast and these meatballs from Meatballs for the People every day and not totally hate it. Plus, it came with mashed potatoes and lingonberries, so how could you even be mad!?

In case anyone was worried that we did nothing BUT eat, never fear. We spent an extraordinarily long time on boats for the middle of March. And regretted everything except the reindeer fur blanket, honestly.

We also spent quite some time riding the subways around. Which is a thing, okay? Because a handful of the subway stops are painted and they are ASTOUNDING. That rainbow one was all sorts of amazing.

We also rode the SkyView, which was a spherical ball that took us up and over the side of an arena in Stockholm for views of the city. It was free with our Stockholm pass, what can we say? We also visited Drottingholm Palace which is the private residence of the Swedish royal family. No royalty was seen on our trip. It was beautiful, old, and also free with our Stockholm pass.

We gave a big thumbs down to the Nordiska Museum which we thought was going to be cool Swedish outfits, but ended up being famous place settings. And other things that I honestly don't even remember, but what does it tell you when place settings are the most memorable part?

We gave a big thumbs up to the Vasa Museum, though. So the Vasa was this giant ship, supposed to be a big freakin' deal, and it sunk like 15 minutes into its maiden voyage. Yeah, bummer. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. This giant wooden ship sinks and is at the bottom of this lake/ ocean/ sea for THREE HUNDRED YEARS. And when they found it, IT WAS FULLY INTACT. Like, straight up, you can go to see this museum to see the original ropes and sails and everything that was on the ship. Apparently they also founds bones from people who had died on the ship, which really makes me wonder how poor of swimmers they were honestly. We kind of figured that the Vasa Museum would be as thrilling as the Nordiska Museum (read: not), but it was way more fascinating that we could have predicted.

We packed a lot into seven short days. A lot of pastries, a lot of hot chocolate, a lot of delicious food, a lot of laughing, and a lot of walking. When it was all said and done, we begrudgingly headed to the airport. We were leaving behind so much good food and had so many things that we still wanted to see.

Scandinavia-- you were something else.