Thursday 12 November 2009

Lunch: Salmon sandwich

Ever since I was a little girl I've never been very good at what we in Sweden call "fika". For those of you who are not familiar with the word "fika", let me explain it. Fika is what other people call coffee break with a few cakes or cookies, and can be enjoyed all through the day.

Growing up, on Saturdays, almost without fail, we had 11 o'clock fika at my house. This meant mum and dad drinking coffee, me and my brother drinking a glass of strawberry lemonade, and we all enjoyed a cinnamon bun and a few cookies each, most likely a Ballerina cookie and a Digestive biscuit.

My mom was, and still is, the queen of homemade cinnamon buns. I remember once, my friend Lena came home with me after school for a play date and mum served us cinnamon buns for our after school-fika. Lena didn't eat just one bun, she ate a whopping 6 buns, and when her parents came to pick her up mum gave her a bag of buns to go.

I have never tried making cinnamon buns, but maybe one day I will. However, they will never beat mum's homemade buns. They're the best. If I close my eyes I can still see the mountains of buns stacked on mum's kitchen counter, and I can smell them, the sweet smell of soft, warm, straight from the oven- cinnamon buns...

Sometimes fika also included a sandwich.

Sometimes we went on shopping trips to the local mall or to Gothenburg on Saturdays, and then dad always had a coffee craving at some point. Mum, dad and my brother always had a piece of cake or a cookie, but I almost always had an open-faced prawn sandwish. I don't know why I never felt in the mood for a piece of cake or a cookie, but I never did. So I always had a prawn sandwich made with a peice of white bread, lettuce, mayo, hardboiled eggs, prawns and a wedge of lemon and a slice of cucumber.

So, when I made today's lunch I was reminded of my childhood's fikas.



Salmon sandwich
Serves 1

1 slice of bread
butter
1 leaf of lettuce
potato salad
1, 2 or 3 slices of smoked salmon
chopped red onion
squeeze of lemon juice
black pepper

Just put the ingredients on top of the piece of bread in the order they appear above.

1 comment:

Susanne said...

I'll teach you to make cinnamon buns that are really good but that don't taste like your mum's, so they won't be competing with hers!