Nordic food culture is like no other in the world. If you think it’s all meatballs and fermented shark, think again. We’ve got the lowdown – check out some of our posts below to find out fave national dishes, what your average Swede has for breakfast, or to immerse yourself in the wonderful world of Nordic berries…
Salmiakki (or salmiak), a candy mostly seen in the Nordics, has an unusual taste for a sweet: it’s actually salty. Salmiak’s characteristic salty taste actually comes from ammonium chloride, not sodium chloride (salt) — though the difference is hard to spot. Salmiak is usually known as salty liquorice. The Finns are the number one consumers …
Over the last few years, an increasing number of people around the world have become obsessed with Nordic cooking. Nordic cuisine is linked with each country’s landscape and the availability of ingredients dependant on the season. In the summer months, Nordic landscapes are characterised by nearly 24-hours of sunlight a day – bathing forest floors with dew-soaked berries in myriad colours and varieties. However, these heady days of endless sunlight are finite, and during the long, cold winter months, natural foods of all varieties are scarce.
Fika is a national institution in Sweden, and a tradition that has been upheld for years. In its rawest form, it’s essentially a coffee break; a good excuse to slow down and spend some quality time with people you like. Friends will fika together, family will meet up for a fika, or you can fika …
Swedish Frukost The Swedes start off each day with a strongly brewed coffee. Breakfast in Sweden is a low-key affair – a simple bowl of cereal or berries with milk or filmjölk (a soured milk that’s somewhere between milk and yoghurt) will suffice, and some people will skip breakfast entirely and wait until it’s fika-o’ …
Norway is known for its geographical wonders: beautiful deep fjords and jagged coastline, mesmerising Northern lights and majestic glaciers. So often, visitors forget about the fascinating cuisine that has been cultivating for thousands of years in this Nordic country – a cuisine that is intrinsically linked with the beautiful, wild landscape. The Norwegian coastline is …
Smørrebrød If there’s one thing you could call the quintessential Danish dish, it’d be the smørrebrød: the Danish open sandwich. This can be eaten as a snack or for any of the three meals of the day. The base is normally a slice of dark rye bread (rugbrød) spread with salty butter, and then the …
Swedish cuisine is about more than just meatballs. It’s distinctive, traditional, and – like most Scandinavian cuisine – based on what can be foraged or caught from the land or the sea. Fish, pork and berries are essentials. Potatoes also feature heavily, as of course does dill (buttery, dill-covered new potatoes are one of Sweden’s …
Icelandic dishes have long held a reputation for being a little bit what mainstream western cuisine would class as ‘obscure’. Like all Nordic nations, the Icelandic diet comprises of whatever resources are readily available – fish from the sea around them, easy-to-farm livestock like sheep and cows, berries and veg. Most of the dishes have …
Midsummer’s Eve is quite possibly the most Nordic of celebrations, and one that is so important that it even rivals Christmas as the most important holiday in the Nordic calendar. Midsummer marks the start of the annual summer holiday and of course is a time to celebrate the midsummer solstice: when the Earth’s northern axis …
If you’ve ever spent any time in Sweden, you’ll know that] the crayfish party – known as Kräftskiva – is a beloved, time-honoured Swedish tradition. Crayfish parties tend to take place during August, making the most of the warm, light evenings.