Sweden!
Herring, horseradish, dill, herring, Anna cookies, rye crisps, herring…must be Sweden.
When I wasn’t pretending to be a scientist and dancing to an Abba cover band, I walked around and…ate. This is an indoor food market (the stall is Melanders).
Seedy bread and some type of fish+mayo thing. (Mayo is a bit of a big deal.)
Another afternoon on the hotel balcony, with herring+mustard+mayo. And Stieg Larsson’s book, which is dangerous because once you start reading, you have to finish.
The kitchen at Hotel Parlan, which was so so helpful.
And this might be where Stieg got some inspiration…
Although I personally preferred the Nordic god spitting water out at the world.
For Kevin and Zhou at No Hurry Curry!
We hopped a ferry…
…raced some sailboats…
…and ended up on the island of Svartso, out in the Stockholm archipelago. 70 or so residents live on this island, about three hours from Stockholm.
We camped in a field (luckily, there were no cows in the field. I thought there might be. Also, no big men with shotguns. Apparently, in Sweden, you can camp anywhere, as long as you’re not in someone’s front yard).
But on this middle-of-water-island…there was a fantastic restaurant called Svartso Krog. It was empty, save for us (40 degrees and rainy does not make for a big day-trip crowd). And luckily, because our food supply had almost run out, they were open.
Swedish meatballs, cucumber pickles, and lingonberry jam:
Fish soup, with langostines, salmon, the works:
And I’m obsessed with the design of the room—like upscale IKEA.
My other favorite design moment: the bright blue awnings on this old Nordic Museum. Inside, all of the exhibits kept reminding me of my American Girl Doll, Kirsten. She was from Sweden, and it was like my 7-year-old dreams come to life.
Other things I loved in Sweden:
All of the boxed/bagged/plastic bottle/ecologically friendly wine.
We went to the fanciest restaurant in Sweden (MD) and what did they serve? Brooklyn Brewery’s Beer!
On the airplane home, I sat next to a woman who knew Stieg Larsson!
One day, it was over 45 degrees. We think.
$10 lunch buffets with coffee, ice cream, and good food.
Hotel Parlan, rocks my world.
The $1 McDonald’s ice cream cone. Just as good in Sweden as the UWS.
