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Liam Hetherington
Liam Hetherington
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30) Ikea - Pre-Packed Lunch

30) Ikea - Pre-Packed Lunch

Sweden – 25/05/09

It is almost a tradition that on the spring bank holidays the entire population of the UK decamps to Ikea to pick up material for their home improvements. Well, who were Paul and I to buck the trend…?

Ikea is of course the Swedish home-furnishing chain colossus. And their megastore in a retail park in Ashton, Tameside, is like a colossus too, a massive box in the blue and yellow colours of the company… or of its Swedish homeland. And it was the Swedish connection that had brought us there, to see precisely what was on offer at their in-store restaurant. And pick up a toilet-roll holder. But mostly to visit the restaurant.

Located on the second floor, the restaurant is actually one of the few places that it is easy to reach without wandering through the labyrinth of beds, dining tables, office workspaces and couches. It is a self-service cafeteria. While there were signs showing their Swedish specialities it looked like the bank holiday crowds had already almost exhausted their supplies by the late afternoon when we arrived. So no gravalax, and no Daim cake.

What they did have though was the famous Swedish meatballs. Ikea reckon they sell around 3.3m portions of these beauties every year. So I ordered up a regular serving for £4.25. This gave me 15 pork and beef meatballs, served with boiled potatoes and gravy. A dollop of lingonberry sauce came on the side to perk up the dish. It was a relatively unsophisticated dish, but hearty, with proper meaty meatballs. The lingonberry sauce was an odd touch to a British palate, where sweet fruit generally doesn’t get mixed in with traditional roasts. I suppose the exception would be in the case of cranberry sauce at Christmas, and the red lingonberries here tasted quite significantly like cranberries (indeed, I have since discovered that the two berries are related).

Berries formed part of my dessert too – a strawberry tart for £1.55. There were other more traditional Swedish cakes for sale, but all of them were very strangely coloured due to the presence of garish marzipan. ‘Princess Cake’ was an odd grass green colour, and ‘Punch Rolls’ were an coloured the blue and yellow of the Swedish flag. Frankly the unnatural colours would have been enough to put me off even if I didn’t dislike marzipan.

For a Swedish drink I tragically had to resort to beer! Spendrups Old Gold was a pale sweetish lager, at a very reasonable price – a bottle cost only £1.75.

Paul had enjoyed an organic vegetable soup before his meatballs. He had paid for a hot drink, which was a cup he could take back for further free refills.

We weren’t quite finished with Ikea’s Swedish food however. On the ground floor they have a shop selling Swedish specialities. This ranges from frozen meals, to Swedish sweets, to Kopparberg perry (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic variants). They have a great selection of jams – strawberry, gooseberry, blackberry, cloudberry and so on. I quite fancied the latter, it being one I had not come before. However at well over £3.00 for a jar it was over twice the price of any other. Hence I bought a jar of the lingonberry jam for £1.40. For a further 85p I bought a packet of moose salami - ‘smoked elk salami with pork and venison’. I’ve only ever had elk once before, in Russia, so I thought it would be an interesting buy. I haven’t actually tried them yet… I’m waiting for a suitably special occasion. Possibly the next bank holiday in August...

From journal Around the World in 80 Meals! (part 3)

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