Just for fun: Food culture in Sweden

1. Grilled, fried or boiled sausages with bread and garnished with fried onion, ketchup and mustard. Pickled herrings (inlagd sill) with crispbread (Knäckebröd). Smoked fish with boiled vegetables mostly photatoe and garnished with some salad. 

2.Nothing is really unusual since every Swedish dish has a surviving history behind it. Sow in summer months and breed it to use in winter months had been the principle. Fishing, hunting and slaughtering animals had also been according to that principle. So all the dishes based on different kinds of those breeding methods, some taste good and some not.

3. Sandwich with different kinds of fillings and cheese. Porridge.

4. I'm not a foodie so I don't have any favorites but if I must mention something I would say Swedish cheesecake (Ostkaka) 

5. I can mention two choose one salt and pepper

Note that all those I have mentioned are genuine Swedish and still served and appreciated by many but in late 1960s some Italian expats had introduced Pizza to Sweden and some years later fast food giants with their burgers and some time later Turkish had come with their Kebab and falafel and then Mediterranean, Chinese, Indian etc. Now food from all four corners of the world are in Sweden, snackbars, foodtrucks etc. serve everything from everywhere.

Hi Finnbo,

Thanks for the feedback 

Ever tasted Surströmming ?

I liked that fish since I was a kid. I'm sure you have it in Mauritius and you like it too

In Sri Lanka that fish is more salty and the flesh is more firm. Their processing method is little bit different, (it calls "Jaadi" there) but the achievement is the same, to keep the fish in eatable condition some more months ahead.

Inlagd Sill (Pickled Herrings) become Surströmming when the fish is caught in west coast of Sweden around Gothenburg area. It's same as the difference between brandy and cognac, fish from west coast is surströmming while fish from other part of the country is inlagd sill.

I don't think we have herrings here in Mauritius. Ofcourse, Mauritius being a tropical island, we can find a variety of fish either fresh or canned (tuna in oil or salt water, sardines, mackerel, pilchards in tomato sauce...)

I will try to find out more 

You have it in Mauritius Bhavna

Sardines, Pilchards, Herrings all are cousins from same family, they have the family name Sardina Pilchardus.

However the pickled Herrings (inlagd sill/surströmming) are almost raw, they let different kind of natural acide to work together and keep the fish in fresh condition and it is good to eat as it is although it is raw meanwhile sardine is boiled before canning.

Word sur(strömming) comes from word syre(strömming), syre means acid in Swedish and strömming is the Swedish name of west coast cousin of Herrings so acided Herrings has become soured Herrings.       

And I also noticed that you also have Swedish letter "Ö" in your computer

Oh what a nasty mistake!

it's "SYRA" not "syre"
syra means acid or to leaven while syre means oxygen. So it had been syrströmming from the beginning. My apologies and I hope I didn't mislead anyone.

This happens when you type while you eat your lunch