Cooksister | Food, Travel, Photography

Food, photos & faraway places

  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • About me
    • Contact me
    • Work with me
    • Legal
      • Copyright notice & Disclaimer
      • Disclosure
      • Cookies and Privacy Policy
    • Press and media
    • Cooksister FAQs
  • RECIPES
    • Recipe Index – by course
    • Baking (savoury)
    • Braai/Barbecue
    • Breakfast & brunch
    • Christmas
    • Dessert
    • Drinks
    • Eggs
    • Fish
    • Gluten-free
    • Leftovers
    • Pasta & rice
    • Poultry
    • Pulses
    • Salads
    • Soup
    • South African
    • Starters & light meals
    • Vegan
    • Vegetables
    • Vegetarian
  • RESTAURANTS
    • British Isles restaurants
    • Dubai restaurants
    • France restaurants
    • London restaurants
    • Montenegro restaurants
    • New York restaurants
    • Pop-ups and supperclubs
    • Serbia restaurants
    • Singapore restaurants
    • South Africa restaurants
    • Sweden restaurants
    • Switzerland restaurants
    • USA restaurants
  • TRAVEL
    • All my travel posts
      • Austria
      • Belgium
      • Canada
      • Dubai
      • Cruise ships
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Grenada
      • Hong Kong
      • Hotel reviews
      • Italy
      • Israel
      • Jersey
      • Mexico
      • Netherlands
      • Norway
      • Portugal
      • Singapore
      • Ski & snow
      • South Africa
      • Spain
      • Sweden
      • Switzerland
      • UK
      • USA
      • Wales
  • PORTFOLIO
    • Freelance writing portfolio
    • Speaking and teaching
    • Photography portfolio
    • Buy my photos
You are here: Home / Travel / Sweden / A Swedish Julbord at Styrsö Skäret near Gothenburg

A Swedish Julbord at Styrsö Skäret near Gothenburg

by Jeanne Horak on February 17, 2012 5 Comments in Sweden, Sweden restaurants

SwedishJulbord © J Horak-Druiff 2013

 

After our eventful day which had included fika, the Feskekorka and Saluhallen food halls, as well as Gothenburg’s Christmas markets, it was time to put our feet up as we headed for dinner.  The lovely ladies from Go:teborg had very kindly booked a table for Su-Lin and myself at the Pensionat Skäret, an inn on Styrsö island in the Southern Archipelago off the coast of Gothenburg.  Although the entire archipelago is largely car free and dotted with bathing beaches, it’s still only about half an hour by ferry from Gothenburg and your fare is included in the price of a Go:teborg city travel card.  The first leg of our journey consisted of a long tram ride during which we amused ourselves by trying to read out the next destination which flashed up on the screen in the tram before it was announced, giving us a good half a minute to mangle the Swedish language 😉  At the end of the tram line, we found ourselves at a rather chilly ferry port but luckily we did not have long to wait until the next ferry.  Sadly, it was pitch dark by the time we took our ferry trip but I woudl love to return someday and do it during the daytime! On the ferry we fretted – woudl we actually find this inn?  The instructions from the tourist office were simply to “follow the crowd” but barely half a dozen people got off at the stop.  As we rounded a bend in the road, though, it became apparent that the inn is hard to miss.  It is housed in a former hospital for tuberculosis patients from the 19th century (a time when people travelled to the archipelago for the air) and lovely old clapboard building is lit up like a Christmas tree!  After a warm welcome, we were soon seated in the gorgeous dining room located in what appears to be a large enclosed verandah with windows all around the room, facing the water.

Once we were seated, our charming waiter brought us over some glögg, the traditional Christmas drink in Sweden.  Despite the slightly comical name, glögg is in fact largely the same as German gluhwein or French vin chaud, consisting mainly of red wine, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and bitter orange.  Stronger spirits such as vodka can also be added, but non-alcoholic versions are also available.  Clearly, I opted for the alcohoic version (!) which was delicious served with raisins, slivered almonds and pepparkakor (gingerbread biscuits).  He then explained the Julbord to us and took our drinks order.  I asked what he would normally recommend with a Julbord and he produced a beer: Nils Oscar Kalasjulöl.  This is a dark lager style beer from Nils Oscar Swedish microbrewery, brewed seasonally for Christmas and varying in flavour and alcohol content year by year (the vintage is always printed on the label).  This turned out to be a surprisingly good match for some of the tricker foods like vinegary rollmops and probably did a better job than most wines would have done.  Su-Lin on the other hand opted to go non-alcoholic and was brought a bottle of Julmust (literally “Christmas juice”), a soft-drink consumed almost exclusively over Christmas and hard to find in stores at other times.  Made with carbonated water, sugar, hop and malt extracts, spices and caramel colouring, it bears more than a passing resemblance to Coca-Cola and in fact, the two do compete – sales of Coke in Sweden drop by up to 50% over Christmas when Julmust is on sale! But the hop and malt extracts mean that the flavour is more like root beer, only sweeter.

 

StyrsoGlogg

 

So – on to the main event:  the Julbord!  Ever heard of a smörgåsbord?  Well, the truth is that a Julbord is just a special kind of seasonal smörgåsbord, traditionally served from early December all the way through to Christmas.  The dishes are largely similar, except for some seasonal specialities like the Christmas ham – so whatever I say about our meal below can probably be applied equally to any good Swedish smörgåsbord that you might encounter.  The Julbord is always served as a buffet, with diners choosing to eat as much as they like from tables laden with various traditional dishes.  It’s not a free-for-all though:  as our waiter explained, there is an accepted order to follow and it goes like this:  first you eat from the cold and pickled fish dishes; then the cold meats and patés; then the warm dishes; and finally dessert and cheese. As you can see below, the room was simply crammed with buffet tables and each one was groaning under the weight of the food! (and before you ask: 1) yes, that is Su-Lin on the right of the bottom picture, taking pictures; and 2) no, I hadn’t previously noticed the bald chap’s uncanny resemblance to Lurch, the Addams family butler!)

 

StyrsoBuffet1

 

StyrsoBuffet2

On our first trip to the buffet room, I confined myself to the herring table (clearly I was too excited by the food to take photos and Su-Lin has kindly allowed be to use some of her snaps).  Each of those earthenware jars holds a different type of pickled herring.  THIRTEEN types of herring – not counting the bowl of rollmops.  I was in herring heaven (although I found some of the pickles just too salty for my taste – and I like salt!).  My favourite remains the mustard herring, but there is a Christmassy pickle with berries and clove spices that I also rather liked.   My second trip concentrated on the crustacean table containing mussels, prawns, langoustines (like the ones we had in Grebbestad on a previous visit) and one of the best things I tasted that night: smoked prawns. Imagine the sweetness of a prawn combined with the darker flavours of smoke.  Genius!  I had never tasted anything quite like it – my runaway favourite of the night. I also made a stop at the next table which housed all the smoked and cured fish – salmon, gravadalax and some other delicious firm white fish that I could not identify – all excellent.  There were some coarse fish patés too that did not hugely interest me, as well as mayonnaise eggs topped with fish roe, various shrimp concoctions bound with mayonnaise, hard cheeses, and the traditional accompaniment for the herring – boiled potatoes. Which I forgot to take.  Oops.

 

SuLinHerringPhoto courtesy of Su-Lin

  SuLinShellfish

 Photo courtesy of Su-Lin

StyrsoFish

 

From there, I moved on to the cold meat dishes which occupied two long tables.  The first table contained various sliced patés and salami-style smoked sausages; while the second one contained cooked and cured sliced meats including pork, beef and duck.  There was something that looked like brawn, a couple of types of beef (one of which was almost pastrami-like), some utterly decadent smoked duck breast and at least two types of ham, including the traditional Julskinke or Christmas ham with its mustard crust.  To accompany the meats there were various pickles and mayonnaissey sauces scattered throughout the table and at the end of the spread there was a selection of no less than five different mustards to choose from!

 

StyrsoMeat

 

SuLinMustard

Photo courtesy of Su-Lin

 

The least impressive part of the meal, for me, was the hot foods.  Dishes included blamelessly tasty meatballs (of course!), moreish little sausages (think IKEA hot dog but smaller and tastier!), pork ribs and lutfisk. It was also the part of the buffet that contained the most vegeetables and I fell on these ravenously as I was feeling distinctly scurvy-ish (beware the smörgåsbord  if you are vegetarian!).  There were at least 3 types of cabbage, creamed spinach and peas (although I think the peas were actually part of the fixings for the lutfisk!).  The red cabbage that I chose was served slightly sweet, as it is in this country, but what really surprised me was that the creamed spinach was sweetened too!  It wasn’t inedibly unpleasant, just very surprising on the first mouthful and I’m not sure it’s really an improvement on saltier versions! Is sweet creamed spinach common in Sweden?  Would love to find out.  The lutfisk which I tasted on Su-Lin’s plate was underwhelming – possibly boiled until all trace of its former saltines and texture had dissipated.  It needed its fixings, which included peas, bacon, clarified butter and a bechamel sauce.  What I did rather like, though, was the Jansson’s Temptation, a traditional dish matchstick potatoes, onions, anchovies, breadrcrumbs and cream that is oven baked until the potatoes are soft and the to has formed a crust.  But once again, it was particularly salty – clearly the Swedes love salt even more than I do!

 

SuLinHotDishesPhoto courtesy of Su-Lin

SuLinJanssonsTemptation

 Photo courtesy of Su-Lin

And then it was on to dessert.  I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of dessert at the best of times and by this stage I was feeling as stuffed as a foie-gras goose!  But we valiantly trooped back to the buffet to see what was on offer.  The two main events were aggost, a traditional cheesecake-like dessert that is pressed into an elaborately carved mould to set before serving; and ris ala Malta a sweet rice pudding served with jam or fruits.  I skipped the rice pudding but tried a little of the aggost which had the consistency of pressed ricotta.  There were also a couple of sweet pastries on offer, my favourite being what appeared to be a deep fried pastry shaped like a snowflake and dusted with sugar.  And of course, there were more pepparkakor on offer! There was also a selection of soft cheeses on offer but by this time I seriously had no more space left.

 

SuLinDessertPhoto courtesy of Su-Lin

Sadly I did not take a picture of the thing that impressed Su-Lin the most:  a tall glass-fronted cupboard filled to the brim with bowls of sweets, toffees, and fruit jellies.  After you had finished the rest of the meal (if you had space left!) you could grab a selection from this cupboard to enjoy with coffee.  Such a good idea!

When we had initially looked at the ferry times that the tourism office had suggested, we had wondered how we were going to fill close to four hours at the Inn, but suddenly we looked at our watchs and realised that the ferry’s arrival was imminent.  Hint:  a Julbord takes a lot of time! So we said our goodbyes and dashed out into the clear, still night to await our ferry that sailed around the headland in a blaze of light, like some kind of alien mother ship come to ferry us to dreamland.

Pensionat Skäret
Skäretvägen 53
Styrsö
Sweden

Tel. +46 3197 3230
E-mail: [email protected]

DISCLOSURE:  We travelled to Sweden and enjoyed this meal as guests of the West Sweden Tourist Board, Visit Sweden and SAS.

 

Thank you again to the West Sweden Tourist Board (Facebook page, Twitter, Blog) and Visit Sweden (Facebook, Twitter) and also to the Gothenburg Tourist Board for organising this wonderful Christmas trip for us. Our flights were provided by SAS and a return trip to Gothenburg from London Heathrow is about £103 including all taxes and charges.  We stayed at the very lovely Hotel Royal in central Gothenburg where a single room costs about £140 per night. 

For my previous travels to Sweden, please see my older posts (and full Flickr photo set): 

  • Villa Sjotorp and a mussel safari in Lysekil, West Sweden
  • Café Ferdinand seafood buffet and Strandflickorna Hotel, West Sweden
  • South Koster island and lunch at Koster garden
  • Lobster safari and lobster lobster dinner at Sydkoster Hotel Ekenäs
  • An oyster experience with Everts Sjöbod in Grebbestad
  • Christmas markets in Gothenburg (and other shopping adventures!)
  • Restaurang Familjen
  • Fika, Feskekörka and food halls – a foodie guide to Gothenburg

 

 

P2P_badge-SomersetDid you miss our our super-successful  Tuscany Plate to Page workshop last October? Well, registrations are open for Plate to Page Somerset due to be held in the UK in Spring 2012!  Have a look at the programme, details about  accommodation, and if it looks like something you’d like to attend, register here – but hurry: places are limited to 12. It would be great to see you there!

 

 

 

More deliciousness for you!

  • Review: Sushi in the City @ The Devonshire Club [CLOSED]Review: Sushi in the City @ The Devonshire Club [CLOSED]
  • A Chiva-Som dinner at the Waterside InnA Chiva-Som dinner at the Waterside Inn
  • EoMEoTE #16 – The Da Clucki CodeEoMEoTE #16 – The Da Clucki Code
  • Dinner with Reuben RiffelDinner with Reuben Riffel

Never miss a Cooksister post

If you enjoyed this post, enter your e-mail address here to receive a FREE e-mail update when a new post appears on Cooksister

I love comments almost as much as I love cheese - so if you can't leave me any cheese, please leave me a comment instead!

« How to make sloe gin – and a Sloe Lovin’ cocktail for Valentine’s Day
Saturday Snapshots #182 »

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Cathy257 says

    February 17, 2012 at 10:37 am

    Yes, this is how we do it :=) After a couple of times (and years) you get quite experienced and only eat the real good stuff, but still it’s hard not to have a bite of everything

    Reply
  2. Juan @ Blue Sauger Coupons says

    February 17, 2012 at 3:55 pm

    Those deserts really do look good. It may be 10 am here in the states but I’m sure I could try some of them right now 🙂

    Reply
  3. Su-Lin says

    February 17, 2012 at 6:36 pm

    Haha! I love that you caught me acting like a weirdo! And I’m still thinking about the duck breast…mm…

    Reply
  4. garage equipment says

    February 17, 2012 at 10:37 pm

    You have prepare it very well. I can see the effort and the goodness of the ambiance.

    Reply
  5. Simone says

    February 20, 2012 at 7:28 am

    Wow, that is some serious buffet you got there and 13 kinds of herring… Ugh… I struggle liking herring at all (but then I only really know the raw variety they serve here.. o and rolmops ofcourse!) but I think – by the looks of this buffet – that I would find something of my liking too.. 🙂

    Reply
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Never miss a Cooksister post!

Get my latest recipes delivered by e-mail!

Search over 500 recipes

Recently on Cooksister

  • Perfect broccoli and Stilton soup [keto, low carb, GF]
  • Masalchi by Atul Kochhar – Indian street food in Wembley
  • Barbecued salmon with blood oranges and capers
  • Roasted Brussels sprouts with feta, pomegranate and pine nuts [GF, V]
  • Love Yourself healthy meal delivery [Review]
  • Antillean
  • Festive roast lamb with pomegranate glaze
  • Rustic blood orange and pistachio galettes

Archives by month

Archives by category

Popular posts

Peppermint Crisp fridge tart - a South African treat
Nigella's Bakewell slices & the Big Bakewell Taste-off
Oxtail and red wine potjie
Gem squash 101: how to find them, how to grow them, how to eat them!
Beef, broccoli and udon noodle stir fry from "The Japanese Larder" by Luiz Hara
Roosterkoek - a South African braai essential

Featured on

Also available on

The wonderful Museum of the Moon installation - a The wonderful Museum of the Moon installation - a 7 metre diameter scale model of the moon suspended in the Painted Hall at the  @oldroyalnavalcollege in Greenwich this week, by @lukejerramartist. A surreal and fabulous sight!
Do you enjoy free art installations? Then you need Do you enjoy free art installations? Then you need to get down to @canarywharflondon between now and Saturday 28 Jan to catch the free Winter Lights 2023 event, back for the seventh year.

My favourites include @lukejerramartist ‘s Floating Earth; Tom Lambert’s Out of the Dark; Fluorescent Firs; Toroid by This is Loop; and the surreal and mesmerising Anima by MEATS - a tunnel filled with hundreds of thin optical fibre lights that change colour and move in the breeze 😍 

Have you been to Winter Lights? What was your favourite?
“When we look down at the Earth from space, we s “When we look down at the Earth from space, we see this amazing, indescribably beautiful planet. It looks like a living, breathing organism. But it also, at the same time, looks extremely fragile.” - International Space Station astronaut Ron Garamond

To experience the “overview effect” (a phenomenon experienced by astronauts viewing the earth from space), head down to Canary Wharf in the London docklands this week where you can see @lukejerramartist ‘s beautiful Floating Earth installation as part of the Winter Lights event. 

This giant 10m diameter installation is created using high resolution NASA images to create a floating scale model of the Earth, lit from within so that it glows from its current home on the Middle Dock, surrounded by the headquarters of international banking and finance corporations.

The artist hopes that viewed in this context, the installation will make visitors and the bankers working in surrounding buildings question how their money in savings and pensions is invested, and whether investments can be greener.

Aside from being a thought provoking piece, it is also mesmerising and surreally beautiful, so make sure you visit the free Winter Lights event before ends on Saturday 28 Jan.
Happy lunar new year! [Invited] To celebrate the Happy lunar new year! 

[Invited] To celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit, why not head over to @mamachensdumplings currently doing a residence at the @thegantrylondon in #stratford where you can feast on prawn & chive dumplings; pork, Chinese cabbage and shiitake mushroom dumplings; pork & prawn wontons with Mama Chen’s chilli oil; vegetable dumplings; smacked cucumber salad; and spicy noodles coated in garlic and Szechuan pepper oil.

And afterwards, make sure you head up to the @unionsocialoc bar for a cocktail - I loved the Moreish Fashion with bourbon, PX sherry, chestnuts and mandarin orange bitters!
Got leftover Stilton (or any blue cheese) from Chr Got leftover Stilton (or any blue cheese) from Christmas? Turn it into this super simple and super indulgent broccoli and Stilton soup! So easy to make and soooo delicious to eat - and it is low carb and GF. What more could you want?! Click the link in my bio for the full recipe. What’s your favourite soup?
CELEBRATE. So the fireworks are over, the champag CELEBRATE.

So the fireworks are over, the champagne is finished and the leftovers are all eaten. We are one week into 2023 and I have had some time to think about what my intent is for the year. 

In 2022 my brother had a life saving kidney transplant. Since the operation, he has had a Peanuts cartoon as his WhatsApp profile pic, where Charlie Brown and Snoopy are sitting on a pier talking. Charlie says “Some day, we all die Snoopy.” And Snoopy replies: “Yes - but every other day, we will live.”

Waking up in the morning is a gift, every day, and it is so easy to forget this. The last few years have been difficult for so many people and the coming year promises its own challenges. But every day that we don’t die is a day to live, to celebrate life in some small way.

So my intention in 2023 is to celebrate. Celebrate our achievements however small. Celebrate our friends and family. Celebrate small things. Celebrate life.

Did you make any resolutions or goals for 2023? I would love to hear them in the comments! Wishing you all the very best for 2023 🥂
Happy new year, everyone! Here are some scenes fro Happy new year, everyone! Here are some scenes from last night with friends in Deptford. My deconstructed avocado ritz; @twinkleparkstephen ‘s bobitie; Giles’ Ottolenghi tomato salad; and Jean’s clementine trifle - and the London night sky ablaze with fireworks!  How did you spend your evening? 🥂🎇🎆
Merry Christmas to all those celebrating - I hope Merry Christmas to all those celebrating - I hope your day was merry and bright, filled with family, friends and love 🎄🥂. Mine was spent alone at home - my choice and the result of a combination of Covid (not mine!) and rail strikes 🤦‍♀️ but very relaxing and indulgent!
Looking for a stylish and easy Christmas starter y Looking for a stylish and easy Christmas starter you can make ahead? Look no further than my individual smoked salmon terrine! Hot smoked salmon, cream cheese and chives wrapped in cold smoked salmon in a ramekin. Still one of the most popular Christmas recipes in my blog, it looks cheffy but is soooo simple to make - and will save you time and effort on the day! Get the recipe by clicking on the link in my bio.

How is your Christmas meal prep going? Are you entertaining at home or going to friends or family? 🎄🥂🎄🥂🎄
Load More... Follow me on Instagram

Follow Jeanne Horak-Druiff's board Recipes by Cooksister on Pinterest.

Cooksister

The South African Food and Wine Blog Directory

The South African Food and Wine Blog Directory

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

Latest Recipes

Bowls of broccoli and Stilton soup
Salmon with blood oranges dill and capers
Brussels sprouts with feta and pomegranate
Roast lamb with pomegranate glaze
Blood orange & pistachio galettes
Cauliflower topped steak with melted cheese
Plate of potted smoked salmon with slaw and a glass of champagne
bowls of pistachio pomegranate bircher muesli

SITEMAP

Home

Contact

About me

Recipe Index

Restaurant Index

Copyright & Disclaimer

Cookies & privacy policy




blog counter

© 2004 - 2023 · Jeanne Horak unless otherwise stated - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may not reproduce any text, excerpts or images without my prior permission. Site by RTW Labs

Copyright © 2023 · Cooksister on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Cooksister cookie consent
We use cookies to ensure you receive the best experience on our site. If you continue to use this site, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions. Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT