Mummy can I have some more reindeer meat?

There are some phrases you never imagine your children will use. "Can I have some more reindeer meat?' is certainly one of them. Which is interesting because that is exactly what Youngest said to me the other day.

 When you've schlepped along to the blue and yellow temple and emptied the contents of your purse into the Ikea tills the least it can do in return is inspire a Travelling Tuesday! And though there is an element of guilt in the recent marked increase in usage of pre-packaged TT fare, at which Ikea excels, I do have to keep reminding myself this is supposed to be a) fun b) kiddie friendly and c) do-able.

I did wonder out loud to the wonderful Annabelle, who joined us for the food, whether or not there was anything remotely authentic about the food you can buy at Ikea. But she reassuringly said that our Swedish friend told her that Ikea food isn't that far off the sort of food you get canteens up and down the country. So, authentic take-away/rubbish food then. Hooray!

THE FOOD
I sneakily began the introduction to Swedish fare in the car on the way home. Nothing like keeping two boys out shopping well past lunchtime to make them pretty much hungry enough to eat anything. And before they knew it they'd nearly finished the packet of dried elk meat sausages that I handed them (Vilt snacks).

The drinks went down a storm - the blueberry drink made lovely purple moustaches and the rhurbarb cordial (Saft Rabarber) is such a fantastic shade of pink that it seems to hardly matter that you can't really taste the rhubarb at all! And the grown ups seemed to manage their apple cider without any complaints.

But the starter didn't exactly have everyone salivating. There is a strong Danish gene pool running through our kids but we have been remiss at training them in the liking of pickled fish or rye bread. Two staples which the Swedes seem to have a penchant for too. Annabelle had even got the kids to make the rye bread (along with picking them up from school, getting them snacks, keeping an eye on her wee babby, making interesting conversation and generally being amazing) but that didn't seem to encourage them to try it even.


The Lovely Josie, who joined us too, was polite and adventurous, declaring 'I am not keen on fish' but getting on with it anyway. But apart from asking for some more reindeer slices my two boys and Mr Els got 'nil points' for their starter!

Starter
Rye bread with a variety of toppings: pickled herring (Sill Dill); salmon (Lax Najad) and sliced, smoked reindeer meat. For the first time in our whole married life there didn't seem to be a half eaten pot of 'rost aloi' (dried onions) or squashed tube of remoulade in our fridge. But we coped without them and downed our sorrows with Aalborg Aquavit (schnaps made with potato).  

Main
Meatballs, 'natch. It always takes me by surprise how tiny the Ikea ones are. Apparently that's common in Sweden. They make them with a combination of pork and beef and I was horrified to see that Skandikitchen says that the Danes tend to use a mix of pork and veal. Ewugh. I bought ready made rosti too. How much of a cheat is that?! Chucked in a few green beans and it was about the easiest Travelling Tuesday to date. The resident veggie got a couple of rosti with some melted ost (cheese) inbetween them.

Pudding
Also grabbed off a shelf in haste, but with enough chocolate to appeal to children, I actually forgot to get them out straight away as there was a lot of coming and going of people. Shame really because they were really not a big hit - overly sweet, pappy, full of fluff and without a grain of 'real' chocolate in sight - and we could have done with having some more people to share them amongst! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised with names like 'Sotsak Skumtopp' and 'Sotsak Kakaboll'. Ewugh.

THE REACTION

The very nice thing about doing Travelling Tuesdays with friends in tow is that there are generally less complaints from the children department. They don't complain about being so hungry so much. They don't complain about the food presented to them so much. This maybe due to the good influence of the Lovely J, but I think they are just generally chatting more and more easily distracted. It's also nice for our kids to have some others to rope into the whole 'making Swedish flags' shennanigans.

THE VERDICT
Mr M: I hated the starter but loved the potato pancake and I like the meat balls with ketchup.
The Lovely J: if you put it (the herring) on the bread with the cheese and meat you can hardly taste it.
Mr K: Guys guys look - I love these (the kakabolls!). They have coconut and mashed up biscuits inside and when we made them at school we made little ones. (Now there's a thing he didn't tell me about school one day. I do wonder what else they get up to!!).

As we were heading out of the door of Ikea, having already paid for our food shopping and balanced not one, not two, but three trolleys between me and the 2 boys, I noticed that they had 'crayfish' decorations. Not one who easily misses clues to a festival I was sorely tempted. But the crayfish themselves were not to be seen in the immediate vicinity and I didn't rate my chances at suggesting we might go hunting for them. Shame in a way - it seems like crayfish parties are big in Sweden in August and September. Hey ho. Maybe we'll do a crayfish party next year. Ikea sponsored, or not.