Stockholm, weeks 7 & 8

May 29-June 17, 2016

My last two weeks in Stockholm were light on the blog-worthy eating - I enjoyed return visits to Maxos and Greasy Spoon, but didn't hit up too many new places. I managed to take a quick lunchtime jaunt down to Hornstull to visit Seyhmus, a veggie buffet place recommended to me by Jess. It's really only open for lunchtime (or a very early dinner), but it's definitely worth the trip.

110kr ($18) buys you access to a very impressive array of hot dishes and salads. The  hot dishes included a fantastic spinach curry, a couple of different beany stews, some falafel balls and a delicious spinach and cheese pastry, while the selection of salads, dips and breads was just out of control (the chilli marinated mushrooms were probably my highlight). Herman's has a better view, but this place wins the battle of the buffets hands down.

My other blog-worthy meals were at Reggev Hummus, a teeny little restaurant right by my apartment that serves exclusively hummus-based meals. It was recommended to me by a few people and, while the idea of a hummus restaurant initially struck me as odd, it fast became a favourite option on nights that I was feeling lazy.

The concept is pretty simple - you get a couple of bits of bread, some pickles and a bowl filled with hummus plus some toppings. I had the hazilim (grilled eggplant, tomato and paprika, 95kr/$15.30), the foul (fava beans with tahini and egg, 85kr/$13.70) and the baz-veg (tomato and paprika sauce, with egg and tahini, 95kr/$15.30). They were all excellent, with the hummus a perfect vessel for the simple, tasty topping ingredients. The bread fell a bit short of the excellence you might get at somewhere like Mankoushe, but I still went back again and again when I was after a speedy takeaway meal on a lazy work night.

I had a wonderful couple of months in Stockholm - the availability of vego food is much higher than it was on my previous trip in 2009 and, even if nothing quite lives up to Smith & Daughters or Wide Open Road, I really enjoyed checking everything out. Besides, it's a gloriously beautiful city in spring and summer time - I can't wait to go back.

Stockholm, weeks 5 & 6

May 15-28, 2016

Between our joint trip to Helsinki and Cindy's sneaky side-trip to Denmark, the last couple of weeks of May didn't turn out to be massively exciting food-wise in Stockholm (at least until the 28th!). Cindy made sure she got to sample Sweden's own mock-meat invention, Oumph! (pictured below). It's a soy-based product with a pretty impressive range - we had the thyme and garlic version, stir-fried to serve alongside a quinoa salad. It's a decent attempt - a chicken-y texture and some nice flavours make this a rare mock-meat you can eat without added sauce. Good job Sweden.

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We tried to drop in to Herman's to show Cindy the view one Friday night, but the line was too long and we gave up. With Cindy's time in Stockholm fast running out, we wound up heading back on one of the few non-sunny evenings we've had here lately, which slightly dampens the experience.

The buffet (120kr/$20.05 per person) remains a solid dinner option in any weather, with quite a few variations from my earlier visit. The fresh bread and associated bean and avocado dips were probably my highlight, but there was plenty to enjoy.

Cindy convinced me that we should sample from the dessert cabinet, which has a very attractive array of options. She settled on the apple pie (50kr/$8.35) which was an excellent choice, having buttery pastry and an excellent filling. Her huge, cream-topped hot chocolate was vegan too! The quality felt like a step up from the buffet-style savoury dishes, so it might be wise to ease off a bit on the savoury plates (if you can restrain yourself) and leave room for some sweets.

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Next up came the festival of Michael, starting with my birthday dinner at home on Friday night, and continuing with brunch at Louie Louie in our neighbourhood. The brunch menu kicks off at 11am, and things were pretty quiet when we arrived bang on time (it got busier by the time we finished at around midday).

The basic brunch plate is on the left below: sausage, scrambled eggs, chickpea salad, a parmesan and chilli scone, sun-dried tomato mayonaisse, roasted pumpkin, fig jam, a mango-orange smoothie and unlimited coffee refills, all for 150kr ($25). We decided to split a side of the waffles with berries and cream (30kr/$5 extra). It's a massive meal, working a very brown/yellow colour palette. I was really impressed by the 'chorizo', and enjoyed all the trimmings that came along with them. The waffle was mercifully thin and added the appropriately celebratory touch to start my birthday right.

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We spent the day wandering around the city and then taking a nap to prepare for our late dinner at Fotografiska, a photography museum with a fancy restaurant overlooking the water. We strolled through the exhibitions and still had time to squeeze in a drink in the neighbouring bar.

The big windows really show off the restaurant's incredible view - we were lucky enough to get shuffled to a window seat early in our meal meaning we spent most of the time gawping out the window as the sun slowly went down (see also the pic at the top of the post).

The restaurant has a real buzz (at least on a Saturday  night), and almost all of the tables were full when we turned up at 8:45. The exposed beams and open kitchen are typically on trend, but it's really all about the windows and the view.

I ordered the cocktail of the day, a carrot and citrus based drink with gin and some other kind of booze involved (142kr/$23.70). It came out alongside some wonderful rye bread, served with pickled Swedish turnip, onion mayo and butter. I happily accepted a second round when they offered.

The menu proper has a strong vegetable focus, with four cold and four hot dishes, all with vegetables as their main component, but some with non-vego add-ons (all can be done vegetarian). The staff suggested four dishes each (they're 125kr/$20.90 each), so we ordered 6 of the 8 possible dishes and saved room for dessert.

The first four were: asparagus with fennel hollandaise and tarragon (above left), potatoes in browned butter with cold smoked sour cream and tapioca (replacing the roe, above right), spring weeds with a herb marinated egg and a light broth (below left), and ramson pasta with fennel (below right). All four were fantastic - I think the asparagus and the potato were the stars of the first round, but there were no weak links.

The final two savouries were salt-baked beetroot with a smoky potato puree (below left) and a baked yellow onion with mushrooms, Jerusalem artichoke and truffle (below right). These two took things to even higher levels - managing somehow to be surprising and comforting at the same time.

We had to see whether the desserts (again 125kr/$20.90 each) could possibly measure up to the savouries, splitting a Jerusalem artichoke pizza with caramel and elderflower...

... and a serve of the birch ice-cream, with sorrel ice, meringue and liqourice.

Again, these were inventive and delicious - the kitchen at Fotografiska churns out some brilliantly thoughtful creations. 

We had friendly and efficient service - there was a screw up with my coffee, which they promptly rectified and then didn't charge for - and the setting is to die for, but the food managed to outdo them both. It's not obvious how well they'd manage vegan food, although the website is very clear that they're happy to cater for any requirements given enough notice, so it would be well worth a try. The food we had was so vegetable-focussed and creative, that it seems likely they'd come up with something worthwhile. I'm really glad we chose Fotografiska for our one properly fancy meal in Stockholm - it's a total winner.

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This was our last meal together before Cindy set off home to Melbourne. I might make one more round-up of Stockholm eats before I, too, head home.

Stockholm, weeks 3 & 4

May 1-14, 2016

Weeks 3 and 4 of my Stockholm trip were split by Cindy's arrival and our long weekend in Basel. Before we met up I ate my way through a big pile of leftover Singapore noodles and squeezed in a couple of quick outings.

I worked at home on Wednesday and wandered the neighbourhood in search of lunch, settling on Bengali street food at Gossip. It's run by the same people who run Shanti (see below) and was buzzing at 12:30 on a sunny Wednesday. I nabbed a seat in the window and ordered the Monsoon rain sabji from the lunch menu - it's a combination of veggies (carrot, zucchini, sweet peas, pumpkin), lentils, papaya and a mildly spicy sauce, served with salad, rice and a fried egg. The standard lunch also includes a mango lassi and at 90 krona ($15), it's pretty decent value.

That evening I met up with some work friends for a speedy bird photography outing to Djurgården and we continued on afterwards for dinner together at Calexico's in Hornstull. It offers the kind of trendy Mexican food that Melbourne's been pumping out for the last five years in a bright, airy space down by the water.

My chimichangas with sweet potatoes, black beans, grilled veggies and a mild salsa verde (178kr, $29.50) were an excellent vegan option, and the atmosphere and company made for a lovely outing. 

My last meal before heading to Basel was a return visit for lunch at Chutney - Cindy followed suit soon after we arrived back in Stockholm, breaking up one of her days working from the apartment.

I'd eyed off the veggie burger (120kr, $20) on my previous visit and really enjoyed it on this visit - the patty is 'meaty' and rich, and the burger is a delicious mess of sauces and salads. The side spuds were fantastic as well - it's a hearty lunch though, so make sure you're hungry. On Cindy's trip she ordered from the set lunch options - for 98kr ($16.30) you get your choice of one of three main dishes, plus salad and bread. She ordered the tikka masala, a creamy dish of beans and veggies on some A-grade fluffy rice. Chutney isn't going to blow too many minds food-wise, but it's a reliable lunch place in a very convenient location.

We came back from Basel on a Sunday night and lacked the energy to shop and cook something for dinner. Luckily, Shanti is just down the street - it came recommended by a colleague at work and my successful lunch at Gossip (above) meant I had high hopes.

The menu is impressively varied - we could easily come back two or three more times to try all the dishes on our wish lists. We started out with a serve of the palak paneer pakoras (80kr, $13.30), an innovative attempt at combining two of my favourite Indian dishes. It worked brilliantly too - these crisp little balls are probably the best way to enjoy palak paneer. Cindy ordered the nawabi kofta, fried veggie balls flavoured with ginger, garlic, chilli and coriander, served in a creamy korma sauce. I managed to sneak a taste, and was impressed by the fresh veggie chunks evident in the kofta balls.

My main was the sak sabji dal - a similar dish to the great lunch I had at Gossip, with papaya, lentils, spinach, potato and coriander in a spicy curry sauce. It was superb, although the pick of all the dishes was probably the standard dal that came with both mains - a simple but perfectly spiced lentil curry. Shanti is a step above most Indian places we've been to - the veggies feel fresher and more central to the dishes - it's easy to see why they've built a little empire in Stockholm.

Tuesday night we took advantage of the late hours at Moderna Museet for a quick wander through their collection, before stopping for a pizza on the way home. Denniso Pizzeria is recommended on Happy Cow for its separate vegan menu, so we decided it was worth a visit.

There are five vegan options, with three relying on mock-meats and a couple of more vegetable-focussed offerings. We split the difference, with a funghi (mushrooms, red onion, vegan cheese, 100kr/$16.50) and a kebab (seitan kebab meat, onion, tomato, iceberg lettuce, pepperoni and garlic sauce, 120kr/$20).

These were decent vegan efforts - nice thin bases, a bio-cheese style cheesiness and a decent array of toppings. The recreation of a classic kebab in vegan pizza form was particularly impressive - the garlic sauce and chilli peppers gave this a very authentic kebab vibe.

The final blog-worth meal of the fortnight was all Cindy's - a solo lunch at SoderManna, another nearby casual vego place.

The menu offers a standard range of burgers, wraps and salads, mixing up mock-meat, haloumi and falafel as the main ingredients. Cindy ordered the veggie burger, with a side of potato wedges and salad (59kr/$10).

The thick potato wedges and garlicky dip were the best parts of the plate, with the burger a decent 'meaty' patty generously slathered in tomato sauce. Sodermanna isn't sophisticated or fancy, but it's super cheap and you won't leave hungry.

We skipped out on Stockholm after this meal for a long weekend in Helsinki - stay tuned for a quick tour through the veggie restaurants of Finland (and Estonia!).

Stockholm, week 2

April 23-30, 2016

Week 2 in Stockholm involved a little less eating out - I cooked up a few old favourites in the kitchen at home, but still found time to get out and about a bit.

I took advantage of a gloriously sunny afternoon on Tuesday to revisit Herman's - a classic stop on any veggie tour of Stockholm. The key attraction is the beautiful view over the harbour, but the 120kr ($19.70) buffet is excellent value as well. I had two full plates of deliciousness, including a couple of different curries, some pizza slices, lasagne, salads, veggie sand some weird little sweet mock-meat cubes. There's nothing fancy about the Herman's dining experience, but there's a huge range of food and the prices are very reasonable (at least when you approach with the two-plate enthusiasm that I did).

Wednesday I had a gap between work and netball, so I dropped by Lao Wai to see if it was still as excellent as I remembered it. It's definitely still as popular - even turning by myself at 5:30 I was almost turned away. I luckily snagged a table and ordered a serve of the Jia Chang Dou Fu (220kr/$36.10). This is a spicy Sichuan dish with smoked tofu, taro, shiitake mushrooms, veggies and fermented black beans. It's a huge serve of food, and quite pricey, so you'd be better off taking a bunch of people and sharing things around. It's an excellent dish though - spicy and rich, with loads of interesting textures. Lao Wai is one of the few all-vegan places in town too, so it's definitely worth a look.

I had another quick dinner later in the week at FLFL, an all vegetarian Middle Eastern joint near my apartment. It's popular and dim, so the photos aren't much chop, but the food was great - this is the FLFL 'Meatballz Surprise' (145kr/$23.80). It's a veritable feast - two little bread pockets stuffed with meatball-textured falafels, slathered in a spicy tomato sauce, a half eggplant with salad and tahini, your choice of salads and a big bowl of hummus.

When the weekend rolled around, I decided to head out into Sodermalm in search of brunch. It's Stockholm's hipster neighbourhood, and Greasy Spoon would fit right in to Brunswick or Fitzroy - there was a queue out the door at 9:00, and the menu was stuffed full of smashed avo and fancy pancakes. I ordered the full veggie (155kr/$25.40), a massive plate of sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs, beans, toast and a house-made rosti.

Added bonus: the flat whites are great, I'll definitely be back.

Once brekkie had settled, I kept up my hipster-heavy Saturday and wandered down to the food truck market on the Hornstull strand. There are a couple of entirely vegan trucks, and most of the omni ones have good options, so it's a great place to head for lunch.

I went to Vegan Soul Train and sampled the Pamela Anderson burger - a fish patty with a chilli and lime sauce, some salad and some veggie caviar (80kr/$13.10). It was messy, delicious junk food, made all the better by the burst of sunshine and relative warmth that accompanied it.

I'm really enjoying my time here so far - the city is beautiful and veggie food is plentiful. Plus there are tons of wonderful birds to track down - this green woodpecker is the trip highlight so far. 

Stay tuned for weeks 3 and 4 - the food posts might get a bit more expansive once Cindy arrives!

Stockholm, week 1

April 16-22, 2016

I'm spending a couple of months in Stockholm for work - a good excuse to add another country to our restaurant review map. Most of my meals out so far have been lunches, with work colleagues picking out some highlights around the centre of town and me doing a bit of weekend exploring further afield. The food scene seems very veg-friendly - everywhere I've gone has had prominent vego/vegan options, and there are a decent number of totally vegetarian places.

I had my first meal of the trip at Hermitage (Stora Nygatan 11, Gamla Stan), a vego restaurant that Cindy and I visited way back in 2006. Its buffet-style lunch of old-fashioned vego food powered me up for a big day of walking, with a mock-meat and chickpea stew, a big chunk of vegetarian lasagne, potato salad, bread, rice and some hummus. For 120kr (~$20) with a coffee, this is pretty decent value for money as far as Stockholm lunches go. I went back for seconds to make sure I really got my money's worth.

On Sunday I met up with a friend for lunch at the nearby Chutney (Katarina Bangata, Södermalm) a place I visited on my last trip. They do a 98kr lunch set, with a choice of four dishes plus salads, bread and coffee.

My nasi goreng was excellent, with a rich peanutty sauce accompanying it and a few tasty chunks of mock meat to mix up the texture. This is right around the corner from where I'm staying, so it's going to get some more visits.

I started work on Monday and quickly fell into a lunch routine with colleagues - they go out every day and have a strong selection of local options. First up was Maxos (Scheelegatan 13, Kungsholmen), probably my favourite place so far - it's basically a felafel bar, but the vibe is a bit nicer than that implies and the food they serve up is brilliant. I had the combo (95kr), which is the best way to sample all the great salads and sides on offer with the felafel.

After work on Wednesday I went for a birding walk in a nature reserve near where I'm staying, turning up some decent birds and stunning natural scenery. I stumbled out of the forest starving and stumbled straight into Max, a burger chain (I went to the one at Lugnets Alle 22, Hammarbyhöjden), to see if they could feed me.

Amazingly, there were tons of options, with the highlight being the vegan bbq sandwich (based on Oumph!, a Swedish mock-meat). For 75kr (~$12) I got an excellent burger, some so-so fries and a coke. There's nothing fancy about this place, but it's super convenient and impressively veg-friendly.

Another lunch highlight was Minh Mat (Odengatan 94, Vasaparken) a popular Vietnamese joint. They do a limited lunch menu of three dishes per day, with at least one vegan option. Thursday is banh xeo day, and the vego version didn't disappoint - chunks of tofu and fragrant salad in a crispy-fried rice batter pancake shell. 

The final meal of my first week was at the nearby Ringen shopping centre, in the recently opened upmarket food court. There are street food stalls from lots of famous restauranteurs, including The Plant (inside Ringen, Götgatan 132, Södermalm), supposedly Sweden's first vegan fast-food place. I tried the Hammer Burger, with a pulled-mushroom based pattie, chilli mayo, pickles, and a side of mini boiled potatoes with impossibly creamy mayo (115kr [~$18] or 145kr [~$23] with a beer). This was really impressive - it's another option very close to my apartment, so it's sure to feature again in the coming weeks.

I'm really enjoying exploring Stockholm - there's tons of good veggie food and the city itself is stunningly beautiful (especially when the sun comes out). I'll post semi-regular food round-ups here, but anyone interested in more of the scenery/bird life should head on over to my instagram page.

January 26 - February 6, 2009: Stockholm

The second half of my Stockholm trip found me finally figuring out a reasonable sleeping pattern and spending a lot more time on work stuff, but there was still a bit of time for eating and exploring.

Days 9 and 10
The week started with me chock-full of work-related enthusiasm, leaving little time for excitement. The one highlight was a post-work wander to Kokyo, a veg-friendly Japanese restaurant that Cindy and I enjoyed on our first trip to Sweden. The vegetarian section of the menu is massive, with all kinds of stir-frys, curries and other Japanese delicacies. I started out with some of the best gyoza I've ever eaten - crispy on the outside and filled with lucsious mushrooms, vegies and some sort of soy protein.


The follow-up: a Kokyo special vegie stew, with three kinds of tofu (fried, steamed and weird tofu-based meatballs), shiitake mushrooms and other vegies in a slightly sweet sauce.



Day 10
Having put in two good days of work and with a vaguely promising weather forecast, I decided to use the middle of Wednesday as a chance to go wandering, starting with a walk around Brunnsvikken to the Natural History Museum. Unfortunately I left the camera's memory card in the computer, so there are no beautiful lake shots from the walk. The museum has a wonderful Swedish wildlife section, with dozens and dozens of expertly taxidermied bird and animal species (which is kind of sad, but also very impressive - at least some of the specimens died natural deaths and were then restored by the museum) with loads of information in English.

After another quick spell of work, I decided to make it a museum-tastic day and headed in to Djurgarden to visit the Nordic Museum, which is focussed on the cultural history of Sweden - lots of stuff about food, design, traditions and general life from about 1600 through to the present day. It's a massive, beautiful hall, and the free audio-guide was a nice way to check out the highlights. By the time I'd had my fill, it was getting towards 6 and I was ready to chase down some dinner. Lao Wei was on the route home, so I swung by to try to nab an early table - I ended up sharing with some other non-bookers (and kind of spoiling their romantic birthday dinner I'm guessing) and dived into a Qing Hui Bai Yie. This is "a delicate dish prepared with bai yie (a tender beancurd product), fresh shiitake, golden needle mushrooms, gingko nuts, pak soi, and wolfberries)" - it was glorious. Lao Wei was easily the best vegetarian place I found in Stockholm - if it wasn't so hard to get a table I would have visited many more times.



Day 11
Another day in which all the hours of light were spent inside. For dinner I decided to make use of the kitchen facilities and have my first shot at cooking Quorn. Quorn is a fungus-based mock-meat and isn't available in Australia (and, disappointingly, is non-vegan).


It's not too dissimilar from soy-based mock-meats but has a slightly moister texture. It doesn't have a particularly strong flavour of its own, but soaked up my impromptu thai red-curry sauce pretty effectively.


Day 12
Another regular working day, followed by a big party for one of the PhD students in the office who successfully defended her thesis in the morning. The vego food was quite good without being particularly exciting, and I was too shy to take food photos.

Day 13
Saturday saw the visit of my old friend Melissa, whose been living in Switzerland for a few years now. We started a long-weekend of sightseeing with a quick wander through Gamla Stan and a visit to the Nobel Museum.




The evening started at the KGB Bar, a friendly pub-like venue, with a range of interesting beers. It's probably best not to think about money when you go out in Stockholm - we had three beers each and spent somewhere in the vicinity of $75. By the time we decided to eat, it was getting late, so we had to aim for somewhere nearby, meaning it was time for a return trip to Kokyo. This time I decided to go for the tempura, which was crispy and delicious.



Day 14
The main plan for Sunday was a boat cruise through the inner-archipelago. Once we'd sorted out tickets we had a quick wander around Östermalm.

It's one of the ritzier suburbs in the city, but felt strangely desserted on a Sunday morning. Still, we found Baresso, which churns out high-quality coffee.

The boat cruise started out in an icy Nybrogatan - we were wondering how the boat was going to get out into open water, but the ice turned out to be only a few centimetres thick, and the hull made short work of it. The trip winds slowly out through the Stockholm harbour to some of the innermost islands of the huge archipelago, before a brief stop at Vaxholm and then a return trip. It was a pleasant jaunt, but we probably should have just taken one of the ferries so we could have got off and had an explore around Vaxholm. Still, it was easy to see why locals rave about the islands - although the ice has a certain charm, it would be even easier to appreciate them in summertime.






We had enough time after the cruise for a quick stroll through the impressive Moderna Museet, which featured some very strange video art from Tabaimo, along with the more standard Picassos, Matisses and Duchamps.

For dinner we hit the buffet at Örtagården, Sweden's oldest vegetarian restaurant. At least, it was - it's now got a couple of meaty dishes tucked away at the back of the buffet. I can't really imagine that the change will win them any new customers but I could be wrong. The vego food that was there was quite tasty - especially the little balls of beetroot-based goodness. I probably enjoyed Herman's more this trip, if only because of the nicer setting. A note about the dessert: the things right next to the tasty rhubarb crumble that look like custard and berry sauce are actually cheese mush and beetroot soup - the custard lives much further away from the dessert tray. Weird.




Day 15
I couldn't let Melissa visit Stockholm without spending some time at one of my favourite museums - the Vasamuseet. The centrepiece of the museum is the stunning 17th Century warship, the Vasa, salvaged from Stockholm harbour where it sank twenty minutes into its maiden voyage in 1628. The ship was remarkably well-preserved in the Baltic Sea and is stunningly presented - it really has to be seen to be believed.



By the time we'd exhausted the museum's offerings, we were both ready for some lunch, so we headed up to the nearby Östermalms Saluhall. It's a beautiful old market hall built in 1888, which is stuffed full of wonderfull food stalls - fresh produce abounds, along with all kinds of deli goodness and a handful of cafes.



After a quick coffee, we did a quick lap and settled on a cute little sandwich store for lunch. I went for this delight:


Blue cheese, figs, quince paste, walnuts and greens, all on a moist chunk of fruit-bread. Amazing.

Then it was time to browse the stalls - particularly the amazing range of cheeses on offer. I couldn't resist a couple of quick purchases and, after a chat to one of the market holders, went home with a chunk of the quintessential Swedish cheese, Västerbotten cheese and a small wheel of goats cheese.


Once we'd fully explored the markets we had a bit more time before Melissa had to head out to the airport, so we wandered back to Baresso to sample one of Sweden's favourite sweets, a semla. These creamy treats first appear just after Christmas each year and take over every cafe in Sweden until easter, when they disappear again. They're lightly spiced buns, scooped out and then stuffed with cream, almond paste and breadcrumbs. It was a bit too much for me in the end - maybe we should have split one between the two of us.



Days 16 to 18
Once Melissa headed back to Switzerland, the rest of the trip was pretty much work-focussed, with just leftover quorn curry for dinners. Not too exciting. The highlight was a gorgeous sunny day on Tuesday, which prompted a stroll up to the main campus across the frozen Brunnsvikken. Aside from a few disconcerting noises from the ice as four of us walked a little too close together, it was a fun stroll.



And that was that really - it all kind of petered out a bit with a work-focus for the last few days. A final highlight: the courtyard in the middle of the Wenner-Gren Centre where I was staying was populated by some very hardy and very cute little black rabbits. They were also very cautious, so it was hard to get a good picture.