Sweden - Our Eleventh Meal

For our eleventh meal, Mark made us a delicious SMÖRGÅSBORD! Funnily enough, my first words upon seeing the spread (before I knew the country) were "wow! a smorgasbord!" :)

This tasty meal was eaten in courses. We started with a shot of aquavit (strong, anise rubbing-alcohol flavor haha), and then tucked into the fish course. Pickled herring (bottom; a staple of any smorgasbord, apparently), from Scandinavian Specialties in Ballard, along with gravlax Mark made himself! 

The pickled herring was an interesting, rich, but very strong flavor. Mark found it delicious-- I think it would grow on me, but my initial impression was not very favorable. The gravlax, though, was fabulous! A nice mild salmon, dill, and lemon flavor, with a tasty gravlaxsas Mark made.

Next was a selection of pickled foods. I did not prefer the pickled cabbage or regular pickled beets -- too much "dirt" taste for me -- but I did really like the pickled golden beets, and olives filled with bleu cheese.

After that, we had the meats course, including some delicious potato sausage that Mark made himself!! He ground the meat and filled the casings and everything. Very impressive -- and very time-consuming, apparently.

Mark also made some very delicious and comforting-tasting meatballs in the slowcooker, which we ate with a very flavorful lingonberry jam.

We also enjoyed two imported Swedish cheeses with knackerbrod (a traditional Swedish crisp bread). I especially liked the greve.

The fresh pickled cucumbers were good, a familiar flavor for me.

For dessert, Mark made us a terrifically rich and delicious "sticky chocolate cake" with blackberry sauce, using berries from our backyard. We also enjoyed some nice Swedish cookies -- I especially liked the Gille Double Chocolate Crisps.

After dinner, we started to watch a film called Songs from the Second Floor, which was pretty silly. We turned it off at a certain point. 

We do love some Swedish films though-- Låt den rätte komma in (2008) is one of my favorite horror films, and The Seventh Seal (1957), Swedish title Det sjunde inseglet, is one of my favorite movies.

When? October 10, 2020

Who cooked? Mark

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) gravlax, gravlaxsas, potato sausage, swedish meatballs, pickled cucumbers, sticky chocolate cake

Sweden Stats

• Population: 10,036,379 (91st in the world)... less than the population of North Carolina
• GDP: 521.7
• Life Expectancy: 82.7 -- pretty high, 11th in the world!
• Founding Date/Age in 2020: 970 / 1050 ... another old country
• Official Language: Swedish
• Most equal income distribution-- pretty damn jealous, given the radical wealth inequality in the US
• Lowest importance of religion
• Highest proficiency in English as a second language