Sweden

Sweden’s capital city of Stockholm rivals the most cosmopolitan destinations with world-class restaurants and abundant culture. A Nordic country that boasts a large number of lakes and significant amount of land bordering the sea makes fish a staple of Swedish cuisine. Traditional methods of smoking, fermenting, salting, drying, marinating and poaching are still used to preserve fish both at home and in restaurants.

Akin to Japanese cuisine, with its focus on fish and pickled vegetables, Swedish cuisine also relies on meat, such as reindeer, as well as a French cooking techniques dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Classics include renowned Swedish meatballs, called köttbullar, or an open sandwich, smörgås, with hard-boiled eggs and cod roe caviar from a tube. Young chefs are mixing traditional Swedish ingredients—wild game, mushrooms and lingonberries—with modern twists. And just try to resist the smell of the Swedish “cake table,” better known as the cinnamon bun.

Sweden has an intense coffee culture—rumor has it that it’s the second heaviest coffee drinking country in the world after Finland. When you’re ready to toss a few back, reach for the akvavit or aqua vitae, vodka or schnapps or Absolut Vodka. And never say no to authentic mulled wine, called glögg.—Denise Shoukas

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