Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Art of Fika


The Swedish Fika, is what makes me so full, all the time. It's like dessert, only much more serious. You eat your big delicious meal, clean up, do the dishes, etc. Then you make a pot of coffee, get out new classes or coffee mugs, bread, cinnamon roll (which tastes just like King Cake that you eat at Mardi Gras) you get out cookies of different sorts, and sometimes Godis (a bowl or bag of assorted Swedish candy you get at a candy store).

After it's all set up, you sit down again, like you are eating another meal! And you EAT and drink coffee (or Soda Stream, if you dont prefer coffee) and that's Fika. Fika can be an assortment of different food as well. This picture (not taken by me, Fredrik's handywork) is a more traditional one, sometimes, as I experienced this weekend, you can have an assortment of crackers and cheeses (not my favorite, stinky cheese).

Another thing I noticed about Fika and breakfast, you often don't use a plate. That is a different thing for me. Depending on what you are eating, you just don't need a plate.

Last night we had a birthday Fika for Fredrik's mom. Wow, the best one yet. We had Kladdkaka, which is basically a brownie that is gooey in the middle and you eat it with a cream that's not quite as sweet as whip cream, but it's delicious. We also had muffins with Marabou in them (the best chocolate I have ever ever tasted) and of course, cinnamon roll, and Goodis. The funny thing about the Goodis is that even adults eat it. In the U.S. it's uncommon to see an adult e.i. mom, dad or grandma and grandpa munching away on a bowl of gummi candy, but here, everybody loves it (except Fredrik!)

Doesn't that look delicious. It's often confusing though beause you chose a yummy piece of chocolate, but it might taste a little bit like salt, because of the salt licorice! YUCK!

FYI-Swedish television is genius, yet bothers me. Of course they have American shows, but instead of showing the commercials at the same time as they do in the US, they just skip the commercial. So this causes a conflict, the show doesn't start and stop at a 30 minute or hour time slot. Shows often starts at the 45 minute or 35 or any other awkward time to start a show. And all the chanels are not on the same time. So a show ends and you go to find another show on another chanel and that show could be half over! It's very hard have productive TV watching. But it is nice, because you dont have to suffer through commercials every 8 to 10 minutes!

AND-Jon and Kate Plus Eight in Sweden is titled Jon, Kate och åtta barn, which is directly translated to Jon, Kate and Eight Children. Haha, not so catchy in Swedish, is it?

8 comments:

  1. There are several coffee shops in the U.S. with the name Fika. Also, I have heard they use the word sometimes as a verb? "Would you like to Fika?" Is that true?

    ReplyDelete
  2. WOW - I'm going to have to go have a cookie, coffee, chocolate, and a cinnamon roll. I think J&S is kind of like a Fika House. Great story, good pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is a great tradition and a great way to spend more time with family and friends. Is Fika something you do every evening or just on special occasions? You mentioned substituting soda for coffee. Can you substitute tea for coffee as well?

    Love,
    Dad

    ReplyDelete
  4. To answer Gran: Yes, you can use Fika as a verb, who taught you that?! :) Are you secretly hanging out with Swedish people. You can also say "would you like to take a Fika?"

    To answer dad: We have Fika mainly when we are with Fredriks family, and we do it everytime we eat together. So we have breakfast, then a Fika sometime in the afternoon, dinner (usually around 5) and then another Fika. And yes, you can substitute tea for coffee, but in all honesty, I've never seen a Swede drink tea! They love love love their coffee!

    Thanks for the questions, it's fun to answer!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, I have met some Swedes! Actually a couple opened a coffee shop about 30 minutes from us. The woman is from Sweden. Their shop is called Fika. So I looked it up in the Urban Dictionary.
    We don't go there very often because it isn't handy, but I wish someone would open a coffee shop near us. Something like a J & S Fika Shop!!

    Thanks for all the info and fun photos!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love, love, love all this talk about J&S on Central European Time! I equally love the idea of sitting down to a feast of treats multiple times a day. I could pick up that tradition real quick.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, let's all do that sometime!
    I feel like I am a Swedish Adventure Groupie!

    I don't know if I can eat those candies, though.
    But Coffee and pastries and interesting people talking about Ashley's year in Sweden; now there's the ticket for me!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm a Swede who loves fika so much I've googled for it (sometimes that's how people find my blog :) and ended up on this post. Hilarious! I feel very excentric now. Or actually, erm, perfectly normal! Fika on!

    ReplyDelete