I am abroad again and this time, I’m proud to say that Dearly Beloved is managing quite well. He went shopping all by himself today and bought what he needed. But he did respond with a sigh of relief when he heard I’m coming back on Monday.

This time it was me who needed his help. I was asked to prepare something typically Swedish for my hosts and my mind went blank. “Typically Swedish?” I thought… hmmm, that would have be to falukorv and pasta with ketchup, but sadly, or rather happily, they’re not aware of the existence of falukorv in this country and I plan to keep it this way.

I went to a local supermarket to search the shelves looking for Swedish products. The idea was that maybe I could put together something Swedish using what I could buy in normal grocery stores. You see, when abroad I never really go shopping with a specific goal of buying only Swedish products. To be honest, I tend to do the opposite and sample the local specialties. But this time, I had strict orders – show us something native to Sweden. And so instead of trying 537 different varieties of sausages, I was diligently going through the supermarket looking for Swedish stuff. It turned out easier than expected.

In the refrigerated section I found a slew of Abba fishies in jars. All made the Swedish way – with copious amounts of sugar. I bought some sickly sweet dill herring (dill sill). In the bread and cracker section, there were several shelves of Wasa cracker bread. All the kinds we have back home and probably a few more made specifically for a foreign market.

In the dairy section half of the stuff was made by Arla – a brand we know from home (and from my post about dairy products) but I couldn’t find any typically Swedish cheeses, like Kloster, for example. But in a different isle, tiny jars of lingonsylt were neatly lined up. And in the ice-cream freezers, SIA hjortron glass (couldberry ice cream) was smiling at me.

Still, not enough to put together a proper Swedish dinner. And since I’m too lazy to make my own meatballs, I had to listen to the advice of my DB, which went more or less like that “Go to IKEA, stupid!” Yes, for those who don’t know – this Swedish furniture emporium also sells a variety of Swedish yummies. So, needless to say, I’m off to IKEA tomorrow.