A hipster take on Swedish meatballs

Bengali meatballs. Spotted on the menu board at Gossip restaurant in the Södermalm district.  Södermalm is the hipster area in Stockholm, with individual coffee shops, eating nooks and retail boutiques.

Our Swedish meatballs post-card.

~ Spotted Cow

Swedish meatballs

My Swedish colleague told me – somewhat indignantly – that Swedes eat meatballs at home, not in restaurants. However, apart from imposing on his mother’s hospitality, my lovely friend J and I were going to have to eat meatballs somewhere. And that somewhere turned out to be Meatballs for the People in the Södermalm area (Nytorgsgatan 30, 11640 Stockholm).

We had the classic with a creamy gravy, lingonberry sauce, mash potatoes, and pickled cucumbers. These guys know where their meat comes from and there is a map on the wall with animal stickers showing the farms. I wouldn’t be surprised if they know the names of all the animals, but maybe that’s a bit too intimate. Best said that there’s a variety of meatballs and vegetarians get a look-in too.

Incidentally, they are listed in the Conde Nast Travellers “The World’s Best Meatballs”.

I have to let on that we ate Swedish meatballs twice while in Stockholm. After all, you have to be empirical about these things. On our first evening, we wanted to go to Operakällaren Bakfickan as recommended by The Slow Pace girls, but unfortunately the kitchen closed early that day. So we ate meatballs at the place next door … and I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but apparently it’s the regular hangout of Dolph Lundgren, whom I didn’t recognise at the table next to us.

~ Spotted Cow