Simple Swedish Podcast - #284 - Svenska matvanor

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

Nivå: A2-B1 Swedish eating habits Vilka tider äter svenskarna? Vilka måltider finns? Vilken typ av mat är vanlig? Varifrån kommer influenserna? Dessa frågor får du svar på i dagens avsnitt! Intresserad av Free 6 Week Challenge? Klicka här! Transkript: Tjena tjena och välkommen till Simple Swedish Podcast! Idag ska vi prata om matvanor. Matvanor i Sverige, närmare bestämt. Och kanske jämföra dem lite med andra länder. Jag bor ju i Spanien och matvanorna här skiljer sig en del från matvanorna i Sverige. Så det ska vi prata om. Först vill jag bara nämna att om du är intresserad av våran Free Six Week Challenge så är ju den just nu stängd. Men du kan skriva upp dig på väntelistan. Och då får du information från oss först av alla när vi öppnar igen.   Och Free Six Week Challenge, det är alltså vår utmaning att gå på 30 lektioner inom 6 veckor, alltså inom 42 dagar.   Så du betalar en deposition, och sen om du klarar att gå på 30 lektioner inom 6 veckor, då får du hela depositionen tillbaka. Vilket är helt galet. Och vi har haft många människor som har gjort den här utmaningen redan. Och det har varit jättekul. Så jag lämnar en länk till det. Så det här är perfekt för dig som redan kan en del svenska och förstår en del svenska, men du behöver komma igång och prata mycket. Okej. Ja, så.. Då ska vi prata om matvanor. Alltså. Ja, vilka kulturella aspekter finns det till exempel när det kommer till tider? När äter man frukost? När äter man middag? Vilken sorts mat äter vi? Och så vidare. Så i Sverige, vi kan börja med tider. För i olika länder så äter man olika måltider vid olika tider. Vi säger faktiskt en måltid på svenska. Så en måltid är till exempel frukost eller lunch eller middag. Ja, vi kallar det för en måltid. Man kan också säga ett mål mat, det är en måltid.   För att läsa hela transkriptet - klicka här  

Hello and welcome to Simple Swedish Podcast. Today we will talk about food habits. Food habits in Sweden, more specifically. And maybe compare them with other countries I live in Spain and the food habits here differ a little from the food habits in Sweden So, that's what we're going to talk about First I just want to mention that

if you're interested in our free 6 week challenge, it is closed right now. But you can sign up on the waiting list and then you will get information from us first of all when we open again And Free Six Week Challenge is our challenge to go on 30 lessons within 6 weeks, that is within 42 days So you pay a deposit and then if you manage to go to 30 lessons in 6 weeks then you get the whole deposition back which is completely crazy

and we have had many people who have already done this challenge and it has been really fun So I'll leave a link to it in the description So this is perfect for you who already know some Swedish And understand some Swedish, but you need to get started and talk a lot Okay to get started and talk a lot. Okay. Well, then we will talk about food habits. So, what cultural aspects are there, for example

when it comes to times, when do you eat breakfast, when do you eat dinner, what kind of food do we eat? And so on. So in Sweden we can start with times. Because in different countries you eat different meals at different times We actually say a meal in Swedish So a meal is for example breakfast or lunch or

or dinner Yes, we call it a meal You can also say a meal It's a meal, it's a meal time. So, it is of course very different, for some people maybe eat breakfast at five o'clock, other people eat breakfast at eleven o'clock, but a fairly common time to eat breakfast is between 7 and 8 in the morning So like 7 or 8 in the morning most people eat breakfast Some people eat at 6, some at 9

But yeah, somewhere there And what do you eat? So the most common thing I think is to either eat a smörgås A smörgås is a slice of bread with something on it we call it a on-layer a on-layer is something you put on the bread to make a smörgås or a sandwich

a smörgås and a sandwich are the same thing so it can be cheese or ham or something like that. You eat smörgås or you eat fylmjölk or yoghurt with muesli. It's like a little sour, a little sour type of... It's like kefir, if someone has eaten kefir, it's like kefir. And of course you drink coffee. Most people. Coffee is very important in Sweden. One of the most coffee drinking countries in the world. So coffee...

Okay, so breakfast was that. Next goal... Next goal, i.e. goal time... ...food... ...is lunch. food it's lunch and lunch is usual to eat at 11, 12, 13 something like that

because official lunch time is 12 o'clock and we eat lunch, some of us eat 11, some of us eat 12 some of us eat 1, something like that And one thing that is common in Sweden is that people bring lunch to work from home So you have a lunch box with you Or a food box So you bring a food box with you from home to work That's pretty common

There's always a microwave in the lunch room at work So you can heat up your lunch box But it's also common to go out and eat So go eat at a restaurant And they often have lunch offers So it's often... If you eat outside At a restaurant during lunchtime, you you get a salad bar

and drink and coffee included so, in the lunch, like this specially lunch offer after lunch it's maybe normal that you eat some kind of snack or you maybe have a coffee so you eat something between lunch and dinner. So dinner is the meal you eat dinner a little earlier than in many other countries

So, the usual times to eat dinner is at 5, 6 or 7 And here in Spain people eat dinner at 7 pm, which is early in Spain. Most people eat dinner at 8, 9 or 10 pm. In Sweden it's much earlier, you eat dinner at 5, 6, 7, often Maybe 8 And it's a pretty big meal So both lunch and dinner are pretty big meals And then, since you eat dinner pretty early, it'sgåsar, at the evening. We ate dinner at 5 or 6 and then you're a little hungry at around 8 o'clock

So people maybe eat some dinner at 8 or 9 o'clock Not all, but it's still pretty common So that's what I would say Common times for the different meals in Sweden. Ok, so some other interesting facts. So Swedish food has traditionally not so much spice so Swedish food is pretty mild maybe doesn't have a lot of flavor so many people maybe think that

Swedish traditional food is a little tasteless that it doesn't taste that much. But nowadays it's pretty common that people like strong food. Strong food is that it's hot, that it's... That it's strong, chili, a lot of chili. It's strong food, like Thai food. Thai food is very popular and I also love Thai food. Many people eat vegetarian food. It's, even if you are not a vegetarian,

there are many who like to eat a lot of vegetarian food. And I think that has a lot to do with the fact that you think about the environment, and you think about health and so on. And the same thing with ecologically, so people buy relatively much ecological food many people think it's important to buy ecological food one thing that is a little special maybe is that many people drink milk in Sweden. They drink a glass of milk. And even for food.

Especially children. I remember when I eat in school. So you always eat in the cafeteria in school. It's always free, it has to be free. And it's always real food. And there's always milk. So you can always drink milk to the food. And that might not be so common. And another thing, there was a something that came up in social media and you don't get food in Sweden.

Especially with children, if your child is visiting a Swedish family, the child doesn't get food when the family eats. And it became like a bunch of memes and so on. And I explain that in episode 138. So I explain how it works. Because it can actually happen that if you are visiting, say that you are a child and you visit your friend at home and your friend is having dinner with his parents and you are not getting any food. And this can happen, but it is because you are going to have dinner with your parents. So you already have your dinner plans and therefore this family doesn't want to destroy

these dinner plans. I think there are very different, sometimes it is like that, sometimes it is not like that. But I explain this in episode 138. Sweden Gate. Yeah, fun. So. And I thought we could end with some typical food.

In Sweden we have a lot of international influences in food So there is a lot of pizza, kebab, Thai food These are pizza, kebab, Thai food It is always there in all small towns, small towns If you come to a small town, you can always find a pizzeria You can always find a kebab place And you can always find a Thai restaurant So they are very, very popular

Then the traditional Swedish food has a lot of influences from France actually. And that came already in the 16th century with a lot of sauces and stuff. And in Sweden In Sweden we love sauces, we always need a sauce You know, the typical Swedish meatballs They always come with a brown sauce So the Swedish meatballs are the typical Swedish food That everyone knows and it's meatballs, potato mousse, brown sauce and lemon juice and this lemon juice is what makes it a bit unique We like to have this sweet to this heavy sauce and meat.

So it's nice to have some sweetness there. That makes it fresher up a little bit. And this dish, these meatballs, they came to Sweden actually from the Ottoman Empire, or Turkey, with Charles XII When he came back from there in early 1700s Then one of the most common dishes that people make at home is probably spaghetti and meat sauce. And spaghetti and meat sauce is simply the Swedish version of spaghetti bolognese. And yes, we call it spaghetti and meat sauce. And everyone has their own version and you are very free to do it just as you want

So I think that in Sweden we have a very free food culture So it's not like in Italy, in Italy you have to do this right in this way You can't put banana on a pizza, you can't put kebab on a pizza but we do that in Sweden, we put banana on pizza together with peanuts, curry and chicken and we call it Afrikaner and we put kebab and pommes frites on the pizza and we love it so you are free to do whatever you want in Sweden with the food we have no strict rules

so sorry Italy for doing that with the pizza But that's how it is in Sweden And then I also have to mention Friday's cosiness So Friday's cosiness is something very important. It means that you are eating a little on Fridays. And it is very often tacos. And when I say tacos, I don't mean Mexican tacos. which is based on Tex-Mex but it's a swedishized version which doesn't have much to do with mexican tacos so you can also say taco friday because it's very common to have tacos on friday

and yes, there are a lot of things I could say, for example the things I miss here in Spain are maybe caviar and not this nice caviar, we have another kind of caviar that is not as nice, but... And Skagenröra. Skagenröra, that's really nice. There's a lot to say about Swedish food, but I thought I'd end it here. Maybe I could have another episode about sweets Because I would say that Sweden is perhaps better at sweets than at regular food That was all for me this time See you and hear next week Bye bye