Swedish Food

There are three meals per day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. In all schools including high school, a hot meal is served at lunch as part of Sweden's welfare state. Among workers, lunch is often not so heavy, and may be a baguette or a salad. At evening, the dinner is usually a hot meal.

At the table, Swedes usually serve themselves unless it is unpractical. It is therefore considered "good manners" to finish off what one has served oneself. Another reason to this is the fact Swedes normally don't want to waste money, so the food served should be eaten and not wasted.

There are long traditions of hunting and fishing in Sweden, depending on the distance to the coast or forests. Hunters mainly focus on deer and moose, which make natural additions to the Swedish cuisine.

To add some vitamins and make the rather heavy food more enjoyable a traditional jam is made from Cowberry (lingonberries) and served with meat. A more exclusive but still common jam is the cloudberry jam, which is one of the traditional foods served at the annual Nobel Prize dinner.

Breakfast usually consists of Sandwiches, possibly Crisp bread (Knäckebröd). On the sandwich is cheese or slices of meat. Swedes usually do not have sweets on their breads such as jam (as the French), peanut butter (as the Americans) or chocolate (as the Danes). However, the Swedish bread is usually sweetened in itself, baked with syrup.

Yogurt or filmjölk (fermented milk) is also common. Served in a bowl with cereals such as corn flakes or muesli, sometimes with sugar, fruit or jam.

A third food that is commonly eaten at breakfast is the porridge (gröt). Often made of rolled oats, and eaten with milk and fruits or jam, especially the sort made of lingonberries.

Drinks are Milk, juice or coffee. Swedes are among the heaviest coffee drinkers in the world. Some also prefer tea.