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ITINERARY 2, DAY 4: Sunday

Get on your bikes and ride east along beautiful Strandvägen for brunch on your last day.

Museum time: Vasa Museum

Photo by Flickr user Telstar Logistics, CC licensed

I'm not much of a museum person when I travel.  Most of the time, I'd rather interact with people food than art.  But the Vasa Museum is pretty special.  It's basically a giant wooden ship from the 17th century that floated out to sea tiny bit and then sank to the bottom of the sea.  They fished it up in the 50s mostly intact and built a big museum to house it.

What I love most about it is that it's the biggest tourist attraction in Stockholm, and it's basically a tribute to a one of the biggest FAILS in nautical engineering history.  It's like an allegory denouncing the sin of pride.

There's not much to it.  You basically walk in, walk around the big ship, and then you're done. If you ever played pirates as a kid, you'll love it.  If you're not into big ships, you'll feel ambivalent about it.  But you kind of have to see it.  It's a nice, quick hit. 

Lunch and fika: Rosendals Trädgård

I don't know why I saved this for last.  Rosendals Trädgård is probably my favorite spot in all of Stockholm.  I've written about it before here, but it's a very different place in the spring and summer.  It's a big complex smack in the middle of Djurgården, Stockholm's Central Park.  A set of converted greenhouses sit at the top of a hill, surrounded by farmed land and a small apple orchard.  The warmer it gets, the louder the flora colors are -- first come the crocuses and the then tiny grape hyacinths, then feathery tulips,  then apple blossoms, then lilacs, then jasmine, then lilies, as well as all kinds of flowers I don't know the names of.  Nature in Sweden can be so aggressive -- the flowers have two, three months to bloom and they sure do procreate like they mean it.

The organic gardens around the complex provide the cafe with emerald lettuces and beautiful, jewel-colored vegetables.  If no one is looking, you can even gather a handful of smultron, or wild strawberries, from the fruit patch.

I missed the blooming of the apple trees this year, but I hear that a picnic in the orchard as the blossoms start to rain petals down is about as close to heaven as you can get.
 




And the food is wonderful -- organic and locally sourced for the most part, with emphasis on hearty, farm-fresh ingredients dressed with a light hand.  Sej, a firm white-fleshed fish, is served sauteed with crispy hunks of bacon and fresh potatoes. Vegetarian soups like beet with cumin and creme fraiche or vegetable are full-flavored and filling without being too heavy. 

Order your dessert and coffee with your meal so you don't have to wait on line a second time.  I love the cream cheese frosted carrot cake and the perfectly creamy-dense chocolate kladdkaka with whipped cream.  I could eat kladdkaka every day.

Don't forget to hit the butik, where you can get really delicious marmelades like carrot with Persian spices or saffron fig to smuggle back, along with their bakery's breads and cookies for the plane.

Rosendals Trädgård
Djurgården
T-bana: Kungsträdgården

Have a safe flight home!

My jeans are splattered in fish blood from the broken spine of one particularly tenacious perch. I've got purple splotches on the ass of my jeans where I leaned into a blueberry bush.  My foam and leather sneakers have soaked in some of the bilge water from the boat's bottom.  I am like a mixed media canvas painted by Saltvik, where La Doug's uncle Jonas and aunt Carola live.*



Saltvik is a little Swedish coastal village near Hudiksvall, an almost four hour bus ride north of Stockholm.  Along the highway, the wild archipelago opens out occasionally, flashing its waters between the tall, slender birch trees which dominate the landscape.  The branches hang loose and sparse on the trees' pale limbs, like the thinning, stringy hair of an old woman.





Jonas and Carola live in a picture-perfect Svealand summer house, with a carefully tended garden of flowers and berries and potatoes.  It used to be their summer home, but now they live in Saltvik all year round.  There are neighbors around, but at country distances.

Though they have adult children, Jonas and Carola are lighter on their feet than I am.  Carola jumps through the brush and off the boat with the agility of a teenager.  They are fit and healthy in a very Swedish way, from daily activity like long walks through the country in the morning and evening. 



I get to stay in the unbelievable guest house, a fully-contained apartment with four bunk beds lining the back wall.  The kid in me wants to try all four beds to see which one I'll like best.





Carola and I pick buckets of blueberries by the side of the road.  The land is carpeted in blueberry bushes.  Long clusters of unripe lingonberries are still pale green, touched with rose.  Sweden has a law called allemansrätten, or every man's right, which says that anyone can pole fish and pick berries and mushrooms anywhere, including privately-owned land (to a certain degree).   



We take Jonas and Carola's power boat out and cross the sea to one of the many sparsely populated islands in the Swedish archipelago.  The wind is crisp and cold, but it feels good to be out in the ocean.  At the end of the day, as the rain begins to pockmark the water's surface, we pull dozens of aborrar, perch with fluorescent orange fins, light blue vertical stripes and deep maroon gills, up from nets we've dropped into a little rush-lined bay.  The largest of them becomes dinner.  We steam the 8-inch fillets and serve with a garlic cilantro lime sauce.  Its tender white flesh is moist and firm, juicy and mild, though the skin is quite tough and inedible.  The rest of the aborrar get cleaned and frozen for later.





But my favorite consumption of the weekend is Carola's cake!  It's a masterpiece that couldn't be easier to make. It's perfect for those late summer berries I'll hopefully catch when I get back to New York.  A soft meringue shell is topped with a vanilla custard, fresh redcurrants and blueberries.  I could eat the whole thing in one sitting, easily.

I feel like I don't have enough time to write about all of these brand-new experiences.  I want to write more, remember everything, but then I want to spend my time experiencing more so I have more to remember.  Everything is so exotic to me -- the feeling of a fish in my hands, wriggling and gasping for its life, its belly taut, a half-digested herring stuck in its throat; raking my fingers through the wild blueberry ground cover, catching the tiny orbs in my purple-stained palm; trying desperately to follow dinner conversation in Swedish until my head hurts and I lose all sense of the language.

I hope that when I get back to New York, I can be a tourist in my own life -- to accept every invitation, to not be afraid to hang out with strangers, to be open and brave and willing to tire myself out.  That is allemansrätten, too.

Anyway, it's almost 11am!  I've got to get out of the house.  You should get out of the house, too.  There's a lot of world to see out there.

Carola's rödvinbär tårta

The meringue and custard can both be made ahead of time.  Put plastic wrap directly on your cooled custard so you don't get a custard skin.  Assemble just before serving.

For the meringue shell:

4 egg whites
100 grams ground almonds (7/8 cup)**
1 1/2 dl (2/3 cup) sugar

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).  Whip egg whites hard.  Fold in almonds and sugar.  Draw a 30-cm (12-inch) circle onto a sheet of parchment paper using an overturned plate.  Spread the meringue onto the parchment paper in the circle shape.  Bake in the bottom shelf of the oven for 20-25 minutes until very very light brown and top is no longer glossy.

For the custard:

4 egg yolks
1 dl (scant 1/2 cup) sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract)
1 dl (scant 1/2 cup) cream
100 grams (7 tbsp.) butter

Whisk all ingredients except for butter in a small pot.  Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until custard is thick.  Remove from heat and add butter.  Let cool. 

To assemble:

Beaucoup berries
Meringue
Custard

Top cake with cooled custard.  Top custard with beaucoup berries.  Serve immediately.  Carola suggests something tart, like redcurrants, mixed with wild blueberries.  I am sure it would be just as lovely with whatever berries you have on hand, or fresh peaches.  Serves 8 civilized slices, or 4 slices with 4 second servings.
 

*Did I tell you La Doug is half-Swedish?  Isn't that a fantastic coincidence? Makes me feel that much closer to him.

**Almonds are usually ground with a mandelkvarn, or an almond mill, which is like a hand cranked cheese grater with a vice grip so you can clamp it to the side of your table.  I bought one just to make this cake, but I'm sure you could use a coffee grinder if you don't object to loud electronic devices like I do.

Name: Joy Hui Lin

Occupation: Food/Travel Writer & Poet

Neighborhood: Vasastan

Relationship status: Sambo  

What did you eat today?

Cheerios, a white nectarine, a peach, a pastry, Garlicky Eggplant with Pork, and rice.

What do you never eat? 

You won't see me lining up in the milza queue at St. Francis' (spleen sandwiches, which are (in)famous in Sicily).

Complete this sentence: 

In my refrigerator, you can always find: Cheese.  I'm happiest when there are at least five kinds around.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

Dishwasher.  Sometimes I wish I could hug it.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

I love Cafe Piastowska, Cafe Copacabana, Ethiostar, and Roppongi.  

World ends tomorrow.  What would you like for your last meal? 

Either Little Peking in Westminster, CA -- pork and leek dumplings with handmade dough, roast beef and green onion sandwich dripping with hoisin sauce (can you tell I'm drooling), or my boyfriend Otto's osso bucco and risotto milanese.

Read more about Joy's food feelings at joysan.blogspot.com.  

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ITINERARY 2, DAY 3: SATURDAY

Weekend Brunch: Djurgården

Sleep in a bit - it's the weekend!  Pick up some bikes from the nearest bike station and head over to Djurgården's Blå Porten, which I've also written about here.  Carbo-load on refined smörgåsar like croissants with brie and vegetables or multi-grain buns, or butter-soaked tosca raspberry cake and thick slices of cardamom cake.  Those who are ready for something a little more substantial can also order cooked entrees from the If you love the colorful Lotta Kühlhorn trays they use there, you can get them at the Liljevalchs art museum next door.











Or if it's raining and you don't feel like getting soaked in the garden, you can try Flickorna Helin & Voltaire a little up Rosendalsvägen.  A few rustic, dark-stained wood tables and booths fill the corners of the inner room.  Try the gubbmacka, a classic country open-faced sandwich made with sliced, hard-boiled egg draped with a few anchovy fillets over ruffly lettuce and buttered, syrup-sweetened dark bread.  Two chives recline over the composition like slender antenna, adding just the right amount of sharpness with each bite.  It's pretty badass.  I also love the enormous face-sized chocolate meringue, a sugar bomb that you'll want to wash down with a nice, bitter cup of black coffee.

Blå Porten
Djurgårdsvägen 64
T-bana: Kungsträdgården
No reservations required

Flickorna Helin och Voltaire
Rosendalsvägen 14
T-bana: Kungsträdgården
No reservations required

Post-brunch bike ride

If you don't have time to ride outside the city center, you should definitely do this inner-city loop.  Djurgården can be a totally magical place, even if the weather is uncooperative.  I ride around here as often as I can.  In fact, there is nothing I enjoy more than to eat something sugary and then take off through the lush green park.

Djurgården is the former hunting ground for the royal family.  These days, Djurgården and the rest of the royal grounds are owned collectively by the Swedish people.  The grounds are extremely well-cared for, perfect for the constitutional walks Swedish people like.  There are very few hills and plenty of well-marked bike lanes; just don't get your tires stuck in the tram tracks.  Take the main drag all the way past Skansen*, past Gröna Lund, and go east towards the marina.  Loop back up all the way along the tree-lined canal.  

If you're out at the right time, you'll pass horses flicking their tails peacefully in the grass.  Dozens of black-faced sheep graze just an arm's distance away; ambivalent red cows stand guard over their frolicking calves. Swans and fuzzy swanlings glide, while gray geese sit staunch on the banks, unperturbed by the crunch of bicycle tires on the gravel path.  Sailboats cut across the water, past mansions and cottages, all of them adorned with exuberant flora in rich Gauguin colors.  The air is unbelievably fresh and crisp.  My co-worker says that being out during a rain or post rain is best for exercise because there is so much oxygen in the air.  I am not sure if this is some kind of sour grapes compensation, but I would like to believe it is true.

Once you get up to the northeast corner of Djurgården, cross the road and ride through the tall grasses of Ladjurgården.  There isn't a ton to see here, but it is a lovely place to zip around.  It's very easy to spend two hours just exploring the park.  If you need to trade in your bike, there is a single, very popular station down at Gröna Lund.

Thirsty?  Let's head down the east side of Gamla Stan and make it back over to Söder.

Afternoon libation: Mosebacke

Mosebacke is a fine place to do a little people-watching while sipping on rosé, the summer refresher of choice.  It reminds me of Harry's at Water Taxi Beach, only it is sitting on a cliff high over the water.  They also have one of the finest views of the city in all of Stockholm.  On a nice day, the place is packed with RayBan sporting hipster kids.  The menu is quite limited to a few items like chicken Caesar salad and roast beef with potato salad.  It is generally uninteresting, so I don't recommend it, unless you're starving/too drunk/having too much of a good time to go anywhere else for food.

A good option for a snack (if you are somehow already hungry again) is the Nystekt Strömming kiosk down by Slussen.  This busy little cart sells freshly fried herring with all the fixings - pressgurka, vinegary cucumber salad,  crème fraiche, slivers of red onion and parsley, all piled on crunchy knäckebröd.  Fresh and clean and delicious.  And utterly authentic.

Mosebacke
Mosebacketorg 3
T-bana: Slussen

Nystekt Strömming
Cart outside the Slussen T-bana
T-bana: Slussen 

Now that you have had a nip of tipple, let's get back on the road!

Afternoon bike tour

You can pick up bikes in several City Bikes stations near Slussen.  Curve down the swirl of ramps and take the path towards Söder Malarstrand, which is a lovely bike path by the water lined with ships-cum-restaurants/hotels/nightclubs.  Curve down to Hornstull Strand and ride all the way until you reach Tanto Lund.

I'm not exactly sure what the history of Tanto Lund is, but it's like a teeny village of elven summer houses with some of the prettiest flower gardens in all of Stockholm.  This area is quite hilly, so you might have to get off the bike and walk around a bit.

Take Ringvägen's wide bicycle path all the way around Söder until you reach Skanstull.  Turn up Götgatan a bit here and you'll get to your dinner destination.

Dinner: Pelikan or Thai Boat

Pelikan is another one of those places that everyone in Stockholm loves.  It's an old Södermalm pub that has been around since the 1600s - well, the pub name has been around; the pub itself has moved locations many times.  

This claimed 17th century heritage feels genuine, though - it's easy to imagine time standing still here, with plenty of impassioned meetings taking place over long glasses of ale and artery-clogging dishes.  The Pelikan room mixes masculine and feminine elements together evenly. Hard, angular, dark wood booths ground the huge room's high walls.  Male waiters in white shirts and black vests glide around the chatter-filled room, which is noisy but not painfully so.  The gentle light filtering in through the huge windows mixed with the candlelight at the tables and the warm beige color on the walls lights everyone's faces up in the most romantic way.  A little gilded art deco mural of a monkey in the jungle climbs the wall, and a single playing card is knifed into the 20 foot ceiling.  Otherwise, the room is quite bare of decoration and garnish.

The food is again classic husmanskost, quite heavy. The best dish was cider mustard-glazed "schweinehaxe", a grilled pork neck, thick and unapologetic -- imagine Tony Soprano's fatty, meaty thugs as pigs and you've got the picture.  Meatballs here are tough nuts and a little liver-like - perhaps venison or moose in the mix? - not my fave. You can only get the pytt i panna after regular dinner hours, at the end of the night - I don't know if this is a good or bad thing.

Plenty of seats in the main hall, which means we were able to get a table without a reservation.  It's also a good place to accommodate large groups.  I actually ran into an old friend from New York whom I hadn't seen in two years, which only added to the feeling that we were being transported in time.

If you're tired of husmanskost, though (which, given the fact that you have only been here for three days, seems unlikely), you can always try the Thai Boat, which is parked in the summer down past Skanstull.  It's literally a boat docked on the south end of Söder, serving surprisingly fair Thai food.  I especially liked the steamed sea bass with raw garlic and cilantro.  The occasional live band plays on a sand-strewn stage, and fresh-from-Thailand immigrants pack the outdoor bar area.  It's a lovely place to sit and be raucous when the weather is nice.

Pelikan
Blekingegatan 40
T-bana: Skanstull

Thai Boat
Kajplats 300 at the end of Östgötagatan
T-bana: Skanstull

Late evening: Hang by the water

Make sure you check out a few bikes before 10pm.  My buddy Niklas called me and convinced us to ride over near Djurgården to drink with him on his friend's two-level boat - CHIC.  Three skinny cabin bedrooms, beer and cider in the fridge, it's the kind of place where I would totally put out under the right circumstances.  Who knew I was such a Hamptons ho?

We sat around and spent a lot of time debating America's merits and demerits with Swedes who wanted to know what America really thinks of them (the honest truth - they don't think of Sweden very much at all).  Company included a dude with one wonky Simpsons eye and a Mike Tyson face tat, though his lack of chattiness was probably the most intimidating thing about him.

But say you don't have a friend who has a friend who has a boat.  You can also ride over to Strandbryggan and have a little seaside cocktail there, or Josefinas, another pricy beach furniture boite by the water.  I haven't been, but it's been recommended to me a few times.  Lots of bland but pretty people in the pictures, but you can't go wrong sitting out at Djurgården.  Ride safely, and don't forget to return your bikes by 1am.

Strandbryggan
Strandvägskajen 27
T-bana: Kungsträdgården

Josefinas
Galärvarvsvägen 10
T-bana: Kungsträdgården

And after the show, it's the after party

Oh, you still want to go out?  My friend Klara tells me the hot party in town right now is Trädgården, an outdoor party which takes place under the Skanstull bridge.   Catch the club kids before closing time at 1am.

Trädgården
Hammarby slussväg 2
T-bana: Skanstull

*No Skansen on either itinerary.  I think it's very missable.  Unless you must see a deeply depressed elk up close.

Dear men* on trains/planes/buses,

Why do you think it is okay to invade my half of the bus/train/plane seat with your spread-eagle?  Does your teeny weenie need a wittle wiggle room?

Stay on your side or I will start humming George Michael songs and passive-aggressively pushing you back with my foot.

Keep out!
Ganda

*Don't look at me like that!  It's always you dudes!

Stockholm, July 8, 2009:

Paris, July 26, 2009:

 

NIGEL: Paris, I just didn't think your heart was in it.  You've got to show some personality.  I mean, you look sexy and adorable and I would love to drop you down my pants with all of your ethnic flavor, but it just didn't work for me.

LIL C: Stockholm, you really took your big ship and sank it, down to the nadir of the ocean of emotion, even though your feet were buoyed by the inflection of your Nordic knowledge.  I just want to say that I appreciate the heart with which your seagulls infiltrate the inner eye.

MARY: Wrap a corn husk around that herring because Sweden is on the hot tamale train! Wooooooooooooooo!!!

The drive into Ekerö from the city takes about 20 minutes, shooting west through Kungsholmen, out past the royal residence at Drottningholms Slott, past spandexed cyclists and thick fields of stiff grass, gilded green.  Clouds are painted in swirls of white and gray with a hundred different brushes -- a filmy watercolor to the left, opaque oil puffs to the right, whimsical woodblock prints overhead.

We pass a giant cargo ship tipped on its side and leaning against a hill behind a deep waving swath of grass.  It looks like it was beached there by a giant wave and left to dry out.  Its steampipe is graffitied in big, red bubbly letters.  The neighborhood thinks it's an eyesore.  I like it. The sight of it gives me something to chew on for a second.  Who is the owner? How did he park it on the side of a hill?  Who tagged its little white cap?

My colleague's house could be a cement-colored Scandinavian beach house jutting off the side of a little island, except it bares its broad face to a cropped, well-behaved lawn instead of the ocean.  The wooden deck holds a dining table and a blocky woven dark wicker lounge set.  The Spanish-style white stucco wall beside the concrete pool reminds me of L.A.  We dig up little carrots from the garden in front of the pool house.  The wild red raspberries we pluck from the bushes behind it are as sweet as jelly candy. 

The clouds have magically dissipated, the blue canvas sky wiped almost completely clean.  We eat home-cooked Thai food outside under a few patio umbrellas.  The suntanned kids begrudgingly eat a few freshly fried spring rolls before jumping into the pool.  Over curry with pineapple, a spicy beef larb, sweet and sour shrimp and a chaise of rice, we mix all of our languages -- my colleague's native Swedish, his wife and her cousin's native Thai, my native English.

The neighbors/best friends, another Thai-Swedish couple, come over for dessert -- a hot crumble made with the liters of wild blueberries the wives picked in the woods behind their houses.  "Lagom söt" says the neighbor -- just the right amount of sweetness.  The inky purple fruit turns the melted ice cream lavender.

I am so grateful for the kindness of  acquaintances.  Every invitation I accept into someone's home makes me want to be a better neighbor, to open my door wide and say, Yes!  Varsågoda!  Welcome to my home.  Welcome to my life.  Every day here, I marvel how a million new experiences can become commonplace in six short months, or how the ear can learn to find the words in a stream of foreign sounds, or how quickly a stranger can become a friend over a few spoonfuls of rice.  The heart gobbles the trail of breadcrumbs so the mind can find a new way home now and then.

My colleague tells me that in two months, the gaggle of kids splashing and fighting in the pool will stop playing in their front yard, as everyone cocoons for the dark, cold months.  The patio furniture will be tucked away after only a few short months of use.  The short days will zap people of strength, and the neighborly camaraderie will hibernate for eight hard months, waiting for the sweet moment in May, maybe June, when it can emerge again.
 
For now, the sun takes its sweet time setting, leaving a periwinkle night light on the horizon at 11pm. I take a taxi home, the smell of mosquito incense clinging to my hair.  The slow-burning green coils remind me of Thailand and the Hudson house.  In the future, they will remind me of a quiet summer evening I spent in Ekerö, eating wild Swedish berries with new friends and weaving our stories together in three tongues.

 

Dear Sweden,

I've been collecting all of these clever Swedish food phrases, like Svennebanan.  Svennebanan is like "Svenny banana", a derogatory term describing a run-of-the-mill Swede.  I was flipping channels today and heard it in a commercial for a top hits compilation CD -- I guess there's a big pop hit right now called "Svennebanan". 

I got my Google on, and the video, the song, the lyrics, the whole concept kind of blew my mind.  As far as I can tell, the lyrics are all about what Svennebanans like -- Thailand, karaoke, getting drunk on the ferry to Finland*...there's even a reference to singing Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer"!

And then there's the rapper, a blond guy in totally ridiculous dreads greenscreening in front of a Finland ferry home video while singing the whole thing to some cliche beat.  I can't tell where the joke begins and where it ends.  Well done, jätte roligt!  (For you non-Swedes, that means either very fun or very funny.  That's a Swedish joke from Christine, Francis's lady.  Again, you may need to let it percolate for five months.)

 

But let's get serious for a second -- what's up with the self-hatred, Sweden?  Why is being Swedish (i.e. "svenne") such a bad thing, while being un-Swedish (i.e. "osvensk") is a good thing?  As Francis said when he was here, you can't call someone un-American without expecting to be torn a new poopshoot. 

You got to work that shit out, girl.  Teach your daughters and sons to be proud of what they have and where they come from.  You gave us modern taxonomy!  Semlor!  The EXPEDIT!  Get some farmer's markets going.  Stop eating inferior imported Italian ice cream.  It's cool to make fun of the boozing, the vacation, the uniform striped shirts, but leave room to celebrate the humane social contract, the hel och ren spirit, the flora-gone-amok.  Stop trying to be so "osvensk" or there won't be anything "svensk" left to write home about.  And that would totally break my heart.

 

Puss puss,

Ganda

*Sorry, I should explain the Finland ferry.  Alcoholics and teenagers like to ride the ferry to Finland because international waters = no tax on your booze.  The booze cruise basically floats over to Finland for a few hours, then turns around and heads back to Stockholm, all within the span of an overnight and change, depending on how far you go. If you're looking to party with Svennebananer, I think you ride the Viking line.  If you want to head to Helsinki with more sober folk, try the Silja ferry.

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ITINERARY 2, DAY 2: FRIDAY

Breakfast: home
Okay, we're packing in a lot today, so keep up.  If you need breakfast, have something light at home.  I suggest the Vanilj hjortron äpple (vanilla cloudberry apple) yogurt from Valio with muesli.  Or you can pick up a little smörgås of bread, butter, cheese, cucumber and red pepper from any cafe.  Or just a little coffee and away we go!

Food halls
Stockholm has a couple of food halls worth exploring.  Östermalms Saluhall is the classic food hall in the fancy part of town.  I went there on my first week in Stockholm, and it's worth checking out if you're in the area.  The building is pretty, filled with wood stalls and lots of little ready-to-eat food shops and raw ingredients.  But I think it's also a bit touristy.

I prefer Hötorgetshallen, which happens to be close to my work.  This was traditionally more of a market for the people, but it is also expensive.  Still, expect to find stacks of smoked fish, cheeses, breads, reindeer loins, and a handy Systembolaget, as well as excellent takeout like my favorite, a Turkish meze stand where you can get three types of meze for 69 SEK.  (I always get a bit of parsley and coriander crusted salmon, a scoop of thick yogurt with zucchini and garlic, and a scoop of mashed, roasted eggplant and peppers.)  The produce stall is stupid expensive, but they do sell lots of frozen wild berries like smultron (alpine strawberries) and hjortron (cloudberries).

The outdoor market on Hötorget's square is actually just like the fruit carts on the street in New York -- not local, and the strawberries have probably been shipped in from Germany or Spain.

Farmer's markets here are really hard to come by, which is a shame because that's always my favorite part about a city.  If you're here for the three weekends in August and the six weekends from August to October that they're open, you can check out the Bondens egen Marknad site for details on where they set up.  I haven't seen them yet, so I can't say whether or not they're good; I'm always out of town when they're open. 

Stockholm, you need more farmer's markets!  You of the hälsotallrik and the färskpotatis obsession!  Seriously, it will change your life.

Lunch: Hötorgetshallen, Kajsas Fisk
Stand online and squeeze into a table in the dark, low-ceilinged Hötorgetshallen stand -- it's part of the experience.  I recommend a round of the fisksoppa, mystery mix fish soup, with a little bit of aioli and a healthy scoop of the harissa by the counter.  Filling and fortifying with some buttered knäckebröd.  Skip the fried calamari, which is heavy and greasy.

Post lunch: View from the water
Get a one-way ticket on the hop-on, hop-off sightseeing boat, which is 100 SEK.  This may sound cheesy, but it's really nice to stand at the front of the boat for an hour and see the city from the water.  You can also use this ticket to gain entry to Gröna Lund, where you should stop if you're into amusement parks.  I think there is also a cheaper price for one-way rides, with which you can see the entire loop.

Dinner: 2 options: Matsalen ($$$$) or Max ($)
If you've got a little cash to burn, go to Mathias Dahlgren's Matsalen.  It's one of only two Michelin 2-star restos in Stockholm, and it was one of the most giddy, tingle-inducing meals of my life.  It deserves its own post, so hang in there for the review.  But make your reservation now!

If you're running low on cash, try Max, the classic burger chain from the north of Sweden.  Northerners are real union people (think Detroit), and the chain is famous for having shut McDonald's out of the market up North, where the locals refused to support it.  I'm not going to say the burgers are good -- the patties reminded me of White Castle burgers, without the slime -- but the fries with dipping sauce are excellent.  And then you can say you supported the local Goliath-tumbler.

If, you're on the Max option and your friends are on the Matsalen option, you'll have some time to kill, so it might be fun to check out a movie.  Cinemateket, which is currently closed for the summer until August 17, is the classic Stockholm arthouse movie theater.  You could also try Zita on Birger Jarlsgatan.  If you want to see something mainstream, check out SF Bio. [Disclaimer: They're owned by the people who pay my rent.]

Dancing: Cliff Barnes Restaurant

This place was described to me as "not classy by any means, but a good place for people of a certain age who are too old to go dancing all night."  Music starts promptly at 11pm and ends promptly at 1am.  We walked from Matsalen up to Norrtullsgatan, really not knowing what to expect.

From the outside, the place looks a little bit like a high school; the patrons outside could have been nicotine-addicted moms and dads discussing parent-teacher conferences inside.  But when we walked in, the bouncer asked us to wait for a moment until some patrons could clear out of the rowdy, overcrowded room.  You could feel the humidity and heat pulsating from inside.  And the best part was that every single person in the room was singing along at the top of their lungs to Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer".  When he unhooked the rope to let us in, here's what the bouncer said:

BOUNCER: Okay, there are only two rules.  No dancing on the tables, and no opening the windows.  You can dance in the window or on the chairs.  Have fun and be nice.

And sure enough, there was a lot of chair dancing, a lot of fun, and no air circulation.  Lots of radio hits from the 80s as well as a few Euro tunes we had never heard, but that everyone else knew the words to.  Also, there was very little rhythm to be found anywhere.  But plenty of people jumping on each other's backs and falling over.  In a very benign, clumsy way.  Seriously, nowhere in Stockholm are there more drunk-ass nerdz making total uncoordinated fools of themselves and not giving a rat's ass.  Francis and Raymond stared slack-jawed in disbelief for an hour.  It's really a slice of life spectacle you have to see to understand. 

RAYMOND: If you had told me what this was going to be like, I wouldn't have believed you.

Cliff Barnes
Norrtullsgatan 45
T-bana: Odenplan

And after the show, it's the after party
If you are STILL up for partying, you're going to have to go without grandma.  Everybody usually winds up at Berns or Spy Bar in Stureplan with the rest of the kids at the end of the night, because they stay open til 5am, at least on the weekends.  You ain't in Berlin, people.

I haven't been to Spy Bar, so I can't say what it's like.  But Berns is part of the Berns Hotel, and if it weren't filled with teenagers trying to get their liquor on, it would be quite a beautiful place.  I went there early in my stay in Stockholm and had a great time doing my early 90s booty grinds alongside kids who may very well have been half my age. The main ballroom is  huge, with high-ceilings, wood paneled walls and elegant lantern-shaped chandeliers.  During the winter, the second-floor terrace stays open while they blast the heat lamps.  Not very environmentally friendly.  The snow sparkles in the floodlights, and the crush of bodies and the lamps form a heat shield that melts the flurries of snow on contact.  It's pretty spectacular.

Tomorrow, we get some physical activity in, so drink a lot of water before you go to bed.

Name: Jenny Kramer

Occupation: Registered midwife

Neighborhood: Vasastan

Relationship status: Secret status :)

What did you eat today?

Sushi

What do you never eat?

Liver, brain, kidneys and heart.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Mango chutney

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My blender, it is perfect for a lot of things.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

It's a tie between my home and out.

World ends tomorrow. What would you like for your last meal?

I would go to a 3 star Michelin restaurant and enjoy their best dishes with the people I love.