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.

Pelikan

Occasion: Our first Swedish dinner!
Location: Pelikan on Blekingegatan in the Södermalm neighborhood of Stockholm, Sweden - nearest T-bana stops are Medborgarplatsen and Skanstull (pelikan.se)
Edibles: salmon sampler to start, then we shared the Swedish meatballs and the pork knuckle - fläsklägg!! [It became my rallying cry for the rest of the trip.]

Musings: Bourdain had dinner here when he was in Stockholm, so we figured it was a safe bet. It's a pretty popular place and we had to wait about half an hour for a table. We sat outside with a beer and had some fun with a toy Papa Smurf that I'd gotten with my Happy Meal at JFK. You know, as you do.

By the way, I should note that it's extremely expensive to drink in Sweden. Our drafts were about $13. Each. [Postscript: At some point in our trip, I asked a local how Swedes can afford to get drunk. Apparently, it involves some serious pre-gaming.]

By the time we made it inside, we were pretty hungry. We started out with the salmon sampler, which featured three preparations - poached, smoked (almost like salmon jerky) and cured, with tartar sauce and pickled cucumbers. I liked the cured the best, but my only real complaint about the dish is that it wasn't bigger.

The mains were a split. Yining and I both found the Swedish meatballs pretty dry and flavorless, even with the gravy and lingonberry sauce.

The pork knuckle, on the other hand, was freaking fantastic. Really flavorful and cooked to a turn. It was served with some really pungent mustard and sauerkraut on the side. Really excellent. Fläsklägg!!