SCANDINAVIA - Food Travels

This year I was fortunate to be able to visit three Scandinavian cities: Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki and on my adventures I got to try some of the local and traditional dishes. As Scandinavia is super expensive, the range of food I got to try was limited. For instance, we didn´t visit the Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, voted the best restaurant in the world with extortionate prices to match this title. However, I can say that the food I managed to try was amazing (and I am not saying that just because any time I got to eat I was starving and anything looked good!)

My adventure began in Copenhagen, Denmark, the land of the Little Mermaid and Danish Pastries (one of the main reasons I wanted to visit there!) Funnily enough, it was only on our last day in Copenhagen that we actually got around to trying the Danish Pastries but we made up for it by eating three days worth in one afternoon! We tried jam danishes, custard danishes, cinnamon rolls and many more. What made the visit worth it was that I got to go and get the Danishes in the Anderson Bakery which has been open for over 50 years and has stayed faithful to the Danish baking tradition.

Another favourite eat in Copenhagen was the Double Fatburger. On our second day in Copenhagen we visited the Papirøen (Paper Island) which once used to be home to a paper factory but now has been converted into a large warehouse with many different stalls selling various kinds of street food. The Double Fatburger was by far one of the best burgers I have ever eaten, it had pickled red onions, pickles, lettuce, cheddar cheese, bacon, chipotle chili mayonnaise, 2 X 180gr grilled beef patties and of course a burger bun. To this day, I still do not know how I ate all that meat, but I enjoyed every bite. Photo number 2 of me stuffing my face - you can see the hunger in my eyes!

Stockholm, Sweden was the next stop of my journey, home to the famous Swedish meatballs and Abba! I did not actually get to try Swedish meatballs in the city itself but I did try them on the viking cruise going from Stockholm to Helsinki (it still counts, right?). From what I got to taste on the ferry, I can say that Ikea does a pretty good version of Swedish meatballs, and I will now be visiting the Ikea restaurant more frequently to remind me of my trip to Sweden. I also got to enjoy a large selection of desserts on the boat (got to love buffets!) including, tiramasu, macarons and raspberry Bavarian cream sponge cake.

Helsinki, Finland was the last city we got to visit, and we were only there for about 6 hours, but in that time my dad managed to track down reindeer and moose meat sausages. He really enjoyed them, but I couldn´t get past the smell! I opted to go for a punnet of fresh raspberries instead. It was amazing to see all the berries and fresh fruit in the market for such a reasonable price (considering we were in Scandinavia!)

I also found it interesting to walk past the food stalls in the market, with many different smells and flavours. Many were cooking their food on these huge flat pans, which I am sure must save them time with all the orders they get.