(Quick Wife Update - She is okay...not great...okay. A broken foot takes a long time to heal. We made our way back to Gothenburg from Malmo. I rented a car to avoid all the walking that going by train would have entailed. After consultation with our home physician we decided against coming home early which certainly would have cost a lot. In Gothenburg we are in a elevator equipped high rise apartment that minimizes the amount of walking she has to do, and eliminates any stairs. I can park very close to the apartment building which further minimizes walking. There are places we can drive to which allows me to get her out and not feel too cabin bound. We've made our arrangements with the airlines to ensure she has wheelchair service for the return flight next week. She has her foot doctor appointment at home already scheduled.)
Based upon our initial time in Gothenburg we came our observation was traditional Swedish Cuisine consisted of:
- Coffee and cake (Fika)
- Mayonnaise (in the form of all kinds of salads of which the mayo is about 50% of the volume being eaten)
- Massive chunks of bland cheese
- Massive blocks of butter
- Kebab
- Pizza
- Sushi
- Asian
- Burgers
- Any type of cuisine which can be served in a lunch buffet
However, good fortune exposed us to an entirely different side to the Western Sweden food scene.
Epic Celebratory Meal
Our visit to the #3's coincided with a major date - the 46th anniversary of the 4th day prior to Wife completing her last pregnancy...also coincidentally just 4 days before #3's 46th birthday.
#3 did a ton of research to find a nice place to celebrate that was open for lunch on a Saturday (since neither we nor #3 & 3A like eating big meals at night) and yet would offer a full range of menu options.
According to #3, Malmo, which is a short train ride over a bridge from Copenhagen, benefits from the hot Copenhagen food scene. Aspiring chefs do cut their chops there, then move across the water where rents, labor costs, and competition are far lower. Her choice for our celebration dinner was Atmosfar.
At first blush, this seemed to be the kind of place I definitely am not attracted to. It served a lot of innovative dishes in the shared plate style. As long-time readers know, I tend to like regional type of food wherever I am and find the fine dining scene pretentious, not that great tasting often enough, a way over priced. I am very happy to say I could not have been more wrong when it came to Atmosfar. The food was almost uniformly delicious. It was beautiful to look at but the beauty did not come at the expense of flavor. We had a delightful server who, because it was lunch, had all kinds of time to dote over our group. The price was very reasonable (with the exception of alcohol). Let's look at the experience.
As cocktails are totally a la mode these days, here are Wife's drink along with 3.2's mocktail which was on the acidic side.
Close-up of 3.1's mocktail which was made sweeter
I wanted to treat #3 to a nice wine. The wine list was very pricey (remember how much time we spend in wine growing areas like Italy & Spain) but there this 9-year old Croatian age worthy bottle was a relative bargain.
On to the plates
This is a chicken breast. 3.1 rated it highly as juicy but with a nice crust outside. The curls on top are preparation of celeriac.
#3 ordered the scallops which came encrusted with mound of crispy coconut. The roasted broccoli was...broccoli...all the vegetables served were very tasty and hardly just sops to non-meat eaters.
Wife ordered a Halibut. She loved the fish but was not so excited about the light, tomato based broth. The many other tomato enjoying folk scarfed up all her broth and discovered a treasure trove of greens underneath.
I ordered this and as far as I was concerned it was the hit of the meal. Often times white asparagus in Europe is way overcooked. I don't know exactly how they prepared it but it had a nice crispness yet a grilled flavor. The sauce was a light butter based one. There were a kind of cured fish egg to add saltiness but they were very light, not overly fishy at all. And there were chopped hazelnuts to add another texture component.
3A and 3.2 shared this steak. I did not try it but they spoke highly of it. You will also notice one of the five orders of fries we had for the six of us. When we ordered them we exclaimed that we were certainly over purchasing. Every fry was consumed.
This was another of my dishes - Lardo over toasted bread with garlic herb butter. Lardo is something you either love or hate. It is the cured fat from pig belly. Think of it like meat butter. I thought it was grand.
There was another fish dish ordered by 3A and 3.2 they shared but I didn't get a picture of it.
This is the one dish I thought failed. It was salted trout. I expected the fish to be fairly strong flavored. It was very mild, too mild in my opinion. The veggies overwhelmed it. The sauce was bland too. You will note the small bits. They roasted buckwheat to provide a crunchy counterpoint. But they were like eating little bits of gravel they were so hard. I had numerous people try them to confirm my opinion.
We charged on to desserts
Wife had chocolate mousse and I had the rhubarb compote with ice creaming
The total for this feast was $500 of which about $150 went toward the wine and drinks. So the food component was about $58 a person including the service. By U.S. standards, I would say that is quite the bargain.
A Fortuitous Find - Skargardshotellet, Hano Island
Yesterday, Wife and I were doing a drive to the North Archipelago, a series of islands off Gothenburg's coast. It really isn't the season there, and these are bedroom communities so there was very little open. Our first stop was a massive tourist stop with a buffet and hoards of young families and seniors. Not the place for After wandering around, we found ourself at hotel restaurant that was much less populated. They had a fish lunch special. The fish itself was cooked perfectly and had great flavor. The mayo based sauce was not overpowering despite the appearance. And beneath was gold mine of veggies - asparagus, snow peas, potatoes, roasted cabbage. It included a small salad bar and some complimentary cake and coffee for $30 altogether.
