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A Question For George
What's the deal with the Swedish love for little "sandwiches?"
I've seen several Swedish movies where it seems if they are eating anything, it's these little sandwiches...and they seem to like Cucumber sandwiches.
I've seen several Swedish movies where it seems if they are eating anything, it's these little sandwiches...and they seem to like Cucumber sandwiches.
I find the assault on free thought disturbing,
I find the willingness to give it up frightening.
I find the willingness to give it up frightening.
Replies
Not sure what you mean by "little". If you mean about 1.5" X 3" that would be more English and they would serve them as hor d' ourves at a garden party with tea or champagne, or with a light afternoon tea, usually just good quality thin crustless white bread with butter and skinless seeded cucumber or watercress, They are addictive, but the emphasis is on good quality thin bread, not supermarket crap.
In Sweden, Norway and Denmark you will find larger open-faced sandwiches (Danish: smørrebrød, Norwegian: smørbrød, Swedish: smörgås) on sliced bread (usually rye) or flat/crisp breads served at any time. At breakfast usually they will be smorgasbord make-your-own style and mostly cheeses, cold cuts and pickled herring. Lunch and dinner could be make-your-own or prepared and would add greens, flavored mayo, remoulade, mustards, shrimp, smoked or pickled salmon, caviar etc.
Especially English cucumbers, which are way longer than the ones we see here.
Do I remember correctly that one of the countries - maybe Holland, maybe Denmark - small sandwiches purchased from automats was kind of the norm. I seem to remember this when I was a kid with a backpack. Maybe called bruges or brujes or something like that.
I find the willingness to give it up frightening.
That would be Holland. The Scandis always have been fresh food fanatics.
Not much reason to go to Holland on business.
The normal size is about 2/3 of a slice of supermarket rye bread.
Scandinavian-American food is to Scandinavian food as corned beef and cabbage is to Irish food. About half of Norway and Sweden will have smoked reindeer or lutefisk once a year, and perhaps 20% of Swedes will have a piece or two of fermented herring washed down with aquavit once a year, but that's about it.
When I think of Norwegian food I think of wine-poached halibut steak with butter, fresh dill and new potatoes; sauteed breiflabb (monk fish) tournedos with lobster sauce, and of course prawns, many varieties of pickled herring, cod, salmon and trout.
Swedish food is similar but adds a European sophistication absent in traditional Norwegian home cooking. Things like crepes filled with cheese and small shrimp, and complicated sauces. This might be the result of a lot of Napoleon's generals settling in Sweden after 1814, or just that at least in the southern part winters are less severe than in most of Norway and there was a greater variety of things available year-round. Also, until the oil boom Sweden was the rich, worldly country and Norway was relatively poorer and more insular despite its seafaring heritage. Prior to 1905, Norway was the poor half of the Norway-Sweden union.