Food | Skagen

At a restaurant in Gamla Stan, Stockholm. ©MAK

Serendipity is an interesting thing. Before boarding the plane, I perused the magazine stand and grabbed one that I seem to acquire only at an outset of a trip. This time (June), I was on the way to Stockholm. Lo and behold, the front page of Condé Nast Traveler July issue boasted “SWEDEN Europe’s Foodie Sensation (17 spectacular restaurants)”. How’s that for coincidences?! This was a lead for a more aptly titled article, “The Girl with the Crayfish Tattoo: A Tour of Sweden's Rising Culinary Scene.” So here it was. The promise of, what some see as predictable food, but for me, clean palate. And I was up for the titular crayfish, aside from craving the denser bread. In comes Skagen. Crayfish on toast. Named after a Danish fishing port, it is “an elegant combination of shrimp and other ingredients on a small piece of sautéd bread … in Sweden toast Skagen is an appetizer that means “party.” ” As I found out, understandably, the recipe and the presentation come in many culinary permutations, and the appetizer can become a dish of its own: dill flavored sauce on the side, lettuce and asparagus, plus boiled egg (see photo). As Jamie Oliver asserts, it is an equivalent of English prawn cocktail sans ketchup mais avec, the ever important to its taste, dill. Easy, clean, and tasty. Låt oss äta!