I lived in Sweden for a few years now and am still discovering weird new foodstuff those Scandinavians have! So I figured I’ll have to introduce a new category: “Weird Swedish Food” for whenever I stumble across some.
Today’s new discovery is something I saw when I first came to Sweden a long time ago, when all food was still weird to me. So I forgot until now, when I mentioned something about rosehips to my boyfriend (I believe I asked if you can do the same things to the big fruits of the garden-hedgeroses – which also grow wild here, weirdly – as you do to the small wild ones). He suggested that I should try some “Nyponsoppa”, and being the sucker for weird exotic food that I am, of course we did.
Nyponsoppa is a sweet, soup-like stuff made from the pulp of rosehips. It is eaten warm with vanilla icecream (according to the BF, anyway) and sometimes little almond biscuits.
Since it was warm (and the icecream very unwilling) the picture didn’t come out so well. I added a few mint leaves since I figured they might fit the taste well (I was right) for color contrast.
So what’s the verdict?
It smells – weird. Sour, somehow. *wrinkles nose* But it actually tastes a lot sweeter, and has the aroma of rosehip berries. I missed having some nuts or those biscuits though – it was way too souplike for my tastes, especially when it had melted all the icecream. The taste is quite nice though – although I think I would prefer it to be a bit thicker so I can use it as marmelade instead. It seems like it should be a great comfort food having just a bowl of it with some buttered bread.
The packet lists another recipe: “Put soup in a bowl. Cut a banana into slices and add to the bowl. Sprinkle crumbled knäckebröd on top. Eat.”
O_ô
Okaaaaay.
Oh how I miss knäckebröd! I have found one thing in the States that I love, and you can get it at Ikea. It is a line of sparkling juices made by Kristian Regale. Have you ever come across any of their flavors?
As a swede living abroad the question often arise what odd things we eat in sweden. It is pretty hard to judge your own culture – your blog is just what I needed. Very much enjoy reading this, thanks alot!
btw, ive never heard of that wierd banana- knackebrod mix…
Take care, Olof x