Eatery Hopping: Hemma, Edinburgh (& Fika!)
I am obsessed with Scandinavia. This is not news - I have been an adoring fan of all things Scandi for approximately five hundred years, and have harboured dreams of living there for at least the last ten. (I even did everything I possibly could to spend my upcoming last year of uni in Denmark..) I love Scandi people, I love Scandi foods, I love the Scandi way of life, Scandi clothes fit me really well... the list goes on.
Two of these things combine to make one of my most favourite things in the world - fika. Fika is a Swedish thing, that Swedes will try their very best to explain to you whilst also making it clear that there really is no good translation of it in any language at all. It is just fika, in the same way that Danish hygge (another concept I absolutely looooove) cannot be properly translated without a very lengthy description to go along with it.
Fika is, in very simple terms which do not do it justice at all, the practice of 'having coffee'. You sit down with friends or family, have coffee, eat pastries and other baked treats, and generally take a break from your day. From what I understand, fika is more about this act of slowing down and taking time out, than anything else (although the pastries are of utmost importance too, of course).
It's similar to elevenses or afternoon tea, but without being limited to a particular time and a particular type of treat. While you might have elevenses because you feel a bit peckish, you fika simply for a pause, a break, a time to realign and take a moment before resuming with your day.
Is my obsession coming through?
This week has been particularly Swedish. On Monday, I went to Söderberg; on Tuesday, I went to Ikea; on Wednesday, I went to Hemma; yesterday I spent all morning today doing more Swedish on DuoLingo; and today I'm baking Swedish goodies, and making another trip to Ikea (no such thing as too much Ikea). Maybe tomorrow, I'll go back to Sweden.
On my visit to Hemma (fun fact: hemma means 'at home'), I was accompanied by an actual Swede to make the overall Swedishness all the more authentic. (The person, not the root vegetable (not that that's a mistake you were likely to make..))
If we had been feeling really super duper Scandi, we might have gone for a smörgåsbord (a word which has unsurprisingly been adopted into English because it is SO FUN to say), but alas that shall have to wait until another day.
Instead, we went for these! Oven baked fish and bacon-salted potato chips with crispy salad, lime & cucumber yoghurt and spicy tomato sauce (Swede) and a slow roast tomato and sweet potato salad with puy lentils, asparagus, toasted pine nuts, rocket, and basil dressing (me)!
This salad was many things. Delicious, filling, balanced, wholesome... HUGE. It was great, and I shall surely be recreating pronto presto. Conclusions from this scrummy concoction are thus: sweet potato is still amazing; sweet potato should be steamed more often; lentils are great; seeds always benefit from a wee bit of toastiness; herbs elevate tomatoes to truly wonderful heights.
And although I have never (ever EVER) been a fan of fish, it did also look good - as fish goes, from a vegetarian's point of view (so actually quite high praise).
Wow. What a spread.
Our plan the whole time had been to follow our lunch with cake (yes, I agree, a very excellent plan indeed), so we perused the sweet menu and had a wander over to see the selection of what was actually available. Many things sounded nice. One thing sounded particularly nice.
My latest obsession: kladdkaka.
It translates literally as 'sticky cake' and is often called mud cake, although I must quickly assure you it shares no qualities with mud other than colour and slightly texture. And definitely. not. taste.
Just look. Look, and appreciate. (All pictures are click-to-enlarge so I highly suggest you do so.) It was served warm with a hot salted caramel sauce and a generous dousing of icing sugar.
The gooeyness was wonderful, but I did think it was an odd shape for kladdkaka. These suspicions were then confirmed by resident Swede - it's normally very flat (it contains no raising agent), and made in a round tin then cut into triangles just like a normal cake. This one was leaning more towards being a brownie which, while delicious, doesn't even compare to kladdkaka.
Also, FAO: non-sweet-toothed people; make sure to ask for the salted caramel sauce on the side rather than drizzled over the top as it is extreeeeeemely sweet (but yummy (but sweet (and salted caramel isn't top of my list of flavour preferences))). Sidenote: kladdkaka is normally served with whipped cream.
If you want a truly exceptional and truly Swedish kladdkaka experience, then the current top of my list (ha I'm an expert now obviously) is Söderberg or Peter's Yard (they're owned by the same people), but for a gorgeous meal in a gorgeous space with a gorgeous gooey brownie for pudding, Hemma ticks all the boxes. I'll definitely be back. (Once I tick off all of Edinburgh's other Scandi cafés...)
*All photos in this post are mine. If you wish to use any, please ask my permission and credit me!*
Two of these things combine to make one of my most favourite things in the world - fika. Fika is a Swedish thing, that Swedes will try their very best to explain to you whilst also making it clear that there really is no good translation of it in any language at all. It is just fika, in the same way that Danish hygge (another concept I absolutely looooove) cannot be properly translated without a very lengthy description to go along with it.
Fika is, in very simple terms which do not do it justice at all, the practice of 'having coffee'. You sit down with friends or family, have coffee, eat pastries and other baked treats, and generally take a break from your day. From what I understand, fika is more about this act of slowing down and taking time out, than anything else (although the pastries are of utmost importance too, of course).
It's similar to elevenses or afternoon tea, but without being limited to a particular time and a particular type of treat. While you might have elevenses because you feel a bit peckish, you fika simply for a pause, a break, a time to realign and take a moment before resuming with your day.
Is my obsession coming through?
This week has been particularly Swedish. On Monday, I went to Söderberg; on Tuesday, I went to Ikea; on Wednesday, I went to Hemma; yesterday I spent all morning today doing more Swedish on DuoLingo; and today I'm baking Swedish goodies, and making another trip to Ikea (no such thing as too much Ikea). Maybe tomorrow, I'll go back to Sweden.
On my visit to Hemma (fun fact: hemma means 'at home'), I was accompanied by an actual Swede to make the overall Swedishness all the more authentic. (The person, not the root vegetable (not that that's a mistake you were likely to make..))
If we had been feeling really super duper Scandi, we might have gone for a smörgåsbord (a word which has unsurprisingly been adopted into English because it is SO FUN to say), but alas that shall have to wait until another day.
Instead, we went for these! Oven baked fish and bacon-salted potato chips with crispy salad, lime & cucumber yoghurt and spicy tomato sauce (Swede) and a slow roast tomato and sweet potato salad with puy lentils, asparagus, toasted pine nuts, rocket, and basil dressing (me)!
This salad was many things. Delicious, filling, balanced, wholesome... HUGE. It was great, and I shall surely be recreating pronto presto. Conclusions from this scrummy concoction are thus: sweet potato is still amazing; sweet potato should be steamed more often; lentils are great; seeds always benefit from a wee bit of toastiness; herbs elevate tomatoes to truly wonderful heights.
And although I have never (ever EVER) been a fan of fish, it did also look good - as fish goes, from a vegetarian's point of view (so actually quite high praise).
Wow. What a spread.
Our plan the whole time had been to follow our lunch with cake (yes, I agree, a very excellent plan indeed), so we perused the sweet menu and had a wander over to see the selection of what was actually available. Many things sounded nice. One thing sounded particularly nice.
My latest obsession: kladdkaka.
It translates literally as 'sticky cake' and is often called mud cake, although I must quickly assure you it shares no qualities with mud other than colour and slightly texture. And definitely. not. taste.
Just look. Look, and appreciate. (All pictures are click-to-enlarge so I highly suggest you do so.) It was served warm with a hot salted caramel sauce and a generous dousing of icing sugar.
The gooeyness was wonderful, but I did think it was an odd shape for kladdkaka. These suspicions were then confirmed by resident Swede - it's normally very flat (it contains no raising agent), and made in a round tin then cut into triangles just like a normal cake. This one was leaning more towards being a brownie which, while delicious, doesn't even compare to kladdkaka.
Also, FAO: non-sweet-toothed people; make sure to ask for the salted caramel sauce on the side rather than drizzled over the top as it is extreeeeeemely sweet (but yummy (but sweet (and salted caramel isn't top of my list of flavour preferences))). Sidenote: kladdkaka is normally served with whipped cream.
If you want a truly exceptional and truly Swedish kladdkaka experience, then the current top of my list (ha I'm an expert now obviously) is Söderberg or Peter's Yard (they're owned by the same people), but for a gorgeous meal in a gorgeous space with a gorgeous gooey brownie for pudding, Hemma ticks all the boxes. I'll definitely be back. (Once I tick off all of Edinburgh's other Scandi cafés...)
*All photos in this post are mine. If you wish to use any, please ask my permission and credit me!*
As always, great photographs!
ReplyDeleteThank you, glad you like them!
Delete