Stockholm in a Dozen Pictures

I am not going to share too much about my trip to Sweden this time. I was there due to rather sad circumstances and much of it isn't really sharable in the usual way. Instead, I'll just share some photos from the journey.

Photos from Stockholm

 My last trip to Sweden was a bit of a personal trip. I was there to see friends and family, and my schedule didn't allow for very many photos. From the moment that I landed in Stockholm, it was pretty much non-stop: A dinner at a friend's house an hour and a half after touch down; Visiting family out in Stockholm; Visiting friends; Meeting their new families; Catching up with more friends; Spending time with three generations of family members outside of Stockholm. It was a whirlwind.

Still, I manage to get a few photographs in. Stockholm is a very, very nice city. Whether you want to measure it in terms of beauty, livability, or how well things just work, it is hard not to look around and wish that your city back home was as nice as it is here.

It really is too bad that you can't be in more than one place at once...

Lost Gloves in Stockholm

A few last bites in Stockholm

 Vettekatten

 Thelins is a classic cafe and bakery located near

Fabrique Stenugnsbageri is part of the sourdough craze that hit Stockholm a couple of years back, but the bread here is quite good. It's a hearty bread with a good crust on it and their sweets are delicious. Fabrique Stenugnsbageri is located at Götgatan 24, Slussun T-bana station. [Link]

Food Fridays: Two Styles of Proper Swedish Food

Food is both one of the most universal human experiences and also one of the most varied. The intersection of culture and food is one of the richest and most interesting areas for people interested in culture. What is popular is constantly evolving as history, culture, technology, and transculturation all combine to change what we eat, how, and what is representative of a place. In that spirit, today I am going to highlight a couple of "proper" Swedish dishes. Starting with the dish above: Fyra små rätter.

Fyra små rätter, translated as "four small dishes", is a dish that you can get in almost every Chinese restaurant in Sweden. The dish is made up of small portions of four different entrees, generally with sweet and sour pork, sweet and sour shrimp, curry chicken, and beef with bamboo shoots. What makes this a "proper" Swedish dish is that it is only an echo of the food that is served in China. It is actually an Swedish invention from 1973 commonly attributed to Erland Yang Colliander of the restaurant Shanghai in Stockholm. It's as Chinese as fortune cookies (which originated in San Francisco). The dish is an example of ethnic cuisine being adapted to local expectations and preferences in taste.

The second "proper" Swedish dish is called stekt strömming. This is a dish that Swedes have been eating since forever. The dish is made up of fried Baltic herring, usually served as above with potatoes and lingon berries. This is probably also what you imagine Swedish food is like, but today these types of traditional dishes are not as widely consumed as they once were.

However, even in this meal, we can't say that this is purely Swedish. The effects of the links that Sweden has had over the course of its history can be seen in this dish and the salad bar beside it. The potato, a staple of Swedish cuisine, didn't exist in the country at all before the 1700s (it was popularized by Jonas Alströmer). Corn is native to Cuba, not Europe. The olives and hummus come from the Mediterranean and even the pickled herring is "french onion" flavored (fransk löksill). It just goes to show that what is "proper" food for any place is always evolving.