I really like yogurt, and I usually buy the Greek kind, since it's strained and therefore extra rich and creamy. But in Sweden, there's a staggering variety of yogurts in even the tiniest grocery stores. Yogurts are classified not only by their flavor, thickness and country of origin, but even by the specific bacterial cultures used to make them. Besides Greek, there's fil mjolk, viili, matsoni, kefir, cultured buttermilk, Turkish yogurt, Bulgarian yogurt, and probably about 20 other kinds that I don't even know about. My Swedish friend Kai claims to be able to tell the cultures apart, but I haven't reached his level of expertise yet. The photo at left was taken at a podunk grocery store in Southern Sweden—a proper supermarket would have at least two refrigerated cases completely dedicated to yogurts.I don't have a ton of time for posting today (it's 1 am and I've been working at the GRID conference all day), but here's a gallery of images from my weekend in southern Sweden. I'll catch up tomorrow.
4 comments:
Do they have aloe yogurt? I was addicted to that stuff when I lived in Tokyo. Aloe...yum.
That sounds revolting, hon.
I know. I thought it was pretty weird when I saw the little containers of yogurt with a lovely aloe leaf (stalk?) drawn on front instead of blueberries or strawberries or peaches. But I got brave one day and tried it. It tastes like a very mild version of a lemon/lime citrus flavor. There are little chunks of aloe in it, but they are basically tasteless. I think they're added just for texture and nutritional "interest." I don't know if they process the flavor out of the plant just so they can say it's aloe - "good for you!" - or if aloe actually is tasteless in its natural form. But I wound up liking it a lot.
Aloe is bitter in real life! Ick! I wonder how they get the flavor out...
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