- May as well start with the shrimp salad which is right before me. Oh, the shrimp are amazing. They look like little pieces of lobster. Well that's incredible. Good morning everyone, it's Mark Wiens with migrationology.com in Stockholm, Sweden. It's another gorgeous morning outside. The sun is shining, clear blue skies. We are heading over to
Fridhemsplan metro station. (button beeps) Ride for two to Karlaplan. (upbeat dance music) We made it to the station. I think I was mispronouncing it before. It's more like Kar-la-plan. There's this term in Sweden called fika, and in English, it would translate to have a coffee, but I think it's more than that, and it's an important
part of Swedish culture. I think the actual word can mean a noun, or be used as a noun or a verb. So you can say, "Let's fika," and that means let's have a coffee; let's have a coffee break. Let's enjoy a pastry. And so Ying and I are
walking over to a bakery, and we are going to try to fika. (upbeat dance music) - [Cashier] So one of
each one, and one coffee? - [Mark] Yes, please. - [Cashier] Anything else? - [Mark] That's it, thank you. (upbeat dance music) This is a wonderful little
neighborhood bakery, right across from a park. It's a quiet street. It's a very relaxing place, and you just walk into the bakery and immediately you can smell the aroma of cardamom in there and
the fresh baked bread. They have an assortment
of different baked goods, and even sandwiches here. But I had to go for a cinnamon bun, and also they are, this bakery is well known
for their cardamom buns, so I got one of each, and then I got a coffee to go with it. I'm gonna start with the cardamom roll, and it's really beautifully prepared. I think it's from one strand, which is one long string of dough, which is then wrapped up into almost like a bow tie, a complex bow tie shape, and then baked. And you can see some, I think some sugar sprinkled on top, and you can really smell that aroma of the cardamom in there. I think you could either unravel this and eat it piece by piece, but I think I'll just
go for the bite method. Wow. That is amazing. Oh, the cardamom comes in nicely. I think the cardamom is ground, so you get like that real pungent, fresh ground cardamom taste to it. And then the bread itself is
crisp on the outside edges, but then it's like perfectly
gooey on the inside. And that has to be followed by coffee. And then for the cinnamon roll. I think for this one I will break a piece. That is equally amazing. But instead of cardamom, it's cinnamon. I have not eaten too many
cinnamon rolls in my life, but this is the best I've had. It's awesome. It's like perfectly baked, the perfect texture, and then
just the wonderful mixture of not too overly sweet, but sweet. And then also mixed with that cinnamon. And also that cardamom. I don't know which one I like better. They're both really, really good and just have that completely different spice flavor to them. That was an exceptionally
good baked product. I think that was a very successful fika. What do you think Ying? - I like. - Ying loved it. Especially the cinnamon roll. We are walking towards the Vasa Museum, which is actually on the next island, so we're about to cross a bridge. But the museum is home
to a 17th century ship, which sunk off the coast of Stockholm, but the ship has since been
lifted out of the water and restored and renovated, and it's now in a museum. So that's where we're heading now. (driving dance music) As we're crossing this bridge, I just got this incredible
whiff of a sausage. I think it might be coming from
that restaurant down there. That smells incredible. (driving dance music) There's quite a long line, but I think it will go pretty fast. Two adults please. That took about 15 minutes in line, and immediately upon entering the museum, you get a close-up look at the ship. And it set sail on the
10th of August, 1628, and it sunk right off
the coast of Stockholm. Then after sitting at the bottom
of the ocean for 333 years, it was salvaged in 1961, and it is, from what the brochure says, it is 98% original, and it's really an amazing sight to see. The museum is set up with
the ship right in the center, and then on the various
levels surrounding it are exhibitions explaining
how it was salvaged, the different functions of the ship, and also some Swedish
cultural exhibitions as well. At the very front of the
ship is the figurehead, which is a three meter long lion, which is stretched out
across the very front, leading the way of the ship. And it's just amazing
how well it's preserved, and how giant the ship is. It's incredible to be able
to see the entire ship, in its entirety, from the 17th century, and so well preserved. And I especially enjoyed
all of the detailed carvings within the ship. There are a lot of museums
and parks in this area, but going to that museum, going to museums, it actually
makes you quite hungry. So we are walking over to a restaurant which looks like it's within this park, and it looks very calm and relaxing. (driving dance music) I think it's cafeteria style. So you walk up to the front, you choose whatever you, you pay for it, and then you find a seat
somewhere in the garden. Beautiful place. Baked salmon. So you start at the front
of the line and grab a tray. They have lots of cakes and pastries that you can put on your tray, but I think I'm gonna head straight to the others. Crackers as well. Take a piece of cracker. So do you wanna go sit? I'm really hoping not to drop anything. This is an incredible restaurant, and you just walk inside. They have a menu, so you can order some different hot dishes. There are about, maybe
like less than 10 choices, and then they also have a bunch of cakes and pastries and sandwiches, some small bites that you can also order if you want something smaller. Ying and I ordered two
different dishes to share. This one is the shrimp salad. Lots of shrimp in there. There's lettuce, there's cucumber, there are, I don't even
know what these are. At first I thought they were corn, but they're definitely not corn. They're little morsels of something. And the other dish is the lamb meatballs, which are not in spherical form, but are more in like, lumps, and then with potatoes and green beans. This has to be one of the more pretty places I've ever eaten. I guess I'll start with the shrimp salad which is right before me. Oh, these shrimp are amazing. They look like little pieces of lobster. Wow. That is as amazing, and as refreshing as it looks. Oh that's incredible. The shrimp almost taste like crab. They have a real sweetness to them, natural sweetness to them. And then I can taste some
dill in there as well, and also it's like a salty,
creamy dressing all over it. That's incredibly good actually. It's really, really refreshing. What are those little, those little yellow things? That is an awesome salad. Really, if I had my eyes closed, and I didn't know it was shrimp, I would think it's crab. Because that shrimp is
almost stringy, like a crab, and then it has that
natural sweetness to it. Next up for the lamb meatballs, or the lamb meat lumps. I'm going to call them meat lumps. Slice off a piece of that. Get a close-up look of that. Oh, you can see the
little air bubbles in it. I predict it to be very spongy. Mm, that texture prediction was correct. They are light and fluffy. And they are incredible tasting. I think I can taste a lot of rosemary possibly ground up
within these meat lumps, and then that texture is spongy, but you can taste a little bit
of the lamb flavor in there, and this time I'm gonna
soak it in that sauce below. That's really, really good. I don't know if it's a red wine sauce, of it's kind of a, I don't know, that sauce is not, it's kind of neutral. A little bit of sweetness. And those lamb meatballs are awesome. Two really extremely good dishes. That was an absolutely incredible meal. The lamb meat kinda ovals were delicious, but that shrimp salad was hard to beat. The texture of the shrimp in Sweden, they're little and they're muscular, and they have this amazing kind of chewy, slightly chewy almost
crab-like texture to them. Fantastic salad. Definitely one of the more pretty ambiance restaurant atmospheres, especially patios that I've been to in a long time. That was a fantastic meal. This is a place you just want to lean back in your chair
and relax after you eat. And that's exactly what
I'm gonna do right now. Oh, that was really good. Is he real? When it comes to relaxing
garden restaurants, I don't know if you can
get better than that. That was great food, an amazing atmosphere, and I think it's very popular with locals who come to just enjoy,
especially on the weekends to relax, to eat, to hang out. You could come here for a full meal, or you could come here
just to have coffee. Fika, you could come here to fika. That was a fantastic experience, highly recommended in Stockholm. The restaurant is literally
right next to the Abba museum. And we are walking towards the pier. Gonna try to take the boat back. (upbeat synthesizer music) We used the same metro card and got into the dock, the pier, and now the boat is just arriving. We're gonna go to Slussen. (upbeat synthesizer music) Boats are a fantastic way
to get around Stockholm, and we could have taken the metro back to where we are going, but I really wanted to take the boat, just to get the views of the waterways, and also to see the views
of Stockholm from the water, and it's fantastic. All of the water life, the boats, the scenes of the old
buildings in Stockholm. Traveling by boat through a city is one of the greatest ways to get around. (upbeat synthesizer music) There are also a number of
companies that offer boat tours, and I was thinking that would
be a really cool thing to do, but then I decided we just didn't have the time to do it on this trip. But there are some pretty
cool canal tours of Stockholm, or you can just take a couple
rides for transportation like we are gonna do. It has started raining. I'm gonna put the camera
into this plastic bag. (indistinct people talking) Vlogging from under a plastic bag. I'm sure the view is not too good, but this kinda works. The rain actually feels kinda good. We took cover underneath a bridge. And we're gonna wait out
the rain for a little while. The rain has almost stopped. It's just very lightly sprinkling, and we decided to make a walk for it. Okay, it's starting to rain again. But my plan, we didn't really have anything extra planned right now. We just wanted to walk along the canals, and we're gonna walk up a little ways and hopefully take another
boat across the canal, the waterway to our island. Okay, the rain really picked up again. We are underneath a bridge again, waiting out the rain. Oh now it's down-pouring. (rain splashing on pavement) That was quite a significant rain, but it has just stopped for the most part, and we are back on track now. (upbeat synthesizer music) There's a bridge up ahead
which we can take to cross over and get back to our island. So we're just going to
take a leisurely stroll. It's really nice right now. Peaceful after the rain, and hoping that it doesn't
start down-pouring again. I've already said this a number of times since being in Stockholm, and I've only been here for two days, but it cannot be understated how friendly of a walking
and biking city Stockholm is. And again it is the summer, so the weather is not too cold, but it's an amazing, they've designed Stockholm so well. (upbeat synthesizer music) We made it to the bridge, and this is a really long bridge. We are crossing over one canal and then over to an island, and then we're gonna cross over the main big waterway channel to get back to the island
that we're staying on where the hotel is. (upbeat synthesizer music) We made it back to the hotel. Over there, that is the
bridge that we just crossed. (upbeat synthesizer music) For dinner tonight, we were
invited by Björk Restaurant, which is at the Courtyard Marriott. And this is a Scandinavian restaurant with a little bit of
everything on the menu, and it's a really nice restaurant, actually both inside, and we got a seat out here on the patio, the perfect weather of Stockholm. Going through the menu now. Salmon is always tempting. I'm starting off with some
kind of a mint cocktail. It almost has a banana flavor to it. All of the food has just arrived, and again Ying and I share
everything we order all the time, so we got one plate of smoked salmon with, these are dill potatoes, and then we also got a flat
bread with cheese on the top, and then salmon on top,
and then roe on top, and then a handful of
herbs on top as well. And then this one is toast skagen, which is becoming one of
my favorite Swedish dishes. Shrimp salad over a piece of toast. This is an amazing dish
with dill on the top, and they included some roe as well. I think perhaps I will
just spread this out. Should I spread it out
over the toast, Ying? - [Ying] I guess so. - [Mark] I think I'm gonna
spread this out over the toast. Maybe put this on the top there and just kind of spread it. Oh, that ratio of shrimp to
toast is a beautiful thing. Put these over it. And then I'll squeeze on
that lemon a little bit. I may as well start with the toast skagen. And it's kind of like the same shrimp I think as what I ate for lunch. Oh, and they just all fell off. Okay, I will have to
re-put back on that toast. All right. That is indeed one of my favorite
Swedish dishes or snacks. It's so fantastic though, and mainly because the shrimp are fresh and they have this
amazing muscular texture, and then with that dill
and that creamy sauce, and then the toast is kinda
crunchy and a little bit gooey. Okay, next up, I think
this is supposed to be a hand-held dish. Oh yes. And salmon is another one of
my favorite things in Sweden. Okay, let me try to add
some of those herbs on top. Oh they're tangle-y. It's like a whole salad on top of it. Yeah, that's like cheese bread, with salty smoked salmon on top, and then the salty eggs, salmon eggs, that just erupt with salty juice, and then those herbs are
a nice touch as well, and that lettuce. Yeah, that's a fantastic thing. And the last dish, this is a main dish with the smoked salmon,
a nice pile of it again topped with dill, and then the dill potatoes. The quality of the salmon
in Sweden is just fantastic. It's so soft and so tender, and it just dissolves in your mouth. It doesn't, at least the bite I had, it doesn't have any of
that grizzly-ness to it. The only think I like to do is to add some pepper. It's good to put some on the side and then you can dip it as it sticks to that salmon, and then also some on the potatoes. Oh, and while I'm at it, I'll add a little bit to the flat bread. This is another one of the greatest things about Sweden is the pepper. They have pepper on every table at every restaurant we've been to. Freshly ground black pepper
is one of the spices of life. Oh yeah, it's just fork-tender salmon. You don't even actually need this knife. Then with that pepper. Oh yeah. With that pepper. Now for the dill potatoes. Mm, very creamy sauce. And just a faint taste of dill in there. That was a wonderful way to end this day. It's been a very relaxing
day in Stockholm. Had some delicious food today. Just walking around this city, it gives you energy. That was a great meal to end the day. Thank you all very much
for watching today's video. Please remember to give it a
thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Make sure to leave a comment below if you wanna let me know anything. And make sure you subscribe for lots more food and travel videos. And I will see you on the next video. Thank you for watching. (upbeat drum music)
