hembageri

Sorry dieters. This is probably not the post for you. We have two great local bakeries.

The first one is Stavsnäs Hembageri near the summer harbor and for better or worse, it is in bike range. They sell a lot of traditional Swedish favorites and have a hot lunch steam table. Everything is made on site. They also have a great homey dining room complete with some antiques and a fireplace hearth for cold winter days.

Cardamom rolls. Very traditional. I couldn't remember if they had cardamom back in the states. It is from India and I think it tastes similar to cinnamon but not as strong.

None of these pictures are ours by the way, but ones we found online.

Things are currently arranged a little differently but you get the gist: mom & pop bakery.

The second bakery is Munkens.

Again, everything is made on site. Mon's favorite birthday cake is called a princess tort - the green one with powdered sugar on the left in this photo. The outside is a thin layer of sweet almond paste and the inside is layers of cake and whipped cream. The chocolate ones aren't bad either, or the ones with fresh fruit.

Around Christmas most bakeries make saffron rolls. I'm not crazy about them, but hey, it's tradition. In general Swedish sweets don't bowl you over like back in the U.S. where sugar highs are guaranteed. Once you get use to the lack of punch, it's kind of nice. You taste more flavors than just SWEET. The saffron rolls definitely fall into this category. It's so subtle I don't even know how to begin to describe it.

Because the bakeries are close, lately we've been having soup and sandwich night about once every two weeks. We put on a pot of soup, sandwich fixings and some of the local bakeries' freshly baked sandwich bread. Everybody gets to make the sandwich they like and it's hands on fun at the table, almost like taco night. Yum.

One thing that is kind of funny about Munkens is that there is a play on the word. 'Munk' means monk, like a religious monk. 'Munk' also means donut. On their sign is a picture of a monk offering a kid a sweet out of his bag.

Don't get me wrong, we don't haunt these places all the time. But they sure are part of the local fabric.