Moose Taco's and Fika

Sweden is a lot like the United States in many ways, but they have a custom called "fika," which is a bit unusual for an unsophisticated white-trash, country bumpkin like myself.

Fika is what Swedes call the social event of drinking coffee and eating cookies. Unlike American coffee drinking, however, in which you are allowed to do just about whatever you want, the Swedes have this thing called "manners," which people are actually expected to follow.

Rule number 1 regarding fika is that you aren't allowed to eat or drink until the hostess or host says, "Var so god," which basically means "Come and get it." After the hostess says "Var so god," you are supposed to mill around for about five minutes or so and then come in, sit down, and start eating, but only after the most senior person at the table has got some grub and started eating. The other important rule is that on the first go around of the cookie plate, you only take one of each kind of cookie or roll. The hostess has carefully counted the number of people, and if you take more than one, someone else will have to go without. Lastly, during and after the act of drinking coffee, you are supposed to make pleasant conversation with the other people around the table.

I discovered the rules about fika between my 3rd and 4th trip to this country. For six years I had been eating before the hostess said "Var so god," or before the oldest old-fart in the group had received her cookies and taken a bite. Worse yet, I had been taking 3 or 4 of one type of cookie, so that everyone else had to make do with what I had left behind. No wonder the Europeans think that Americans are unsophisticated slobs. It doesn't take long to give the good old USA a bad wrap when I am wandering around the fika table like a bull in a china shop. Good grief!

The reason that the title of this page includes a reference to moose tacos is because we used moose meat, in lieu of ground turkey or chicken, to make tacos. This country has a shortage of Mexican food, so if you want to eat it, you have to make it at home. It is also tough to buy ground turkey or chicken, and since we don't eat beef, we were at a loss as to what to use to make tacos. Fortunately, we discovered that Camilla's father's freezer was full of moose stakes that we ground up to make taco meat. This country has 8 million inhabitants, and they harvest 450,000 moose each year. That is one moose for every 16 people, per year! Just be sure to stay out of the woods during moose season, or you might get an ass full of "moose shot," which is like "buck shot" only bigger.

We liked the moose tacos so much that we decided to make them another time when our friends Janne, Sussi, Per Ake and Monica came over one Sunday afternoon with their kids. The tacos were a big hit with the grownups. We even found these cool taco shells that are shaped like boats so that you don't have to turn your head sideways to eat them. I don't think that the kids liked the tacos very much. Just like kids anywhere, they were afraid to try anything new.

See if you can guess what we did after dinner. That's right, after dinner is time for FIKA! Hence the name, "Moose Tacos and Fika."