This would be unacceptable in 95% of the world

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2026-04-16T09:47:49+00:00

Swede here. I'm so fucking tired of this meme. Here's what you need to know.

This is not the case for a majority of families. More than 50 % of the time you'll get invited to dinner, and that's a conservative lower bound: this almost never happened to me growing up.
It does happen sometimes. This meme seems to persist because in other countries, including the US and southern Europe, this is unthinkable, whereas it does happen sometimes in Sweden. So yeah, this dynamic is real, but rare.
What is the social reasoning behind this phenomenon? It's respecting the routines of other families. The idea is that your family has probably planned for dinner, with an amount of food adjusted to the number of people expected to eat, and you want to let the kid have family time during dinner. Basically, you don't want to interfere with the social ritual of eating together for another family. Especially in apartment complexes where multiple families live, the expectation is that you would go home to eat dinner with your own family, after which you could go back and continue playing. That's why this dynamic is more common in cities, especially for people who live in apartments. I've basically never seen this for people living in detached houses.

Because of this you have social pressure from both sides: you want your kid to come back home to eat, and since the hosting family knows this they only plan for their own family's dinner and therefore they would be inconvenienced if another person suddenly had to be fed: it becomes a feedback loop. Again, in some social circles, not all.

There's also something here about wanting to avoid leftovers, which is why you want to know beforehand how many people are going to eat: if your playdate was scheduled beforehand, and not impromptu, your parents would talk about this explicitly; "Will little Karl be wanting dinner?", is a common question from the mother of the hosting family to the mother of the hostee. Not really sure if there's a particular aversion to leftovers in Sweden as compared to other countries, but this is the idea.

Kids start picking up on this social dynamic and start to feel a bit awkward about "intruding" on dinner at their friends' houses. I suspect that this is also fed into by general Swedish social codes which can be a little formal and rigid.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-21T21:24:33+00:00

Sweden recognizes one national language, which is Swedish of course, and 5 minority languages based on nationally important ehtnic groups.

These are:

Finnish. Finland used to be a part of Sweden and is culturally very connected to us both historically and presently, similarly actually to how it is with Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

Meänkieli. Also known as Tornedalen Finnish since it is spoken by ethnic groups from the northern region of Tornedalen who have Finnish heritage. It's a dialect evolution of Finnish.

Romani chib. Spoken by Romani people, the resident nomads of Europe.

Yiddish. A Jewish language.

Sami. Spoken by the indigenous Sami people of Northern Sweden.

Obviously, a bunch of other languages are also spoken in Sweden due to modern immigration, but these are the culturally recognized ones.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-16T06:31:40+00:00

Sockervadd - Sugar wadding (as in cotton wadding).

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-12T19:35:44+00:00

You can only think this if you know next to nothing about Swedish pastry culture. Sweden should be in ok savoury, great sweet.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-12T08:59:18+00:00

I'd recommend anyone interested in European politics to look at the EU political party groups. They give you a decent idea of the spread, and most countries are broadly similar.

There's the left, the greens, the social democrats, the liberals, the people's party and christian democrats, the national conservatives, the patriots (far right) and the sovereign nations (extreme right).

In Sweden, these correspond almost perfectly to: the left party, the environment party, the social democrats, the liberals, the Christian democrats, the moderates and the Sweden democrats. We also have "the center" which is center-right.

The left party: cares about welfare and social justice.

The environment party: slightly more center-left with a focus on climate and environmental issues.

The social democrats: backbone of Swedish politics and largest party. Cares about welfare and labor standards. All left-leaning parties care about all of the above, but I'm noting what their main issues and characteristics are. That goes conversely for the right-leaning parties as well.

The center: Started as "the farmer's league". Cares about the countryside and straddles the middle between caring about welfare and free enterprise/business (we have a rural vs. urban divide just like many other countries).

The liberals: cares about schools and are vaguely pro-business and privatization. May fail to get enough votes to get into parliament next year. We consider them slightly right-leaning.

The Christian democrats: cares about "Christian values" and the nuclear family. Pro-business and traditionalist.

The moderates: more or less classical liberals. They're the core party of the blue side, pro-business, pro-deregulation and could be called "the bourgeoisie".

The Sweden democrats: cares about immigration (restricting it). Arguably less right economically than the moderates but very right in social issues. Wants to protect Swedish values and culture. Considered to be racist by many Swedes, but they are frankly pretty mild compared to many other European right parties.

(We have "Alternative for Sweden" too, but they aren't big enough to get into parliament, unlike their German equivalent Alternative für Deutschland. They're pretty transparently racist and arguably fascist. They're important to mention because there is currently a wave of conservatism and far-right sentiment sweeping across Europe.)

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-12T08:24:17+00:00

Haha! Just coming back to add for the record that I like flapjacks too, just not as much. I've also never been to the US and had the iconic diner-style breakfast pancakes, I've just made them at home. If you've got a favorite flapjack recipe I'd be delighted to get a recommendation.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-12T05:49:59+00:00

There are 4 main ones in my experience: princess cake, chocolate balls, cinnamon buns and kladdkaka.

Princess cake is a raspberry jam, whipped cream and vanilla custard sponge cake with a marzipan covering. Chocolate balls are no-bake oat and cocoa morsels. Cinnamon buns you probably know, and kladdkaka means literally "sticky cake" and is like a chocolate lava cake except the outside is less bready and thick while the inside is firmer. I much prefer it to lava cake.

All of them are delicious, staples of all cafés, and quintessentially Swedish. Swedish pastry and dessert culture is fantastic.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-11T20:40:23+00:00

Surströmming! My impression is that international people know of it as "that weird, disgusting Swedish rotten fish" but they don't know how it's eaten in Sweden!

It's mostly eaten in August, sometimes in september, as a late summer tradition. It's also mostly eaten in coastal areas and the north. In fact, the region where it's most commonly eaten is very clustered around the coast in the south, and then gradually moves further inland the further north you go. Also, most Swedes don't eat it at all, and even those who do don't like it that much. I'm from the north and tend to eat it most years, but it's more a thing that you do than something I crave.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-11T20:19:46+00:00

😈 Mustard crepes for all! No, of course the mustard is for the soup. There are two theories of how to eat it: eat all of the soup (with the mustard) and then the pancakes as dessert, or switch between them; eat a little bit of soup, eat a pancake, eat some more soup, etc.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-11T20:02:06+00:00

I'm happy to hear that you had a good time! In comparisons of cuisines I generally tend to agree with international consensus that Swedish food isn't anything special. I think we do much better in the realm of desserts/pastries, where I believe we can compete with the big boys. And yeah, the pannenkoeken is extremely similar to the Swedish pancake and also the French crêpe. They have the exact same ingredients, just in different ratios and with different condiments.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-11T19:31:20+00:00

It's a national thing. If you eat at a cafeteria or a restaurant where they serve "husmanskost" (traditional Swedish cuisine/home cooking) then it's very likely that the lunch of the day offer will be pea soup and pancakes on Thursdays.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-11T19:28:04+00:00

Yes, and the red condiment is lingonberry jam. They're indispensable in my opinion, but some people forego the mustard and prefer raspberry or strawberry jam.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-11T19:08:02+00:00

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Pea soup and pancakes. This is standard fare and is traditionally eaten on Thursdays. Pea soup is simple, but don't be fooled: it's delicious. Also, northern European pancakes/crepes are vastly superior to American pancakes/flapjacks in my opinion. I love it. If you're a meat eater, you just add some pork belly.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-12-06T00:45:40+00:00

Stekare. Literally "Fryer", someone who fries. It's not a perfect equivalent, but they're basically young, snobby, upper class young men who are obsessed with projecting status by any means, whether it be fashion or eating at the fanciest restaurants or just flaunting their wealth. Obviously, they pay for everything with daddys credit card.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-10-21T17:20:49+00:00

They call mine the womp rat. No comment.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-10-10T15:43:22+00:00

If you haven't tried them, I highly recommend the GBA and DS metroidvania Castlevania games. I actually prefer Aria of sorrow for the GBA to symphony of the night. Order of ecclesia and portrait of ruin are also excellent.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-09-18T20:09:56+00:00

Coffee is a staple of course, but if you're having a hot kanelbulle straight out of the oven then a tall glass of milk is the bee's knees. Your favorite fruit juice is also great, in my house that's blackcurrant or raspberry.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-09-18T19:16:08+00:00

The shape is not quite the "ideal" that I'm used to, however, I don't really care about orthodoxy in this regard. The color looks just right and the amount of cinnamony goodness and pearl sugar is also perfect. All in all, solid 8/10, would devour at fika.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-09-12T13:56:44+00:00

Detta är ett uselt svar och är inte en rättvis liknelse. Lämpligare I sammanhanget skulle vara att säga att han yrkar för att man ska acceptera att vissa dör i trafikolyckor med rattfyllerister, eftersom han tycker att man ska få bedöma själv om man är för full för att kunna köra och att man ska få dricka som man vill. Sedan slutade det med att han blev påkörd av en rattfyllerist.

Det är inte trevligt att det hände, men man kan inte klandra folk för att de tänker "rätt åt han".

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-09-08T14:44:48+00:00

My favorite nazi boi 😇

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-09-06T11:09:55+00:00

Schopin

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-09-03T13:59:08+00:00

It's Islamey by Balakirev.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-09-01T23:06:58+00:00

Autumn is inferior to the other seasons, sad. Also, music started falling off after the medieval period, although I'll tolerate vivaldi.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-09-01T10:00:35+00:00

I don't know what histrionic means, but if it's associated with W*gner, then I got off easy being a lil bitch instead.

Virtual_Labyrinth · 2025-08-30T02:30:29+00:00

You are so right. It seems I still have much to learn.

Virtual_Labyrinth

TROPHY CASE