The Flicka Who Loves Fika: A Swedish Food Adventure

In Swedish, flicka means girl and fika means coffee break. I’m a flicka who really loves fika! This fika photo is from when we visited Vete-Katten.

In my family, food is the center of our universe. We eat it, we cook it, we show our love through it, we read and watch all about it, and of course we travel for it. To us, food isn't just something we eat to survive. Food is so much bigger than that. Every bite we eat contains thousands of years of history, culture, and love. Every dish tells a unique story about where it came from and how it came to be. The recipes that have made its way to us hold hours of careful preparation and painstaking trial and error. My family loves food so much that almost every photo in my family groupchat is of the food we're eating and making. We're so obsessed with food, that we've watched A Hundred Foot Journey (one of the best movies about food ever) at least 45 times. When we travel, food is one of our biggest priorities, and my spring break trip was no different.

Last Sunday, I flew to Sweden with my boyfriend Clay and his family for spring break vacation! I am lucky to have found someone whose family cares as much about food as my own, so before we left, I sat down with Clay and his family to plan out all the restaurants and foods we wanted to try while in Stockholm. I am currently writing this on the flight home, and I am happy to say that we were able to successfully complete all our Swedish food goals!

Traditional Swedish Food

When you think of Swedish food, you probably think of meatballs, specifically Ikea meatballs. Maybe you think of pickled herring or other types of fish. I had never had Ikea meatballs or pickled herring before, but I knew I definitely wanted to try the real thing while in Sweden. Clay found this really cute, local restaurant known for its modern take on Swedish food called Nomad near where we were staying in Stockholm. When me and the Catlin family rolled up, we realized that the restaurant was super tiny and barely had enough tables to accommodate all 7 of us. A really sweet waitress greeted us and told us that we had gotten super lucky because a bunch of tables were about to open up. Within 10 minutes a bunch of people left, and our group of 7 sat down in the front dining room that pretty much only had room to fit our party. We then ordered a variety of pickled fish for an appetizer, and I myself ordered Swedish meatballs. I was so excited to try the pickled fish, and they were delicious! The pickled herring reminded me of a Chinese snack my dad likes made up of salty and sweet dried cod. Traditional Swedish meatballs come with mashed potatoes, pickles, and lingonberries (a local Swedish berry). The meatballs from Nomad were beautifully seasoned and came with a really yummy gravy. The mashed potatoes were light and the lingonberries tasted perfect. Over the week, I got to try a variety of Swedish meatballs, and Nomad definitely won the best tasting Swedish meatballs competition.

We also ate at Blå Dörren, a restaurant known for it's very traditional Swedish food. We trekked 30 minutes to the Södermalm area of Stockholm to get to this restaurant, and we arrived at a restaurant that had a very local, pub-like atmosphere. The interior was covered in dark wood, and older men occupied most of the tables. We took a look at their menu, and we ordered our food at the bar in the front. Clay, Ella, and I all got potato pancakes with pork, and it was soooo good. The pork tasted like really thick, salty bacon, and it came served on three big potato pancakes. We gobbled it all up pretty quickly, and we were happily surprised when we found out that there were cinnamon cookies and coffee to snack on when we were done with our main meal. The coffee here was dark and rich and I couldn't get enough of it.

Sweden is also known for its shrimp toast called räksmörgås. This dish typically comes with a heaping pile of shrimp on top of a piece of thick rye bread slathered with mayonnaise. On my last day in Stockholm, I ordered this traditional dish from Café Blom. As a seafood lover living in the Midwest, I am often wary of ordering seafood at home. That nervousness transferred a tiny bit, but I knew this was a great place to order a dish that came piled with seafood. When the food arrived it looked yummy and fresh, and that is exactly how it tasted. I savored every bite!

We also took a day trip to Uppsala, Sweden's historical university town. While we were there, we ate lunch at a crepe restaurant. I ordered the smoked salmon, crawfish, and roe galette for lunch, and once again I enjoyed eating the fresh seafood. For dessert, Clay and I got a cloudberry (a berry local to Finland) and vanilla ice cream crepe! It was sooo delicious, and I want to eat another one again just writing about it.

Pastries & Coffee

In Swedish, the word fika means coffee and pastry break. The fact that they have a word for it means that Swedes take their coffee and pastries seriously. As a pastry and coffee lover myself, I was ready to embrace this part of Swedish culture. I fika'ed every day I was in Sweden, and my favorite fika spot was called Vete Katten (also known as Wheat Cat in English). Lana found this adorable bakery, and we ended up going a total of three times. My first trip, I got their blueberry cream pastry. The second time I got a chocolate truffle mudcake. Third I got the framboise. Each was delicious, and they only grew in yumminess. The framboise is one of the best things I ate over the entire trip. It was made of white chocolate mousse, raspberry panacotta, and white cake. I could eat this dessert 25 more times. Vete Katten also had my favorite coffee I had over the whole break. It was powerful and dark, and I drank many cups.

Clay and I also fika'd at Muffin Bakery where he got a chocolate muffin and I got a blueberry cheesecake muffin with our coffee. Clay loves cardamom, and luckily Sweden is known for their cardamom buns! Clay tried them at a bunch of bakeries during fika, and his favorite one from Café Blom. I can't wait to fika back in the US!

Fast Food

Fancy restaurants and fast food chains are both important components of a food landscape, and I think it's important to eat at both to truly get a sense of food in a new place. Real food lovers should be able to appreciate a 3 star Michelin restaurant as much as a yummy fast food burger, and I find that both can teach you a lot about a place. I ate at Max, Sweden's oldest burger chain, my first day in Stockholm. It was awesome!! The interior was bright and well-decorated, and there were several self-service kiosks at the front of the restaurant. As I scrolled through the menu, I was stunned to see many vegetarian and vegan options. I ended up ordering a barbecue burger and fries, and they were amazing. I'm a passionate fry lover, and I am dedicated to my McDonald's fries, but Max had even better fries! They were the perfect width, just the right amount of crispiness, and had a generous amount of salt. I also tried the chicken salad, three cheese burger, and strawberry shake from Max over the duration of the week. I was so impressed with the salad. Typical American fast food chains serve iceberg lettuce with a couple cherry tomatoes and dry carrots, but this salad was full of fresh spring greens.

I also had to go to McDonalds while in Sweden. I've made it a tradition to try food at McDonalds every place I travel around the world. I love seeing the changes in the menu as McDonalds tries to match the local food scene, and Swedish McDonalds did not disappoint. I was stunned to see Swedish McDonalds offer chicken & hummus salad, chicken & lentil salad, falafel, sweet potato fries, a pear shake, and truffle sauce offered as a condiment. Like Max, there were way more vegetarian and vegan options.

On my last day I tried a Swedish hot dog, pizza, and kebab and fries. All were equally tasty, and I would happily eat then again.

Snacks & Candy

One of my favorite part of traveling is visiting a local grocery store and stocking up on a variety of local candy, drinks, and snacks. Since I can't read Swedish, I blindly picked treats. There were a couple I took one bite and was done with, but I also found some awesome treats. My favorites were Estrella's Peppar Chips, Piggelin hard candies (these were similar to Jolly Ranchers but they were all one flavor), Piggelin popsicle (they made a popsicle version of the hard candy!), and Plopp's Popcorn flavored chocolate. I thought I was going to want to spit the popcorn chocolate out, but I loved it! It was similar to a salted caramel chocolate where the savory and sweet blend together perfectly.

I had a wonderful time eating my way through Sweden this week! Huge thank you to Clay's parents Gabe & Sally for bringing me on their wonderful family vacation!

Scroll through the gallery below to see what else I ate this week. I’ve also included a breakdown of my entire Swedish food adventure. Enjoy!

Spring break food breakdown:

Monday

Dinner at Max: Fries and barbecue burger

Tuesday

Vete-Katten: Blueberry cream pastry, cardamom bun, coffee
Blå Dörren: Pork and potato pancakes
Espresso House: Hot chocolate
Max: Chicken salad

Wednesday

Muffin Bakery: Blueberry cheesecake muffin
Vasa Museum: Venison casserole tasted like beef stew
Nomad: Pickled herring, Swedish Meatballs

Thursday

Vete Katten: Truffle mudcake and coffee
Pelikan: Charcuterie board and fried arctic char

Friday

Uppsala Creperie: Smoked salmon, crawfish, and roe galette and cloudberry and vanilla ice cream crepe
McDonalds: Falafel, hummus salad, and chocolate shake. Tried sweet potato fries, burger, nuggets, and curry sauce

Saturday

Café Blom: Räksmörgås (Swedish shrimp sandwich), cardamom bun, mango nectar, and coffee
Street Vendor: Hot dog with ketchup and mustard
Kebab and Pizza: Cheese pizza, kebab and fries, and orange Fanta
Vete Katten: Framboise (white chocolate mousse, raspberry panacotta, and white cake)

Snacks

Peppar chips from ICA
Rubicon lychee pop
Plopp popcorn chocolate
Piggelin hard candy and popsicle