Dagens Lunch

Just wanted to tip my hat to what I consider to be the best niche of the Swedish food culture. You hear a lot of talk here about fika, and one can't argue its importance as it's practically the backbone of Swedish social life. Fika is a beautiful thing and I wouldn't want to take anything away from it, but I think the whole phenomenon of the "lunch of the day" deserves a little more praise. Go to almost any restaurant here and they will feature a great, full-course meal for their lunch special, usually with a couple of choices. Many times it's an all-you-can-eat buffet. And I don't mean a crappy chinese food or KFC buffet. For an average price of about 75 kronor (around 10 bucks) you'll get a real meal with a pair of meat choices, potoatos or pasta, salad, bread, a drink, coffee and dessert. I hit the jackpot the other day at a local establishment that was serving porkchops AND meatballs with mashed potatos and a dream of a sauce. The time before that it was ribs and chicken. So skål to dagens lunch. If you visit Sweden be sure to take advantage of it, it's the next best thing to your moms homecooking and it sure beats the heck out of a burger and fries.