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MARGARET'S BLOG

Smorgasbord: Scandinavia’s Tables of Plenty

Scandinavians are widely known as brilliant designers, and many of their wares—Royal Copenhagen china, Georg Jensen silverware, Marimekko linens, Kosta Boda and Orrefors crystal, to name just a few—head straight to the kitchen or dining room table. What Scandinavians are not widely know for, however, are their excellent culinary skills, even though it stands to reason that people who care so much about the way a table looks certainly care about the food that goes on it.

Believe me, they do, as I discovered on a recent cruise around the Baltic Sea where I sampled many regional offerings, starting with the well-known smörgäsbord, a gift to the world from Sweden. The word smörgäsbord translates to “bread and butter table,” one of many “tables” that are found throughout the region, but anyone who’s ever been treated to one knows there’s much more to it than mere bread and butter.

A traditional Swedish smörgåsbord is a buffet-style meal that consists of both hot and cold dishes. It is customary to begin with the fish dishes—pickled herring with fresh new potatoes, crispbread, or cheese; gravlax (cured salmon); torsk (cod); or eel— continue with other cold dishes, and finish with hot dishes such as köttbullar (Swedish meatballs) or rimmad oxbringa (lightly salted beef brisket). You should take a clean plate for each course.

The Julbord is the Christmas smörgåsbord, and it’s served from the beginning of December until just before Christmas in both homes and restaurants. A traditional Julbord is typically eaten in three courses, as well, starting with fish, especially lutfish, a type of dried cod that’s served with a thick white sauce and reserved for Christmas eating. It’s customary to eat particular foods together to ensure the appropriate combination of taste and textures; for example, herring is typically eaten with boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, and it’s frequently accompanied by beer or aquavit (a liqueur distilled from potato and grain mash and flavored with caraway seeds, bog-myrtle, or anise). When it’s drunk with the fish course, it’s said to “help the fish swim down to the stomach.”

The second course is a selection of salads, egg dishes, and cold sliced meats, such as turkey, roast beef, and the julskinka or Christmas ham. Cheese, cucumbers and liver pate are also offered and are usually eaten on top of kavring (a dense, dark rye bread) or knäckebröd (crispbread). The third course of hot dishes includes meatballs, prinskorv (small sausages), kåldolmar (meat stuffed cabbage rolls), revbenspjäll (oven-roasted pork ribs), and Janssons frestelse (a baked dish of matchstick potatoes layered with cream, onion, and sprats). Side dishes include beetroot salad and warm stewed red cabbage, and many savory traditional dishes come with lingonberry sauce, a tart-sweet combination similar to cranberry sauce.

In Stockholm, one of the best places to try a traditional Swedish smörgåsbord is the Veranda Restaurant at the Grand Hotel (8 S. Blasieholmshamnen; www.grandhotel.se). A staple on it is the herring served with Swedish snaps, the hotel’s own 1874 Grand Aquavit that was produced for its 125th anniversary in 1999. This aquavit is gently flavored with cumin, aniseed, fennel and a dash of sherry. The smörgåsbord (395 kr/$60) is served on most weekends from 1 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 10 p.m., and on weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. and from 6 to 10 p.m. If you’re out-and-about visiting Skansen, the outdoor museum on Djurgarden that’s organized as a Sweden in miniature, you can also enjoy smörgåsbord (285 kr/$44) at its on-site restaurant (summer only) from noon to 6 p.m.

Another dining option that visitors to Stockholm should look for is the dagens lunch (lunch of the day) or dagens rätt (dish of the day), a low-cost, hot lunch option. A visit to a saluhall (indoor food market) is also a popular choice for regional cuisine. Two favorites are Ostermalms Saluhall (Ostermalmstorg)—a charming venue that dates to the late 19 th century and is filled with small restaurants, wine bars, and cafés—and Hötorgshallen (Hötorget, Norrmalm), located below the Filmstaden multiplex. This, too, is a terrific market that specializes in regional and international foods.

Eating at a konditori (a combination bakery/café/confectioner) such as Sundbergs (Jarntorget Square, Old Town), Vete-Katten (55 Kungsgatan), or Sturekatten (4 Riddargatan) is also a good option for a salad, sandwich, or coffee and a Swedish cinnamon bun known as Kanebullar.

Not to be confused with the elaborate Swedish smörgåsbord , the Danish smørrebrød , which translates to “buttered bread,” is simply an open-faced sandwich that’s eaten with a knife and fork. What it’s topped with, the paalaeg (something laid on) , is generally far from simple though, and you’re likely to run into a smørrebrød made with anything from sliced egg and dill to roast pork and prunes.

A walk through Copenhagen reveals a café on every corner—or so it seems—and whether it’s one dating from the 1906, such as Huset med det Gronne Trae, House with the Green Tree (Gammeltorv 20), 100-year-old Restaurant Ida Davidsen (Store Kongensgade 70), or trendy Café Europa (Amagertorv 1), you’ll find them offering a wide variety of smørrebrød .

And if you’re looking for pastries in the land of the Danes, you’ll be surprised to find that those buttery, flaky concoctions we call Danish pastries are called Vienna Bread or Wienerbrød here, even though the Germans and Austrians call them “Copenhagen Pastries.” Go figure!

Whatever they’re called, Scandinavians are known as master bakers, so you’re never far from a konditorier (combination bakery/café/confectioner) selling filled or plain spandauer (envelopes), hanekam (cock’s combs), snegle (snails), or abrikossnitte (apricot slips.) If you were invited to someone’s home in Denmark, you’d likely be treated to a “coffee table,” a smörgåsbord-of-sorts filled with butter cookies, pastries, and cakes. It would not be out of the question to find buttered buns, sandkage (pound cake), a prune tart, a meringue filled with whipped cream and strawberries, an apple cake, or layer cake waiting with a steaming pot of coffee.

But the kransekage, a monumental, special occasion layer cake made with thin rings of marzipan sponge, might be a challenge for even the best home cook, so for that, you’d have to head to a specialty bakery such as Kransekagehuset (Ny Ostergade 9) or La Glace (Skoubogade 3). Both cafés are excellent stops for weary tourists.

For more than 600 years, the people of Finland lived under the Swedish crown, and for another 100 years under the Russian czars. As a result, Finnish cooking is a blend of influences from both West and East, a bit of smörgåsbord with a touch of stroganoff. From the East, Finns have a fondness for rye bread, quark, sour cream, blinis, buckwheat, and Finnish beetroot salad (rosolli): from the West, you’ll find salted fish, meat balls, sweet bread, and German beer-brewing techniques.