Our First Swedish Smörgåsbord

I think we just went to our first smörgåsbord in Sweden. (smör = butter, gås = pat, bord = table; therefore "buttered bread table" or "sandwich table")

Breakfast at the bunkbed hotel, aka Scandic Rubinen, seems to be a smörgåsbord. Behold!

 Table full of delicious European breads. My mom would approve.

Gluten-free station. Thoughtful Swedes.

 Coffee station. No cream. Lots of milk: regular, skim, organic. 

Sugar comes in cubes, sweetener in pellets.

 Fruit and veg. Savannah took a cucumber slice, 

then remembered that she does not eat cucumber for breakfast.

 Cheese! So much cheese! All the cheese!!!

Check out that massive hunk of organic cheese!

 And the fish: anchovies and herring. And pickles. We did not indulge.

 The meat section of the bord. (That first plate is pate.)

Hot station. I loved look of the food served in these beautiful pots. The hard-boiled eggs had little messages written on them, "Smile!" and "Good morning!" in English. Too cute. The pancakes were Swedish style, thin like crepes. Delish. Chef's suggestion was spiced oatmeal with stewed cherries. Oh, and at the far end was a tube labeled "Kaviar". Guess what it contained?

I forgot to take a picture of the sweets, but there was another little table with pastries. Savannah and I sampled and shared a Swiss roll, which was topped with some little yellow fruit, which I had to google to identify as a golden berry. You learn something new every day! (In reality, we learn many new things almost constantly here.)

This was a perfect breakfast for the birthday girl, who turns 9 today. Sadly, Chelsea is still recovering from a stomach bug and was unable to enjoy the feast. She got a "take away" of "roasted bread" (aka toast) to munch very slowly back in the room. I asked to be sure it was ok to take food out of the restaurant, and the person I spoke with seemed shocked that I would even wonder, and sprang into action, making toast and getting me a to-go cup for coffee.

I'm thinking that a re-creation of this feast will be an excellent addition to our homecoming party.