Man, did I eat a lot of good food while in Stockholm, Sweden. Since this trip was a few weeks ago, I had forgotten about a few of the meals I had eaten, so going through photos not only made my mouth water, but made me miss Sweden.
One of my favorite parts of Sweden. Fikas (pronounced feekah). Coffee breaks are so important to the Swedish people, they have created a special word for them- fika. Fikas are important to Swedish culture, so even though it is literally translated as a coffee break, its much more than that. It's viewed as a time to slow down during the day, take time to socialize with others, all the while enjoying some sort of sweet and coffee or tea. The typical sweets eaten with fikas are: cinnamon buns, cakes, and cookies. My favorite sweet with them are cinnamon buns. They have way less dough than the ones in the U.S., so it's basically the equivalent of eating the top of a cinnamon roll the whole time. We had a blast fikaing in Sweden and will definitely be bringing the word home with us.
Did you really go to Sweden if you didn't have Swedish meatballs? The meatballs I was served were perfectly cooked and very juicy on the inside with a crisp outside. The brown sauce they were paired with added a nice salty and savory component. The mashed potatoes were perfect. The Lingonberries and sauce also served with it really added another dimension to the meal. They were very sour and kind of reminded me of cranberries. It made the meal more tart when you took a bite of them with some meatball and mashed potatoes, but somehow they all balanced out. I love Swedish meatballs in the states, so I was very excited to try this dish in its original country, and I was not let down.
This fun creation is a crispy chicken sandwich. I translated only a couple things on the menu before coming upon this and I didn't really know what was going to be on it, but figured it would just be a traditional chicken sandwich. That was not the case, but in a good way. It was served on toasted ciabatta bun and the chicken was more like cajun chicken so it had a nice kick to it. It also had generous amounts of mayo, some sort of sweet red sauce, and lettuce. It was a satisfying meal.
This is from one of our many fika stops on this trip. I found this apple pie interesting because they served some warm cream with it to pour all over when you were ready to eat it. It made it all warm and gooey and it was basically tasted the same as if there was melted ice cream on it. I also had some chai tea in a cup basically the size of a soup bowl. This was a very good fika.
Stockholm is supposed to have great fish since they are literally surrounded by water and we were not disappointed with this meal. The outside of the fish was so flakey and the inside was extremely tender and didn't have an overly fishy taste. The tartar sauce was amazing as well. I've become obsessed with tartar sauce while abroad because everyone over here is in love with it. It's offered with basically any meal with fries even if there isn't any fish involved. Definitely going to get some weird looks when I'm back in the states and I'm asking for tartar with my fries.
While in Stockholm, we kept seeing this chain of fast-food restaurants called MAX. So, I looked it up and learned it is a burger joint that was founded in Sweden. We could tell it was one of the locals' favorite places as well because they always looked so busy inside. We were able to stop by one for dinner one of our last nights and I ordered their original burger and creole fries. I really enjoyed the burger (though in all honestly it tasted basically like any fast food burger). My favorite part about it though was that they put their signature MAX sauce on it which kind of tastes like McDonald's big mac sauce, but with a lot of mayonnaise mixed in. It was delicious! I also ordered the creole fries because they were giving me In and Out animal style fries vibes. They had nacho cheese, MAX sauce, onions, and jalapeños on them. They were pretty good, but the nacho cheese was a bit too overwhelming on them so you could almost only taste the cheese.
Pictured above is one of the best slices of carrot cake I have ever had. The cake was so moist and soft, but the true star of this slice was the frosting. It was whipped to perfection and cream cheese frosting is basically my favorite. Behind it is a bottle of Kombucha. I bought it thinking it would taste like raspberry lemonade and it is made in Sweden, so a double plus. Man, was I wrong. The best way to describe it is that it tasted like straight vinegar. The only good thing about it was that my throat had been hurting and I was starting to cough, and it completely cleared up my throat and made it feel way better.
Yes, I realize this isn't traditional Swedish food, but I had to include a picture of this beautifully, tasty meal. It's a seven layer salad from Hard Rock Cafe Stockholm. Salads can sometimes be hard to come by over here, so whenever I get the chance, I jump at it. I've also had fun going to different Hard Rock Cafes around the world and adding to my list all of them I've been to. So far, the ones I've been to in Europe are Prague and Stockholm.They always have such a fun atmosphere, cool decorations, and great food.