I am abroad again and this time, I\u2019m proud to say that Dearly Beloved is managing quite well. He went shopping all by himself today and bought what he needed. But he did respond with a sigh of relief when he heard I\u2019m coming back on Monday.<\/p>\n
This time it was me who needed his help. I was asked to prepare something typically Swedish for my hosts and my mind went blank. \u201cTypically Swedish?\u201d<\/em> I thought\u2026 hmmm, that would have be to falukor<\/strong>v and pasta with ketchup, but sadly, or rather happily, they\u2019re not aware of the existence of falukorv<\/strong> in this country and I plan to keep it this way.<\/p>\n I went to a local supermarket to search the shelves looking for Swedish products. The idea was that maybe I could put together something Swedish using what I could buy in normal grocery stores. You see, when abroad I never really go shopping with a specific goal of buying only Swedish products. To be honest, I tend to do the opposite and sample the local specialties. But this time, I had strict orders \u2013 show us something native to Sweden. And so instead of trying 537 different varieties of sausages, I was diligently going through the supermarket looking for Swedish stuff. It turned out easier than expected.<\/p>\n In the refrigerated section I found a slew of Abba<\/strong> fishies in jars. All made the Swedish way \u2013 with copious amounts of sugar. I bought some sickly sweet dill herring (dill sill<\/strong>). In the bread and cracker section, there were several shelves of Wasa<\/strong> cracker bread. All the kinds we have back home and probably a few more made specifically for a foreign market.<\/p>\n In the dairy section half of the stuff was made by Arla<\/strong> \u2013 a brand we know from home (and from my post about dairy products) but I couldn\u2019t find any typically Swedish cheeses, like Kloster<\/strong>, for example. But in a different isle, tiny jars of lingonsylt<\/strong> were neatly lined up. And in the ice-cream freezers, SIA hjortron glass<\/strong> (couldberry ice cream) was smiling at me.<\/p>\n Still, not enough to put together a proper Swedish dinner. And since I\u2019m too lazy to make my own meatballs, I had to listen to the advice of my DB, which went more or less like that “Go to IKEA<\/strong>, stupid!”<\/em> Yes, for those who don\u2019t know \u2013 this Swedish furniture emporium also sells a variety of Swedish yummies. So, needless to say, I’m off to IKEA tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am abroad again and this time, I\u2019m proud to say that Dearly Beloved is managing quite well. He went shopping all by himself today and bought what he needed. But he did respond with a sigh of relief when he heard I\u2019m coming back on Monday. This time it was me who needed his…<\/p>\n