Gastronomy in Sweden

In recent decades, Swedish gastronomy and restaurant culture have undergone a metamorphosis. Today, Sweden's restaurants and home kitchens offer a piquant combination of traditional Swedish fare and new, avant garde styles of cooking.

Sweden's traditional home-cooked food is wholesome and practical, full of rich flavors and heavy sauces with an emphasis on meat and simple fish. Traditional fare includes meatballs, sausage, smoked pork, fried herring, boiled beets, potatoes, pea soup, and onion sauce.

Breakfast usually consists of open sandwiches, possibly crisp bread knäckebröd. The sandwich is most often buttered, with toppings such as hard cheese, cold cuts, caviar, or messmör. Filmjölk (fermented milk), or sometimes yogurt, and porridge (gröt), are also popular.

Sweden is one of the heaviest coffee drinking countries in the world and milk consumption in Sweden is the highest of any country in the world. The Akvavit, also called Aqua vitae, Scandinavian vodka or schnapps (snapps), and Absolut Vodka are popular drinks.