When visiting Sweden’s capital, Stockholm, a must-eat dish is of course Swedish meatballs; something you can find in the majority of restaurants and brasseries in the city’s old town (swe: Gamla Stan, lit. old town). The prices vary, but don’t expect to pay less than 20 euros in the touristy area.

The dish consists usually of five distinct elements. pork and/or beefmeatballs with mashed potato, a brown cream sauce, lingonberry jam, and pickled cucumbers.

On this occasion I decided to dine at a restaurant called Tradition just at the outskirts of Gamla Stan. Weirdly enough, the restaurant does not serve fusion food or ”exotic” cuisine. The fatal decision was made with the aid of a beloved social media site called Reddit, or via ”a Google-assisted Reddit search” with the search term formula ”what you want to search for” + reddit. Best swedish meatballs gamla stan reddit, and voilà, Tradition is shown in one of the top comments of a recent thread in r/stockholm. While this method of finding restaurants is not foolproof, it gives a reasonably accurate result of what people (and often locals) consider good food in their area.

The dish offers everything you need for a satisfying food experience. The meaty, savoury, and fatty meatballs are small two-bite (or one-bite if you’re a glutton like me) sensations that equip a space somewhere in the category of comfort food. They are accompanied by a creamy, velvety, buttery and rich potato mash that is - yes, of course - definite comfort food in the world of sides. Einstein’s family members might guess this dish can be described as ”comfort food”.

So, you take a meatball (or cut a piece if you have patience and respect mindful eating behaviour) and slather some mash on it with your knife. The ball will be covered with a sauce (there’s no innuendo here, behave) that is rich, creamy, buttery (butter makes everything better so if it can be included it will be), peppery, and umami-savoury. Now your utensil is full of fatty, buttery, salty and savoury richness. Balance is needed and fast. Acidity and sweetness are missing from the provisional mouthgasm; therefore add a small heap of lingonberry jam on top for a tart and slightly sweet touch. Enter to your mouth, and immediately add a small, paperthin slice of pickled cucumber. Repeat until you have cleaned the plate. Celebrate being alive and blessed enough to experience yet another food sensation.