When we travel to other countries, food is one of the biggest and most important experiences. We love to try Cypriot food, Sri Lankan food, Uzbek food... whatever it is! Then tourists come here to Sweden, and they even have a hard time finding restaurants that serve Swedish food...
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Food from around the world - in Sweden
We Swedes have always been open to food from other countries, which is great! In Sweden, it's easy to find restaurants serving Italian, Greek, American, Thai and Chinese food. It can be even more challenging to find restaurants that serve Swedish food.
We spoke to a person from another country, who worked in Sweden for a few years. When we asked them about their experiences of Swedish food, we got a slightly surprised answer. "Swedish food, it doesn't exist? We often go out to restaurants in Stockholm, but we have never seen Swedish food."
Locally produced, but not so much focus on Swedish dishes ...
Of course, it is possible to find Swedish food in restaurants. If you want to eat home cooking, a hot tip is to aim for the "dish of the day" at lunch restaurants (but tourists may not find this).
There are also plenty of restaurants that focus on local produce and ingredients. You can eat seafood from the sea at fish restaurants and you can enjoy both meat from local farms and locally grown vegetables. Many times with good quality! However, there is not much focus on 'Swedish cuisine'.
In Spain, you'll want to try paella and tapas; in Hungary, you'll want to eat goulash soup and drink tokaj wine. In Switzerland, you can't miss raclette and cheese fondue. But what dishes should tourists not miss in Sweden? And where can you find these dishes?
What about pride in our Swedish food?
When we talk to people from other countries, they are often immensely proud of their native cuisine. The Italians love their pasta, the Poles like their authentic soups, and the Uzbeks say that the rice dish "plov" is the best dish there is.
When we talk to Swedes, the tone is a bit more 'jante'. "Swedish food isn't much to talk about," someone says. Someone else jokes about falukorv, stewed macaroni and brown sauce. There's not much to boast about, or offer ...
Swedish food - good ingredients and great variety
But Swedish food culture has a lot to offer! There are lots of delicious and luxurious ingredients, such as game meat, prawns and crayfish, vendace roe, chanterelles and cloudberries. There are also plenty of more luxurious flavours, such as gravlax, skagenröra and Västerbotten cheese. We've written a lot about Swedish delicacies here.
There are also many traditional dishes that can be very tasty if prepared properly. How about fried herring, cabbage rolls, wallenbergare, jansson's temptation, reindeer meat casserole or rimmed salmon with dill-stewed potatoes? You can read even more about Swedish food here.
Later this summer, when we get a visit from our South African friends (yes, they will be travelling around with us in the campervan!) we plan to offer them lots of different Swedish dishes. Preferably a new Swedish dish every day!
Are you proud of Swedish food?
What do you think about Swedish food? Are you proud of it, or do you think it is "boring"? How do you talk about Swedish food when you meet people from other countries? What Swedish dishes would you like to offer when you have visitors from abroad?
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Anna Nilsson Spets says:
Living abroad, I sometimes long for Swedish food. Gravlax, herring, caviar, all the good cakes... Belgian home cooking is disgusting, it's heavy food with lots of sugar and fat in the form of mayonnaise, apple sauce and above all pork, deep-fried.
kea serves "Swedish" food, a plate of industrial meatballs, fries, brown sauce, lingonberry jam and mayonnaise, topped with a Swedish flag. A crime against the Swedish meatball culture.
19 June 2024 - 6:31
Helena says:
I can understand that you can long for certain things! When we've been abroad for a long time we usually long for Swedish prawns 🙂
20 June 2024 - 5:55
Monica says:
When we lived in the food country France for many years, it was mainly caviar, gravlax, anchovies, herring, new potatoes, shrimps, crayfish, pork juice and liquorice we missed. In the last few years, we could order it from a company that delivered from ICA in Helsingborg. Then I invited the French on gubbröra which they loved but otherwise nothing "typically Swedish". Swedish home cooking and "dish of the day" are among the most disgusting things I know, have never liked it but always cooked more Mediterranean-inspired. So it was food-wise a heaven with all the amazing ingredients - not least the vegetables - down there. If I were to serve something Swedish, it would probably be meatballs, but how fun is that? With lingonberries and brown sauce - no way! No, Sweden is not a food country for me, that's probably why we have such a wide range of other countries' cuisines here I think.
19 June 2024 - 9:14
Helena says:
France is a fantastic food country! The Swedish delicacies you mention are also fantastically good! Elderberry juice was a long time ago I drank!
20 June 2024 - 5:58
Aberaber says:
Something with game meat, for example a stew, with potatoes. Oatmeal 😊 (our neighbours from Hungary can't stand the salty porridge, it should be sweet! For me, the more salty the better), oven pancakes, pancakes, mushroom sauce, meatballs with pickles and lingonberry jam, Swedish tacos, Swedish bolognese, macaroni pudding, all those fish sticks... sandwich with grilled falukorv
19 June 2024 - 9:46
Helena says:
Wow so many dishes, some that I had not thought of! I don't think I've ever had a sandwich with grilled falukorv, but where we're travelling now (Hälsingland) I've seen that you can buy "parisare" 🙂
20 June 2024 - 6:55
BP says:
Genuine Swedish home cooking is good. Gravlax, game meat including dried reindeer fillet are delicacies. Various fish such as pike-perch and perch gravlax are delicious. Meatballs with brown sauce, however, are not. The same goes for falukorv with macaroni...
Then you probably don't do Swedish food justice if you compare the dishes with delicacies from France and Spain, among others. However, I think that Swedish food stands up well compared to Italian dishes. Italian cuisine is totally over-advertised.
19 June 2024 - 20:09
Helena says:
Of course there are completely different levels of Swedish food, I agree! And it also depends on how it is cooked ...! Big difference from fine dining to large kitchens for example ... Then we happen to have the same opinion of the food down south! We also appreciate both French and Spanish food very much, while we had rather boring dining experiences in Italy.
20 June 2024 - 6:57
Ditte says:
If you look at Tore Wretman's recipes and cookery books, you will find a lot of Swedish food to choose from. I can recommend the Opera Cellar's back pocket and the Opera Bar, which serves a lot of "Swedish" food. Also our various fishing villages around the coasts
The Grand Hotel in Stockholm has lots of foreign visitors and guests and always has on its menus some Swedish dishes-
Quite world-famous is a really well-cooked and Swedish smorgasbord where the dishes are cooked from scratch. So yes, we have a lot that is good in our country, but the taste is different.
19 June 2024 - 21:36
Helena says:
Yes, there are some really good restaurants that serve well-prepared Swedish food! Thanks for the tips! 🙂
20 June 2024 - 6:58
Monica says:
Addendum: the Swedish smörgåsbord and/or all the buffet tables we set up at Christmas, Easter and now Midsummer contain everything that is good about Swedish food: mainly fish, shellfish, roe and some game - all cooked in various pleasant forms. It can certainly be compared with French food, for example. But if you talk about Swedish everyday food in the form of old-fashioned home cooking, I think that too is dying out. Cabbage rolls, pea soup, falukorv, body cakes - all these things are too time-consuming to prepare and many people have probably also been "damaged" by their school meals over the years. You only have to be in hospital to be reminded that this is a type of elderly diet that is neither particularly tasty nor even healthy. Despite all the grated carrots!
20 June 2024 - 18:28
Helena says:
Agree, the sandwich table can be very nice and tasty! I can also absolutely understand your point of view on Swedish home cooking. Personally, I can think that it is good sometimes, especially in modern quality restaurants that both use good ingredients and have good chefs. But then there are "horror examples" too, and then it becomes a completely different thing ...
21 June 2024 - 20:20
Leo says:
I have travelled around Africa, Asia, America and Europe. .
I believe that every country has its charm and experiences. And that Swedish food is just as exciting as the other flavours of the world. Regardless, I think people find other flavours exciting. But if you eat it 365 days a year, no matter where you come from, you think other food cultures are exciting. Swedish food is just as fantastic as the rest of the world's.
23 June 2024 - 17:36