Scandinavia Dreamin

You'll remember the excitement I felt back in December, as I wrote about the St Lucia festivities that take place right around the Christmas period in Sweden. The Norwegians and the Swedes have another long-standing tradition of celebrating the summer season with a day of outdoor fun, eating, drinking and dancing around the maypole. The 17th of May, being the National Day for Norway and the 25th of the June, being the Midsummer festivities for both Sweden and Norway. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to celebrate Midsummer with a couple friends in Sweden and I still foster fond memories of the day. What better way to celebrate the start of summer than by eating herring, fresh crayfish and drinking Aquavit while dancing around the maypole with inebriated Swedes? I say none. I have never met or encountered a people more elated about summertime than the Scandinavians. There's something about sunshine that brightens up their faces. It's almost mechanical. Like they've been stuck in a dark hole all year round, watching the sun set and the moon rise 365 times before summer, the real fun, can finally begin - the day of Midsummer.

The Midsummer Swedish Maypole

I am a huge fan of Scandinavia and its many festive traditions and have been ever since a dear friend of mine from Oslo introduced me to her culture my Freshmen year of college and when a couple years later, my lovely Swedish man, traveled with me to his motherland for the Midsummer celebrations. Navigating through the Norwegian Fjords last summer made me even more positive that this is a culture I respect and will remain fascinated with for years to come.

The advantage of living in a city like London as an expat, as opposed to living in a city like, say Liverpool, means that certain products and facilities, are at arms length when you are missing your home country and all of its cultural and culinary offerings. Living in London during Midsummer means that you can find places to be when the festivities take place. I witnessed the exciting Swedish festivities with excitement last year in Hyde Park and I look forward to trying out the Norwegian 17th of May festivities in Southwark Park.

17th of May in Southwark Park, SE16

You can also be sure to find the stores to purchase the goods from when you are hosting a dinner party and you want to impress your Swedish and non-Swedish guests. Scandinavian Kitchen has been my go-to Scandi place for my Senapssill and pickled Smorgas Gurka cravings as I work right down the street.

 Pickled Herring, in various sauces

 Sweetened Pickles

 Scandinavia's Favourite: the Wasa Toast Bread

The Scandi Kitchen is also a cafe, where you can sit and enjoy meatballs, pizza (Swedish cabbage) and beetroot salads, shrimp and dill on toast and lots of many other delicious dishes. Quite kid-friendly as well, Met Mum and I enjoyed a lovely lunch there a couple weeks ago, while her adorable daughter Little L licked her lips from the Maribou chocolate milk she was sipping.

 Swedish Maribou Chocolate

Scandinavian Kitchen
61 Great Titchfield Street
W1W 7PP
0207 580 7161

A Swedish Holiday in London- Preparing for Lucia

I have a special affinity for the Swedish traditions...for anything Swedish actually. I am an avid Stockholm enthousiast and enthousiast is an understatement. Love the city, have been there 5-6 times before, sometimes in the dead of winter, when it's pitch black outside by the time you get out of lunch at NK, or when it's broad day light, all night long, in the hot months of June and July and you're thankful for those IKEA special light-blocking curtains.

The Archipelagos are also, in my mind, some of the most beautiful islands/places I've been to in my life. 

And don't even get me started on Swedish people. Swedes are not only some of the most gorgeous human beings I've encountered in my lifetime, but they're also some of the warmest. I'm not kidding...I know, it's kind of surprising for a people living in a supposedly cold bloody country. But it's true, I really do believe it. 

I recently learned from my sources that there are some two hundred thousand Swedes living in London. I don't know if you realize but that is a whole lot of Swedish people living outside of Sweden. I even hear London is the third largest Swedish population in the world, after Stockholm and Gothenburg. That is pretty surreal if you ask me.

Anyhow, I came to talk about Sweden because a very important holiday, called Lucia, is nigh, and the festivities of light are soon to take place. On December 13th to be exact. Lucia, aka St Lucy, is a young lady who came with lights and sweets to brighten up the skies and souls of Sweden. Rumour has it, that back in the day, 304 AD, she was martyred by the Romans during one of the darkest days of winter, hence all the lights and the candles on her crown. 

It is one of the few saint days observed in Scandinavia. And one of the yummiest at that. You will want to try a delicious Swedish Saffron Bun, originally called the Lussekatter, at the Scandinavian Kitchen on Great Titchfield Street in Soho, at Fika on Brick Lane, at the Nordic Bakery in Golden Square, or simply try it yourself by following this recipe here.

If you're interested in finding out more about Swedish cooking in general or Swedish specialty foods especially for Lucia, go check out Totally Swedish, a cool and everything-store dedicated to Swedish stuff only on Crawford Street in Marylebone. 

There you'll be able to dig out a variety of Swedish foods and cooking ingredients, including candy (not Swedish fish), coffee, caviar, meatball gravy, pickled gherkins and herring, crisps, and ginger biscuits (Pepparkakor, the best ginger snaps you'll ever taste), as well as all types of magazines, life-changing cheese-slicers and a wide range of other fantastic nonsense. 

As for me, I'm very excited for the Lucia holiday. I get to go spend it at Met Mum's house with Little L. and lots of other beautiful people. On that note, Happy Lucia everyone!