Eat

Swedish cuisine is mostly hearty meat or fish with potatoes, derived from the days when men needed to chop wood all day long. Besides the ubiquitous potatoes, modern Swedish cuisine is to a great extent based on bread. Traditional everyday dishes are called husmanskost (pronounced whos-mans-cost). They include:

• Meatballs(köttbullar), the internationally most famous Swedish dish. Served with potatoes, brown sauce and lingonberry jam.
• Hash(pytt i panna) consisting of meat, onions and potatoes, all diced and fried. Sliced beetroots and a fried egg are mandatory accessories.
• Pea soup(ärtsoppa) with diced pork, followed by thin pancakes afterwards. Traditionally eaten on Thursdays since medieval times when the servants had half the day off as it is an easy meal to prepare.
• Pickled herring(sill), available in various types of sauces. Commonly eaten with bread or potatoes for summer lunch or as a starter.
• Blodpudding, a black sausage made by pig's blood and flour. Slice it, fry it and eat it with lingonberry jam.
• Gravlax, a widely known and appreciated cold appetizer made by thin slices of salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill.
• Falukorv, a big baloney from Falun. Sliced, fried and eaten with ketchup and mashed potatoes.
• Tunnbrödrulle, a fast food dish, consisting of a bread wrap with mashed potatoes, a hot dog and some vegetables.
• Kroppkakor Potato dumpling stuffed with diced pork.

Other Swedish favorites:

• Soft whey butter(messmör), breadspread with a sweetish, hard-to-describe taste.
• Caviar, not the expensive Russian or Iranian kind but a cheaper version made from cod roe, sold in tubes and used on sandwiches. The most famous brand is Kalles Kaviar.
• Julmust, stout-like Christmas soft drink that every year annoys The Coca-Cola Company in Sweden by lowering Coke's sales figures by 50%.
• Crayfish(kräftor), hugely popular around late summer and early autumn, when Swedes feast on them at big crayfish parties (kräftskivor). Silly paper hats and lots of alcohol included.
• Semla, a cream-filled pastry eaten around Fat Tuesday.
• Rabarberkräm/Rabarberpaj rhubarbcream or rhubarbpie with vanilla sauce ( other cakes or pies on fresh blueberries, apples, or just strawberries with cream or ice cream are also very popular in the summer)
• Spettekaka - A local cake from Skåne in south Sweden, made of eggs, sugar, and potatoflour.
• Smörgåstårta - A cold Sandwich layer cake, often with salmon, eggs, and shrimps. (Also often with tuna or roast beef) Swedish people often eat it at New Year's Eve, or birthdays and parties.

Typical Swedish "gourmet" restaurants serve steaks or other grilled dishes garnished with fragrant herbs such as dill, and vegetables such as pumpkin and bell peppers.

As in most of Europe, inexpensive pizza and kebab restaurants are ubiquitous in Swedish cities. Sushi and Thai food are also quite popular. The local hamburger chain Max is recommended before McDonald's and Burger King, for tasteful Scandinavian furnishing, clean restrooms and free coffee with meals. In parts of Norrland it is customary to eat hamburgers with fork and knife - available at Max. Another type of fastfood establishment is the gatukök ("street kitchen"), serving hamburgers, hot dogs and tunnbrödrulle (se above).

Highway diners, vägkrogar, have generous meals, but might be of poor quality and overpriced. If you have time, a downtown restaurant is preferable. Gas stations offer decent packed salads and sandwiches.

You can get a "cheap" lunch if you look for the signs with "Dagens rätt" (meal of the day). This normally costs about 50-70 SEK and almost everywhere includes a bottle of water; soft drink; or light beer, bread & butter, some salad and coffee afterwards. Dagens rätt is served Monday to Friday.

The world famous furniture retailer IKEA has stores at the outskirts of most Swedish cities. These have great diners, which offer well-cooked Swedish meals for as little as 40 SEK. (They hope that you spend some money on shopping too.) Great if you happen to pass by. Expect crowds at rainy weather.

If you're on a tight budget, self-catering is the safest way to save your money.

Vegetarian and vegan lifestyles are accepted in cities, less common in the countryside.

Drink

Coffee

Swedish people drink plenty of coffee, kaffe. Drinking coffee at home or in a café, an act called fika (meaning "kaffe" in fikonspråket, an archaic language game), is a common Swedish social ritual, used for planning activities, dating, exchanging gossip or simply spending time and money. Swedish coffee is slightly stronger than American one. Italian varieties (espresso, cappuccino, caffe latte) are available at most city cafés.

Alcoholic beverages

The most famous Swedish alcoholic beverage is the Absolut Vodka, which has been voted as the best vodka in the world. There are several brands of distilled, and usually seasoned, liquor, called brännvin or akvavit. When served in a shot glass with a meal it is called snaps (not to confuse with the German "Schnapps").

Sweden does produce some outstanding beers, öl, like the dark Carnegie Porter, but most beers are rather nondescript lagers. The beer you get in normal food shops is called folköl and has 2.8 or 3.5% alcohol. Wine is popular, but the Swedish production is very modest.

Systembolaget

Access to alcoholic beverages is, as in Norway, Finland and Iceland, quite restricted and expensive. The only place to buy strong alcohol including starköl (beer which contains more than 3.5% alcohol ABV) over the counter is in one of the state owned shops called Systembolaget. They have limited hours of operation, usually 10-6 Mon-Wed, 10-7 Thurs-Fri, and 10-3 on Saturdays, with long queues on Fridays and Saturdays. Closed on Sundays. Most shops are of supermarket style. The assortment is very good, and the staff usually has great knowledge. Please note that Systembolaget does not serve customers under the age of 20. You will most likely be asked for identification. This also applies to your companion, regardless of them buying anything.

Liquor is very expensive at Systembolaget (vodka is 300 SEK a liter), but the monopoly has brought some perks - Systembolaget is one of the world's largest bulk-buyers of wine, and as such gets some fantastic deals which it passes on to the consumers. Mid-to-high-quality wines are quite often cheaper in Sweden than even in the country of origin; sometimes even cheaper than if you were to buy the wine directly from the vineyard. This does NOT apply to low-quality wines, however, due to the volume-based tax on alcohol.

All brands are treated equally and there is no large-pack discount. If you want beer, choose a variety of microbrews.

Bars and nightclubs

The age limit is 18 to bars and beers in shops (to prevent teenage drunkenness, some shops have decided to have a 20 age limit for 3.5% beer as well), but 20 in Systembolaget. Many bars have an age limit of 20, but some have age limits as high as 23-25.

Some clubs announce dress code, vårdad klädsel, though this is mostly used as a pretext to reject unwanted guests. For male guests, proper shoes (not sneakers or sandals), long-legged trousers (not blue jeans) and a dress shirt is usually enough.

Sweden has enforced non-smoking in all bars, pubs and restaurants, save outdoor areas such as terraces, and designated smoking rooms.

The prices at clubs/bars are often expensive compared to other countries, a large beer (half a liter) costs usually as much as 45-55 SEK (~US$7), but many low-profile bars advertise stor stark (0.4 L of draft lager) for as little as 25 SEK. A long drink costs around 60-90 SEK. For that reason many Swedes have a small pre-party ("förfest") before they go out, to get started on their buzz before they hit the town and go to nightclubs.

Large clubs can require an entrance fee of about 100 SEK (or more at special performances). They usually offer a rubber stamp on your hand so you can re-enter as you like.

Be aware that you often have to stand in line to get into a bar or a club. Many places deliberately make their customers wait in line for a while, since a long queue indicates a popular club. At the very fanciest places in the major cities the queue is replaced by a disorganized crowd, and the doorman simply points to indicate who gets in and who does not (to be sure to get in either be famous, very good-looking or a friend of the doorman. Or simply a regular).

In the cold season it is often mandatory to hand in your jacket at the club's wardrobe for a fee, usually around 20 SEK.

Authorized security guards carry a badge saying Ordningsvakt, see #Stay safe.

Moonshine (hembränt) is popular in the countryside, though illegal. Though some shipments can be as good as legal vodka, most are disgusting and some even lethally dangerous, so it might be a good idea to stick to the real thing.

All content courtesy of Wikitravel