It's documented that the city started around the 11th century as a Viking town on the south east coast of Sweden. It's location on the water between the Baltic Sea and Lake Malaren made it ideal for trading, exploring, and even going to battle. It became a real European power in the 17th century when the city became the official capitol of the Swedish empire and the population began to increase significantly. Trading laws were made that allowed Stockholm to have a monopoly on trading between foreign merchants, Sweden, and even other Scandinavian countries. Stockholm went through a modernism era in the late 1900s with the knocking down of many old historic buildings and the development of the modern, technologically advanced city that you see today.
What many people don't know is that the central part of Stockholm consists of 14 islands and 30% of the city is made up of waterways and another 30% is made up of parks and forests. Something else that's interesting is that at this time of year the sun sets at 10:30pm and rises at 3:30am, and even when the sun is down it's not completely dark; it looks more like dusk.
Breakfast buffet at the Copenhagen Airport was huge in helping us get over our last night in Copenhagen
Welcome to Sweden
What's the best way to be welcomed to Sweden? With a giant Bjorn Borg photo of course.
Our home for the next four days, Hotel Clarion Sign which includes a lobby restaurant called American Table by one of Sweden's most notable chefs Marcus Samuelsson
What to do, what to do...
First stop, Swedish meatballs! We hit Riche, a spot known for it's tasty meatballs.
Getting it started in Stockholm
Swedish meatballs are served in a delicious sauce almost like a dark creamy gravy...really good
What we learned is that you eat the meatballs with sweet cucumbers, mashed potatoes and a lingonberry sauce (like a sweeter cranberry sauce)...it was phenomenal!
After Riche we jumped over to Escalier, an upbeat outdoor cocktail lounge where a lot of locals come after work
Making friends. We actually randomly ran into a girl Matt knew from NY named Lisa (second from the right) at Escalier. She was there with a few friends having drinks as well. Small world.
We ventured off to dinner with Lisa and our new friends to a well known Asian-Scandinavian place called Miss Voon. The place is from one of the largest restaurant groups in Stockholm that has different concept restaurants around the city.
Miss Voon is Asian tapas style and we started with the hardshell lobster tacos
Oxtail dumplings in a beef broth were amazing
We also opted for the sashimi platter that was a chef's choice of fish and meat including salmon, tuna, yellowtail, beef and reindeer
Dessert...fried bananas with a mango dipping sauce and vanilla ice cream
Our bellies were stuffed so we called it a wrap after dinner
Day one in Stockholm was food-filled, just the way we planned. Fortunately we will be walking a bunch during our stay so we'll work it off. Thursday we plan to check out Old Town and then head out to dinner and possibly a club.
No comments:
Post a Comment