Sweden and the competition winner!

So I’m back from Sweden. Well actually I was back last Monday but to be honest with you I’ve been exhausted since I got back. I feel like I need another holiday to get over this holiday (and we have in fact been preparing for that). I did have a lovely time despite the weather being crappy for the majority of the time we were there but we do have a couple of snaps where it looked lovely.

We stayed in the area of Smögen (well we stayed in Kungshamn just a little way away) which is about 90 miles from Gothenburg. Our apartment was on this island which is only accessible by boat. We had a little boat so we could get across and there was a big boat to take us into Smögen. It was just the most picturesque place – water as beautifully blue as that of Santorini and so clear, the houses quaint and “happy”.

It is very expensive to eat out there so we only ate out a couple of times – for example a baguette that might cost £4 over there costs about £7. Because it’s a seaside town though, there’s no end to the high quality fresh fish. Prawns are actually fresh here (much to my delight as a shellfish lover). My friend Lauren asked for a ham salad sandwich on our first trip out and the man told her “you’re in Smögen now, you must have seafood”! I did have the most amazing langoustines which were pretty cheap actually at about £9 for 8. They came with aoili and quite frankly, didn’t need anything else.

The rest of the time we shared the food prep – the first night me, Mr LTT and my former housemates James and Sophie who really brought out another side of my food eating took charge of the food and prepared a load of BBQ stuff for a group which was quite impressive when you don’t normally cook for 12 people. It was a tiny kitchen and without our normal kitchen utensils (and under the influence of a large amount of alcohol) we achieved a quinoa salad, burgers and chicken kebabs which we took down to the little bay on the island and partook of some al fresco eating.

Some things I have learnt about Swedish food: They like cardamom and dill, a lot. Not together of course, but dill sauces seemed to come with all the seafood whereas I think I’ve only had it with salmon previously. Cardamom seems to feature a lot in their baking – I got a surprise when the pastry I bought contained it (not that I dislike it of course). Basic salad items seem crazily expensive here, but we did buy a box of strawberries which was absolutely delicious which were priced about the same as over here. I can only assume that their wages in Sweden must be a little hire to afford these basic items.

The whole point of us going was to celebrate Midsummer’s and on the longest day the sun only sets for a few hours. I felt quite happy that I captured this picture at around 11:30pm when the sun was just going down!

So anyway, normal service is resumed and we also have a competition winner for my Icecreamists book! Well done Jojo Young! I hope you will enjoy the book and tweet me a pic of some icecream you make from it!