Sweden - Becky Ohlsen [22]
Another growing obsession is a predilection for sustainable farming, small-scale producers and organic produce. Increasingly, restaurants and cafes pride themselves on serving clean, chemical-free grub, as well as actively supporting ethical, eco-friendly agricultural practices. Malmö’s award-winning Slow Food restaurant Salt och Brygga goes one step further, cladding its staff in pure, organic threads.
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Click onto www.scandinaviancooking.com for articles about Swedish cuisine and recipes for Scandi dishes, savoury and sweet. More recipes and epicurean enlightenment await at the savvy www.foodfromsweden.com.
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TWO MINUTES WITH MATHIAS DAHLGREN
How does your latest dining venture differ from your last restaurant, Bon Lloc? In my new restaurant I create my cuisine from a Swedish and local platform. While I believe that people and ideas should travel, I think fresh ingredients should travel as little as possible. What remains the same is my own curiosity about, and attitude to, the ingredients and ideas I encounter.
Where does Swedish cuisine stand at the moment? After some years of influences outside our own borders, we’re now focusing more on our roots. Swedish chefs are increasingly confident about their own abilities to innovate and impress. I think one of the driving forces in the evolution of modern Swedish cuisine is a longing for our own identity.
Some people argue that Sweden offers either expensive fine dining or lousy budget options, with too few good-quality, midpriced eateries. Your thoughts? We have a relatively short history of restaurant culture in Sweden. For a long time, going to a restaurant was associated with luxury for the common Swede. Here, luxury equates with high taxes, in turn creating a high-cost dining experience compared to countries like Spain and Italy. Thankfully, this is changing a bit. Swedish diners have also become more discerning and expectant of good-quality food across the board.
Three foodie experiences visitors to Stockholm shouldn’t miss? Aside from my own food bar at Mathias Dahlgren, head to Café Saturnus in Engelbrektsgatan for their huge and tasty cinnamon scrolls, and don’t miss Nystekt Strömming Click here at Slussen for cheap, tasty Swedish take-away. Another destination is the weekend farmers’ markets around town in season. They seem to pop up here and there so it’s difficult to recommend any one in particular. Your best bet is to ask at the tourist office, at your hotel, or search online.
Mathias Dahlgren is an award-winning chef at his namesake Stockholm restaurant Click here.
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Not surprisingly, this newfound culinary savvy has impacted the tourist trade. Gastro-themed itineraries and activities are on the rise, with everything from Gotland truffle hunts to west-coast lobster safaris, while numerous tourist boards stock culinary guides to their respective region. In Skåne, look out for the free Culinary Skåne (www.culinaryskane.com) booklet, produced by an association of local restaurateurs and providores focused on promoting the region’s produce, cuisine and epicurean events.
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CLASSIC STAPLES & SPECIALITIES
While new-school Swedish nosh thrives on experimentation, it retains firm roots in Sweden’s culinary heritage. Even the most avant-garde chefs admire simple, old-school husmanskost (everyman cuisine) like toast skagen (toast with bleak roe, crème fraiche and chopped red onion), köttbullar och potatis (meatballs and potatoes, usually served with lingonberry jam, known as lingonsylt), nässelsoppa (nettle soup, traditionally served with hard-boiled eggs) and pytt i panna (equivalent to hash: a mix of diced sausage, beef or pork fried with onion and potato and served with sliced beetroot and an egg). Seafood staples include caviar, gravadlax or gravlax (cured salmon) and the ubiquitous sill (herring), eaten smoked, fried or pickled and often accompanied by Scandi trimmings