Östermalms Saluhall - Tysta Mari

Occasion: Another day, another delicious lunch
Location: Östermalms Saluhall in the Gamla Stan neighborhood of Stockholm, Sweden - nearest T-bana stop is Östermalmstorg. It's a landmark. You can't miss it.
Edibles: smoked salmon with boiled potatoes in creamy dill sauce; salad with shrimp, greens, tomatoes, artichokes and snow peas

Musings: The Östermalms Saluhall is a high class food court, sort of like Eataly. It does have stalls that sell meat and seafood, produce, prepared foods etc. But mostly it's restaurant stalls. And don't worry - it's not a horrible tourist trap. Locals definitely come here too.

We went with a place called Tysta Mari. Their display case looked enticing, it was clearly popular with locals, and we were able to pounce on some seats opening up. The original plan was to get another open-faced salmon sandwich, but I changed my mind after all four people ahead of me in line ordered the salad. (We'll meet another day, Scurvy.)

And no wonder that salad's so popular - it's crisp and interesting, with lots of really fresh baby shrimp. It turned out to be surprisingly filling when paired with a thick slice of dense, brown raisin bread. The salmon in the other dish was on par with the excellent Scandinavian salmon we'd had elsewhere, and those potatoes - stunning. Cooked perfectly, with a light glaze of sauce, elegant and hearty at the same time. So simple and so perfect. Add a chilled glass of house white to wash it all down. Heaven.

A lady next to us was having one of the daily special, ham (fläsklägg!!) with some kind of orange-colored purée. Sweet potato? Butternut squash? I never did figure it out due to the language barrier. It looked really good too. [Postscript: Sadly, we couldn't fit in a return trip to verify that.]

A big thumbs up for this place. Not exactly cheap but very tasty food, skillfully made.