A Car Party and a Christmas Table

Because I’m a friendly foreigner with a willingness to invent theories about the similarities and differences between Swedes and Americans, Republicans and Democrats, Bonnier Corp and Bonnier AB, etc., I’ve become a good show-and-tell subject for my new colleagues. Last week I made the rounds at the magazine offices with the director of our international editions, and yesterday, Niklas trotted me out before the staff of Allt Om Mat, Sweden’s biggest food magazine. The staff was super gracious, and we all sat down together to a yummy Christmas meal. (Because of the typical three-month production time, September is when magazines start working on their December issues.) This weekend, the Allt Om Mat staff will travel to New York for their annual food exploration trip (previous destinations have included Tuscany and London), so I was able to offer some recommendations about popular culinary trends there (Locavore menus! Haute cocktails! Brunch! Barbeque!), and restaurants they might want to visit. In turn, they taught me all about the traditional Swedish julbord, or Christmas table.

Our menu started with a delicate gougere topped with toasted almond slivers, which was charmingly described as “butter dough with strong Swedish cheese.” There were two types of pickled herring, one lightly fried and served in onion-spiked vinegar, and one simmered in a tomato sauce with sherry and orange zest. The latter was really spectacular. You’d eat it with little new potatoes, a dollop of sour cream, a shot of snaps—and of course, a drinking song. There was also a light salad of shredded cabbage and lingonberries, I think with a Madeira vinaigrette, and a gratineed potato dish called Janssons Temptation (amazing name, right?) that was nicely kicked up with onions and anchovies.

For the meats, there were Swedish meatballs, ground-lamb patties, and delicious pork ribs rubbed with allspice. Side dishes included mashed potatoes, a selection of breads with rich European butter (fattier and more delicious than the American kind) and a really great beet salad with toasted hazelnuts, hazelnut oil and oranges. Finally, for dessert there was a plate of gingerbread cookies, mulled wine called glögg, coffee, and morsels of a chocolate-caramel dessert (a bit like fudge) with raspberry sauce. All really delightful, and if you’ve been following my posts, you can probably guess that I fell off the no-carbs-and-alcohol wagon for this one—I had to at least have a little taste of everything! I’ll post the recipes a little closer to Christmas.

So, after the feast was over, I went back to the office and received an invitation to a viewing party for a new TV show from the Swedish car magazine Teknikens Värld. I actually missed the show (long story short: I locked myself out of my iPhone and didn’t get the message about the time), but had a blast hanging out with the magazine staff—a bunch of gearhead dudes who were pretty surprised that I could chat them up about the Tesla, the Nano, and the Bugatti Veyron. Ah, but these are my peoples—a little slice of PopSci in Sweden. And then there was a Wii tournament—I think we were playing Mario Kart, but I’m not totally sure, since I was eaten by a monster and disqualified in the first round. (That's the quarterfinals, in the pic accompanying this post.) Finally, I got a lift home in a test car emblazoned with Teknikens Värld stickers. I was so blinded by the branding that I can’t remember what kind of car it was. Sorry, fellas, but you wouldn’t catch Mike Spinelli with stickers on his test cars. I get the point, but it does complicate the task of picking up chicks in your hot new ride, doesn’t it?