SWEDEN – Page 4 – Scandelights

Great lunch at Hörte Brygga, Southern Sweden

Published on September 8, 2016September 8, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

Living abroad, I sometimes find it hard to keep up with things both here in London and back home in Sweden. I miss out on parties, christenings and other gatherings. And restaurants, actually. It’s obviously just the food blogger in me who feels deprived of that, especially as I have all the great restaurants in London on my doorstep. But, when I left Malmö the area wasn’t this booming. So much has happened in the eight years I’ve lived abroad and it’s difficult trying to keep up with everything the few weeks I come home to visit.

That’s why it took me two whole years (yep, they opened already in 2014) to visit Hörte Brygga, by the little harbour in Hörte on road 9 between Trelleborg and Ystad. Basically everyone I know have been by now, including my parents’ friends. But that’s OK, this is definitely a place for everyone, not just foodies. The restaurant has a super relaxed and friendly atmosphere but at the same time the staff is thorough, efficient and keeps a high standard. (Yes, it ticks all the boxes).

I arrived here one windy day in August to have lunch with my parents. While we decided on what to have (the lunch option of smoked fish) and drink (wine for mummy and I, a soft drinks for daddy who was driving) and paid, the basket with the food was prepared and ready for us to take to the table straight away. Oh, how I love the Swedish efficiency!

Unpacking our basket at the table inside it felt like having a picnic and we could examine everything we were having; three types of sauces, three types of pickled, the smoked fish (both cod and mackerel), bread and butter.

Everything was very good and the food was smoked just right (i.e. not too much). We loved the sauces, and the pickled radish (?) cut through the fat and the smoked flavour of the fish perfectly.

We all really liked the place and can’t wait to go back. It’s a great concept and it’s executed very well. I can’t wait to come here for dinner one summer’s evening and sit outside watching the sea as I tuck into good food and wine with my friends.

Hörte Brygga, Hörte Hamn, Dybäck 465, 274 54 Skivarp, Sweden

Classic Swedish fare at Den Gyldene Freden, Stockholm

Published on May 19, 2016May 19, 2016 by Hanna1 Comment

Den Gyldene Freden in Stockholm is probably the most classic Swedish restaurant I have ever visited, and having dinner here was a very enjoyable experience.

The restaurant is located in Stockholm’s Old Town, Gamla Stan, and is several floors deep with cave-like vaulted ceilings. The ambiance is both cosy and a little formal.

The food here is classic Swedish (this is where to go if you want proper meatballs), but still up to date enough to not feel stuffy.

For our starter my mum, dad and I all had the same; a traditional landgång sandwich. Yes, it’s a glorified open sandwich, but a seriously delicious one! It’s named after a gangway plank, probably because it’s longer than a regular sandwich, and has more toppings. This long slice of rye bread was adorned with eggs, prawns, cured salmon, hot smoked fish, asparagus, wild garlic crème and pickled onions.

Dad also had a snaps with his starter – very traditional – and something not many restaurants serve nowadays. Mum and I were happy with our wine but dad was in good company as two tables nearby also had snaps and sang snaps songs.

Dad and I chose the same main course as well; duck sausage with thinly sliced duck breast, seasonal vegetables and a deliciously smooth potato purée. This dish was a lovely mix of rustic and gourmet. Delicious!

Mum chose the catch of the day; fried pike-perch with new potatoes tossed in butter and chives and it was also absolutely delicious. The portions were very generous here as you can see, and no, I couldn’t finish the whole sausage even if I made a good attempt.

We were too full for pudding but lingered with our wine for a while before I went on to meet a friend and my parents headed back to the hotel.

Dad had been to this place before and really liked it, so that was the reason for going, but we all really enjoyed it! Everything about this place is classic; the interior, the food, the service. And the snaps.

A little gem I hope can stay in its spot for many more years to come, looking after our culinary heritage. As a tourist I urge you to go. Try this and a place serving New Nordic cuisine to get the whole range of Swedish food. Because this is traditional, but done very well.

Den Gyldene Freden, Österlånggatan 51, 111 31 Stockholm, Sweden

Zetas trädgård, a nursery near Stockholm

Published on May 17, 2016May 17, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

On the Saturday morning of our Stockholm weekend, we travelled (by metro and bus) to a lovely nursery called Zetas trädgård, near Kungens Kurva. My keen gardener mother was very excited to come here, but dad and I could also see the appeal. It’s a beautiful nursery, an oasis, with lots of plants and decorative things to buy. Plus a lovely café with seating both inside and outside serving still warm cinnamon buns straight from the oven, nice sandwiches and soups. That’s where we hung out while mum walked around looking at plants!

Dad and I first shared a cinnamon bun and had a hot chocolate each and then we had lunch with mum a bit later.

The ham and avokado crème on rye was really nice, just like the sourdoug baguette with local washed-rind cheese and fig jam.

A lovely spot for a café, don’t you think?!

We had a lovely few hours here, and although we were mainly for my mother’s sake I still had a great time, and even found two nice vases to buy.

Zetas Finsmakarens Trädgård, Blombacken 2, 141 70 Segeltorp (Kungens Kurva), Stockholm

My Stockholm weekend in pictures

Published on May 6, 2016May 6, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

I spent the first May bank holiday weekend in sunny Stockholm with my parents. It was lovely to see them and do Stockholm with them. Since they live in the south of Sweden (where I grew up) they have Copenhagen around the corner so visits to the Swedish capital don’t occur very often.

I arrived late on the Friday night so our weekend started on the Saturday morning with a lovely hotel breakfast before we headed out to a nursery called Zetas trädgård. My mum is very into gardening so she was the one who wanted to go, but my dad and I enjoyed the beautiful surroundings too and especially the lovely café. In the afternoon we came back into the town centre and did some shopping before we had dinner in the old town.

The restaurant we went to is a very classic Swedish one, called Den Gyldene Freden, and one my dad had been to before and really liked. The food was lovely and it was fun to be in a restaurant were everybody were drinking snaps. Old school!

After dinner I met up with my friend Carina for drinks at Tweed, also in the old town and we had a lovely evening catching up over cocktails. Such a great bar!

On the Sunday we walked around the city in the sunshine and made sure to see the cherry blossom in Kungsträdgården. It’s such a lovely sight and a must-see this time of year.

We then walked to Gamla Stan (old town) and did some sightseeing.

We happened to be at the Royal Palace at the time for the changing of the guards, so by chance we were proper tourists!

That afternoon I met up with my friends Mirja and Linus in the afternoon for fika and ice cream outside. So lovely!

On the Sunday night we went to a great restaurant I have wanted to try for ages; Rolfs Kök. And it was even better than I expected it to be!

The bank holiday Monday we took the ferry to Djurgården and walked around.

We had a nice walk around the island and stopped at the café at Rosendal for some rosé and fika. It was nice and warm and lovely to sit outside in the sunshine.

We took the tram back to the town centre for some last minute shopping before heading to the airport. I like the mixture of nature, water and city life Stockholm has to offer. It really is quite relaxing to go here for a city break!

Höganäs saluhall, Sweden

Published on May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

One of the days I was in Skåne in the south of Sweden my parents and I did a road trip to a fab food market I wanted to visit. As it was a glorious day we also took a drive by the coast and stopped for ice cream on our way home.

But we started our trip at the food market, which also holds other shops, a restaurant and a café.

We decided on fika instead of a cooked lunch and had a lovely prawn sandwich with lettuce, eggs and mayonnaise on sourdough each, followed by something sweet. I mean, who can resist all this?!

We all chose different things, but it was all delicious! As you can see we love our buns; here’s a cardamom bun, cinnamon bun and one called butterkaka with custard (and berries).

We then had a look around the other shops for a while. There were some nice interior ones and this one with the ceramics Höganäs i most known for.

We saved the food shopping to last and walked around the shop taking in all the inspiration. Shops like this are a rarity in Sweden so it was nice to see one done well. The produce looked lovely, the baked goods smelled divine and there were lots of interesting pantry items you would struggle to find in a regular supermarket.

The only thing we were surprised not to find was a fish counter but the staff happily gave us direction to the most amazing food shop around the corner, so we got to buy everything we wanted, and more, in the end.

Well worth a visit if you’re in the area! Next time I want to try the restaurant as well.

Höganäs saluhall, Bruksgatan 36Z, 263 39 Höganäs, Sweden

Visiting home and wild garlic fever!

Published on April 28, 2016April 28, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

After four days in Italy, I had six days back home in the south of Sweden. I tried to keep it low key and just spend time with the family, and as usual we enjoyed some wonderful food together.

Spring had arrived in Sweden too, even if it was a little behind the Italian version. But the wood anemones flowered and the wild garlic was ready to eat, so I was pretty happy!

The evening I came home my mum and I (dad doesn’t like wine as much as we do) shared a lovely bottle of Crèmant from Alsace, to celebrate we were together again!

Another evening we enjoyed a cheese board with my Italian favourite Erborinato, Brie de Maux and Saint Albray. We also had some biscuits, pear slices, honey, rose hip jam and port. So yummy!

I also picked wild garlic in the woods, as you can see it’s easy to forage; it’s everywhere!

I also picked some wood anemones. It’s a spring ritual for me.

We also cooked with wild garlic and one evening we had this great dish as a starter; asparagus (that I bought in Italy) with wild garlic mayo, parmesan and rapeseed oil.

Afterwards we had cod loin cooked in the oven with wine and dill, potato purée, peas and carrots. And browned butter. Just. Amazing.

One day we did a road trip to Höganäs and also stopped in Mölle by the sea to enjoy the view and the sunshine.

In Höganäs we found an amazing fishmonger who sold fresh Swedish bleak roe so we of course had to buy some.

We had it with rösti, creme fraiche and chopped red onions as a starter that evening.

The rest of our dinner that night was a bunch of nibbles: leftover asparagus and wild garlic mayo, serrano ham, smoked prawns, some smoked mussels, tomatoes and wild garlic bread.

One night we had friends over for a dinner of tried and tested recipes. We started the evening with champagne and Nigella’s prawn cocktail in lettuce leaves. Love this!

The main course was fillet of beef with hasselback potatoes, broccoli, carrots and two sauces: bearnaise and peppercorn. Delicious!

After a breather we enjoyed a rhubarb crumble with mum’s homemade custard. Such a wonderful evening!

My last evening in Sweden was on a Sunday, and for dinner we had wild garlic soup to start.

Followed by wonderfully tender pheasant with cream sauce, boiled potatoes, jelly, broccoli and carrots.

Thank you, Sweden, for a lovely time!

Tasting menu at Ambiance near Malmö, Sweden

Published on March 21, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

In the summer, my parents and I enjoyed a wonderful tasting menu at Ambiance, just outside of Malmö, and one of the best French restaurants outside of France. It has one Michelin star which is a big deal in that area but I love that the restaurant scene here is improving.

Our tasting menu started with a trio of small plates; cured venison with trout roe and pickled wild garlic (right); chicken hearts and crispy skin on top of a chicken mousseline (left) and chicken liver creme brulee (bottom). We had pink champagne to drink. Dad kindly volunteered to drive so mum and I could enjoy the wine menu (tack pappa!).

I thought these dishes were nice, but not much more than that. And mum thought the creme brulee was too sweet which I agree with but it bothered me less than it did her.

The next dish was Normandy lobster, vinegar poached quail’s egg, peas, elderflower jelly, bleak roe and parsley oil with Sauvignon Blanc to drink. This dish was nice but not wow, and I must say I was a bit disappointed so far with the meal. I really hoped the coming dishes would blow me away. And luckily they did.

The baked char in nori with fennel, carrot purée, beets and browned butter sabayonne was absolutely delicious and I finally got that wow-feeling! Everything in this dish was perfectly cooked and lovely, but it was the SAUCE (no surprise there) that made it all come together. The wine pairing was a rather sweet Chenin Blanc but it worked perfectly with the dish.

The meat course was lamb loin with parsley crust, swede, pickled black radish, pickled girolles, baked pointy cabbage, charred spring onions, jus and grated black truffle (that was grated at the table). Again we had a fabulous dish that we all loved.

vi17

Then it was time for the cheese trolley and we were served seven wonderful cheeses, but the only ones I could name were the Brilliant Savarin and the Fourme d’Ambert. They were all delicious though! My favourite was the very soft one at the bottom of the plate.

The champagne sorbet with grapefruit and oxalic was both nice and a perfect palate cleanser after all the strong cheeses.

And the pudding with raspberry sorbet, raspberries, blackberries and pansies was really nice and quite light which we appreciated. But at the same time the dish felt rather simple after all the elaborate ones. But there was more to come…

A whole tray (!) filled with petit fours! On the platter they were, left to right: mini Madeleines; plain macarons with chocolate ganache; mini tarte au citron; violet macarons with ganache and chocolate mousse.

The tree behind the platter held two types of truffles; white chocolate with pistachio and dark chocolate with hazelnut. And the wooden stand behind that was filled with almond tuilles. It was all really nice and I like bite size sweets like these, that way one can try them all.

We were so full and pleased with our meal (and wines). But it was good size portions; we all managed to eat almost everything, and I like that. I don’t want to have to leave lovely food because the portions are too big. I also really enjoyed the service here; it was proper and efficient but also warm and personal.

So worth a visit!

Ambiance, Vindåkravägen 3, 218 75 Tygelsjö, Sweden

New Year’s Eve luncheon

Published on January 22, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

I know a lot of people think NYE is a real anti-climax, but I really enjoy celebrating it. Any excuse to dress up and drink champagne works for me!

Growing up, my parents and their friends made it special, always making it an occasion. Us children got to play with each others new toys (one NYE turned into Super Mario tournament), but also celebrate with the grown-ups, cheering with alcohol free cider instead of champagne, watching the fire works through the windows (to this day I still don’t like to go outside in the cold on the stroke of midnight), and watch the speech and the countdown on Swedish Television. It felt magical and that’s the feeling I carry with me now on New Year’s Eves with friends.

Nowadays the food make it special, and we really enjoy the Kalix roe, lobster and fillet of beef, but we have also realised that it’s really nice to do something on the day. So we prep as much as we can the day (or days, depending on the ambition) before NYE, so that we have the day free to hang out together until it’s time to get ready and cook dinner.

This year, we thought a lunch in Malmö would be ideal. We went to Copenhagen last year for lunch and although lovely it felt a little rushed. But, it turned out, no restaurants in Malmö were open for lunch on New Year’s Eve. Maybe it’s un-Swedish to go out for lunch before a big evening celebration, who knows?! Luckily, after a lot of googling, we did find ONE restaurant open for lunch so we quickly booked a table and enjoyed a nice French lunch.

La Bonne Vie is a cosy French restaurant in the middle of town, just on Davidshalls Torg, and when we arrived for a late-ish lunch the restaurant was full up. And, just like us, most guests were drinking bubbly.

The lunch menu was classic French with a few Swedish touches and very affordable. Emma and I both had the Toast Skagen with a very generous portion of prawns with mayonnaise and dill on butter-fried bread. Delicious!

Claes had the moules frites and also received a very generous portion of mussels, nice crispy fries and rouille.

We had a lovely lunch and will certainly be back this year too. Thank you for staying open!

La Bonne Vie, Davidshallstorg 7, Malmö, Sweden

Christmas Eve 2015

Published on January 11, 2016January 11, 2016 by HannaLeave a comment

collage jul

In Sweden Christmas Eve is the big day. Christmas day is for going clubbing (no thanks!), early sales (again, no thanks!) and just chilling (much better).

In my family we open the stockings on Christmas Eve morning. Christmas stockings are not a Swedish tradition, but my family thinks it’s nice and cosy. But we only open a few presents in the morning as Father Christmas always comes by in the evening with a sack full of gifts (no chimney action in Sweden).

Then at 3pm, the whole country is glued to the television watching Donald Duck and other Disney cartoons. It sounds silly, but it’s one of the fundamentals of a Swedish Christmas Eve.

Then in the evening, probably after coffee and cake while watching Donald Duck and then glögg and gingerbread a bit later, it’s time for dinner. In most families this comprises a julbord; a smorgasbord with lots of Christmas food, like herring, smoked salmon, cooked ham, meatballs, sausages, cabbage, sprouts, Janssons temptation, patés, ribs etc etc).

We took an alternative route this year, stepping away from the traditional heavy food, and instead enjoying, a still festive, and a little Christmas-y, menu.

Our evening began with prosecco and these lovely parmesan biscuits, then Toast Skagen as a starter followed by halibut and boiled potatoes, cooked peas and the most heavenly sauce for fish for mains.

For pudding we had the same as we do on Christmas Eve; Ris a’la Malta. A cold rice porridge with a lot of whipped cream folded in, served with a berry sauce, but as this dessert is seriously rich we served it in individual bowls. (It’s usually served in a large bowl it an almond hidden in the porridge and you try to eat as much as possible to secure the almons and receive a gift. )

This alternative approach to the Christmas dinner suited my family perfectly. It felt festive (more festive than ham, cabbage and meatballs actually) and even though the food was still on the heavy side it’s nothing compared to the julbord.

Skybar, Malmö, Sweden

Published on September 3, 2015 by Hanna1 Comment

Finally Malmö has a bar with a view. Sure, Malmö is a pretty small city (although the third largest in Sweden) but it has some impressive landmarks that are a real treat to view from above.

Skybar is located in the same hotel as Eatery Social, on the 24th floor, so after our taco dinner we took the lift upstairs to take in the view.

We were there a Monday evening and it was buzzing, which made us wish the bar was a bit bigger. But what’s there is good; the view, the cocktails, the service and the ambiance.

But it’s worth coming here for the view alone. It’s pretty great. So good that they’ve printed a funny hash tag to the loo window.

Sky Bar, Clarion Hotel & Congress Malmö Live, Dag Hammarskjölds torg 2,
211 18 Malmö