East Eats West

Lätöl ond starköl

Picture: The Swedish state's magnificient alcohol offering! Pick your bottle, remember the number and see the sales assistant. No touching allowed (of the bottles)!

Sweden strictly controls the sale of alcohol. Anything with more than 3.5% alcohol needs to be sold through the government-owned System Bolaget stores. In the stores the various bottles are displayed in show-cases (and locked). The customer has to pick the corresponding number and order the alcohol at the counter. Beer with less than 3.5% alcohol, called Lätöl (light beer), can be sold at supermarkets, Starköl (heavy beer) only in bars or System Bolaget. 

 

Learn Swedish!

Having recently visited Stockholm I was surprised to read an article in the Economist titled “Learn Swedish”on the plane back to Zurich. The article was referring to the successful coping of the Swedish government with the banking crisis in the nineties. The Economist lauded the Swedes for a “radical programme of microeconomics deregulation”. According to the article thanks to these reforms “Swedish productivity growth, ...accelerated to a remarkable 2.2% a year from 1991 to 1998 and 2.5% from 1999 to 2005...”. Judging by the upbeat feeling in Stockholm one can easily conclude that the Swedes are more relaxed about the future than many other EU-members.

 

Swedish delicacies

Picture: Swedih herring dish with mashed-potatoes. 

 Sweden might be famous for Ikea, ABBA, Volvo, Saab, blonde people and knäckebrod (a crispy wafer-thin bread). For fish lovers Sweden is definitely a place to visit. I tried the shrimp-salad toast (Skagen toast), the fried herring, the sweet-and-sour herring and the crispy meringue with chocolate-cream on top. And yes, the variety of knäckebrod is simply mind-boggling and it is best had with caviar-cream-herbs topping. Yummy!
PS: And if you feel bold and lucky, try the fermented herring in a red-and-yellow tinned can that stinks like all the fish in Stockholm was gathered and stored for a full year!  

PS: A good Swedish restaurant with a rich 100-year history is Sturehof on Stureplan 2 in Stockholm. The phone number is +46 8 440 5730.

Picture: Healthy, crips and a Swedish stable product, Knäckebröd! 

Cold-resistant Swedes

As you might imagine Stockholm can get quite chilly in the winter. That does not hinder some stylish Swedes from sitting outside an have their favorite coffee (apparently they are among the most eager coffee drinkers in Europe). And yes, the Swedes are famous for eating ice-cream outside throughout the year and I mean throughout the year!