8 Swedish foods that confuse me

I'm tellin you, Smörgåstårta is among the 5 best foods on the planet. just look at the comment section to see the amounts of people who wanna see your reaction.

Swedish here, and let's get a few things sorted about Smörgåstårta. It's weird because it's eaten like a main course and not a dessert, which is weird. But it's supposed to be weird, and it's absolutely unique. Secondly, smörgåstårta is not an auto-win. There is a thin line between a good and a bad one and you can really tell if the person who made it has got experience. You need to put a LOT of mayo on it so it soaks and gets moist otherwise it will feel dry which is a big no no. Oh, and you should try Raggmunk. Whatever you do, do not call it a pancake ;)

Regarding food in tubes, remember how extremely much Swedes love hiking. Not only are tubes excellent because they preserve food far better than opened cans, they're also perfect to stuff into a backpack. The most common tube food, spread cheese, is a stable of hiking, for example, the spread cheese with tiny pieces of reindeer meat is a must on any mountain hike for me, ever since my childhood.

"Kräftskiva" is basically FIKA times ten for Swedes. We just need something to initiate a social event and a excuse for drinking.

My boyfriend is Dutch and when I first explained smörgástárta, he answered that it sounded horrible and that he never would taste it. Well he tasted it and he loves it and have even started to ask me to make it if it goes to far in between I make it. There are good ones and then there are some really bad ones. If you are going to taste it make sure it's a well liked kind. The fillling you make to put in between the bread needs to be applied very generously as it's suppposed to get the bread absorbing it a bit so it gets tasy and moist. There is nothing worse than a dry smörgástárta. The decorations with all the stuff is what makes it feel really luxorious.

Food in tubes are really great! You had the solution when you described the tomato paste going bad before you could use all it when in a can. It one of the resons you find a bunch of good stuff i tubes. The other is that they are perfect to bring with you when hiking and on vacation trips. It won't go bad in a hurry and is always ready to use. It's more messy if you have to get a tool to scoop it up from a can and spread on your sandwich. Tubes are more convenient for that reason alone. Squirt and eat. ✌😁

Just a thought about all the products in cardboard containers: The company Tetra Pak, which manufactures (and I believe have the patent for) all those containers for milk, toghurt, your small Festis-cartons etc, is a Swedish company. So could be extra common in Sweden just because of that.

It's probably mentioned below a couple of times, but fiskbullar is a very controversial subject among Swedes. Many, many people, going through the schoolsystem, has a strong dislike for the dish. However, real Fiskbullar, is not the kind you buy in a can. That has way to soft texture and is a long way from the real deal. The Norwegians still do them correctly, but the canned you can buy here is unfortunately quite boring. Surströmming is something else. In all the tests that I've seen on youtube - performed by people from the outside of Sweden, they make the grave mistake to 1) Open the can without submerging it in a bucket full of water first and subsequently gets the full power of the fermentation. 2) Eating it all by itself without the necessary complements - potatoes, red onions and some sour cream. No, it does not smell good, far from it. But if you have it in a "klämma" with the complements mentioned above, you might (or might not) actually like it. But if you want to test this in a future episode, I recommend that you do it outside. :)

Fiskbullar doesn't taste of anything really, it all depends on the sauce.

I’m guessing Svedka is a little bit like the beer brand Brooklyn, which is brewed in Brooklyn, USA. Basically no one knows about Brooklyn beer in the US, it’s seen as a tiny company, while here in Sweden it’s a super popular beer brand. My sambo visited their brewery when he was to the US, and they were so happy to see a Swede visiting their brewery since most of their export goes to Sweden.

Svedka vodka is not to be called Swedish vodka when sold to consumers. It is made in Lidköping, Sweden by Lantmännen Reppe from single estate winter wheat grown in the province of Skåne and exported to USA in the form of 96% (192 proof) raw spirit. Before being bottled in the US plant it is diluted to 100 or 80 proof using local filtered water which means that the finished consumer product is no longer to be called Made in Sweden. Svedka brand was created in 1998 by Guillaume Cuvelier but is now owned by Constellation Brands.

I have never heard of svedka… I honestly thought the Mandela effect was trolling me again with Absolut Vodka being called Svedka but aparently not

Never heard of Svedka (it doesn't even have a Swedish wiki-page), and apparently it is not a Swedish brand, it is a US owned brand but it is produced in Sweden

I would love to see a reaction video to Smörgåstårta, it's one of my fav things to eat. Maybe get a few different types, like a shrimp one and a roast beef beef one, and video yourself as you ascend into flavor town?

I've never heard of Svedka before, I think it might be one of those thing who's marketed exclusively for other countries. But at the same time it's still confusing, since Absolut Vodka is also Swedish and one of the worlds most famous vodkas, only second too Smirnoff I believe. But the difference is that everyone here knows about Absolut and have probably tried it.

My VERY Swedish Sambo wants to invite you to smörgåstårta if you ever visit Stockholm. I'm a Spaniard and I found it strangely familiar the first time I saw it. Then I tasted and it was love at first bite!

Born and raised swede here, and we share sentiment regarding kräftor. Any food that requires more calories to access than they provide are pointless.

I love smörgåstårta, although it is called brauðterta here in Iceland. At birthday parties it is always the one that is eaten the most because it is a great balance against all the sugar in the cakes.

Fiskbullar.....childhood trauma, my mom made it every other day - because she loved to see the anguish in my face as i was about to vomit after each bite!

Ok, about the palt. Technically, any boiled dough dumpling with a filling is a palt. Even the kroppkaka. It's an old food and an old name, certainly 1000 years old and probably more. The pitepalt is as you said in the video made with raw potatoes OR a mix of raw and boiled. The palt flour is rye or barley, but the kroppkaka is generally made with wheat flour. Also there is often blood in palt dough (delicious) which makes them look even weirder and tweaks the taste towards blodpudding/black pudding. Another difference is that there is often sausage and onion in a kroppkaka but pitepalt has salt pork. Some people say palt about paltbröd which is just a thin crisp bread that is baked with blood, boiled in white sauce and served with pork, so it's not thechnically a palt at all. Along the västerbotten and norrbotten coast where they generally had more herring than pork they sometimes made (and make!) palt with a fish filling and fish roe in the dough. Haven't tasted that one. Hope that helped.