The Mawlers' Swedish Get-Away

Travel Diet

The Mawler travel diet, like most things in this life, seems to be coming full circle.

When we went on our honeymoon, we went to the Canadian Rockies, and we stayed in a Bed and Breakfast with a wonderful host, Wendy. Each morning, Wendy would fix us the most unbelievable breakfast, full of everything in the entire world, from eggs and bacon to cereal, yoghurt, toast with fabulous jams... you name it, we had it. Then, we'd set out for a day of exploring, and we'd sometimes not eat anything else or we'd stop at a grocery store and get a loaf of bread and a block of cheese. For dinner, we'd stop somewhere and have a big plate of French fries, and a beer or two.

Of course, in large part, our lack of food after breakfast was because Wendy fed us so well in the morning. And, it's a heck of a lot harder to find restaurants a hundred kilometers from anything than it is at home. But, it was also much more economical to buy a loaf of bread and a block of cheese. And the fries for dinner ensured we had the scheckles for beer.

A few years later, stuart had stopped eating meat. By vegetarian, stuart means no meat. No chicken, no beef, no pork, no seafood (fish or mussels or clams, etc.) When we went to Mexico, he learned it in Spanish. Soy vegetariano. No pollo, no carne, no mariscos... On that trip, we found local restaurants, like taquerias, and ordered vegetable fillings. (I, of course, continued to eat whatever...)

We have traveled a fair amount with this modus operandi. We eat at local restaurants and tend vegetarian. We lean towards restaurants with beer or some other compelling drinks... plenty of calories and not much meat. In Argentina, we visited an unbelievably fabulous wine shop that fed us a huge cheese board with two bottles of spectacular Malbec (our new favorite red). In England, we stuck mainly with pubs. Fries and beer and fried fish for me.

Then, we started to find allergies to things. Stuart is allergic to Carrots. (No kidding.) And I am allergic to red peppers. And it turns out, we have recently found out, I am also allergic to wheat.

Okay. No meat. No wheat. No carrots. No red peppers.

We know what this boils down to, right? No food.

So. Here we are in Sweden. Sweden, we understand, is the land of coffee and beer. This is good. We can do coffee and beer. Beyond that, no wheat and no meat seems relatively limiting. We managed to find a salad that was great except apparently a main ingredient in salad is Bulgur Wheat. And, it's not easy to tell what comes in the food when the menu is in Swedish. Oh, everyone here speaks English. They just don't put it on the menu.

So, we passed a cheese shop on the way back to the hotel this evening, and I'm thinking we're coming full circle. We can do eggs for breakfast (and we often do!), and then we'll get a block of cheese for the rest of the day.

And don't forget the beer and coffee. And maybe some wine, for good measure.

The previous installment:
The Book

The next installment:
The Art of Food

Back to Mawlers' Swedish Get-Away


The Mawler travel diet, like most things in this life, seems to be coming full circle. When we went on our honeymoon, we went to the Canadian Rockies, and we stayed in a Bed and Breakfast with a wonderful host, Wendy. Each morning, Wendy would fix us the most unbelievable breakfast, full of everything in the entire world, from eggs and bacon to cereal, yoghurt, toast with fabulous jams... you name it, we had it. Then, we'd set out for a day of exploring, and we'd sometimes not eat anything else or we'd stop at a grocery store and get a loaf of bread and a block of cheese. For dinner, we'd stop somewhere and have a big plate of French fries, and a beer or two. Of course, in large part, our lack of food after breakfast was because Wendy fed us so well in the morning. And, it's a heck of a lot harder to find restaurants a hundred kilometers from anything than it is at home. But, it was also much more economical to buy a loaf of bread and a block of cheese. And the fries for dinner ensured we had the scheckles for beer. A few years later, stuart had stopped eating meat. By vegetarian, stuart means no meat. No chicken, no beef, no pork, no seafood (fish or mussels or clams, etc.) When we went to Mexico, he learned it in Spanish. Soy vegetariano. No pollo, no carne, no mariscos... On that trip, we found local restaurants, like taquerias, and ordered vegetable fillings. (I, of course, continued to eat whatever...) We have traveled a fair amount with this modus operandi. We eat at local restaurants and tend vegetarian. We lean towards restaurants with beer or some other compelling drinks... plenty of calories and not much meat. In Argentina, we visited an unbelievably fabulous wine shop that fed us a huge cheese board with two bottles of spectacular Malbec (our new favorite red). In England, we stuck mainly with pubs. Fries and beer and fried fish for me. Then, we started to find allergies to things. Stuart is allergic to Carrots. (No kidding.) And I am allergic to red peppers. And it turns out, we have recently found out, I am also allergic to wheat. Okay. No meat. No wheat. No carrots. No red peppers. We know what this boils down to, right? No food. So. Here we are in Sweden. Sweden, we understand, is the land of coffee and beer. This is good. We can do coffee and beer. Beyond that, no wheat and no meat seems relatively limiting. We managed to find a salad that was great except apparently a main ingredient in salad is Bulgur Wheat. And, it's not easy to tell what comes in the food when the menu is in Swedish. Oh, everyone here speaks English. They just don't put it on the menu. So, we passed a cheese shop on the way back to the hotel this evening, and I'm thinking we're coming full circle. We can do eggs for breakfast (and we often do!), and then we'll get a block of cheese for the rest of the day. And don't forget the beer and coffee. And maybe some wine, for good measure.

The previous installment: The Book	The next installment: The Art of Food

Back to Mawlers' Swedish Get-Away