Swedish Cuisine 
Swedes eating habits have changed quite radically over the past 10-20 years. With the arrival of immigrants from many countries, the dishes, flavours and ideas of many cultures has begun to find its way into Swedish cuisine.Many Swedes also now spend their summer holidays abroad and so are more aware of the foods available from other countries.
Today in Sweden it is not hard to find something for most peoples tastes at restaurants, cafés and bars. In almost all the major towns there are pizza and kebab bars, Chinese, Italian and French foods and many have Oriental shops -run by immigrants and selling foods from East Asia, Southern Europe and North Africa.
Traditionally, Swedish dishes often contained pork (especially Christmas meals), varieties of marinaded or pickled herrings, meatballs, sausages, potatoes, bread or hardbread. These were served with mostly root vegetables. Fish is extremely popular too - with salmon and herring the top two, but closely followed by crayfish, perch and eel.
Husmanskost - A staple meal
This is the traditional Swedish foodstuffs that remain popular today, even with outside influences. The meals were based on meat, fish and root veg.
Some examples would be:
Meatballs with boiled potatoes and lingonberry jam.
Lightly salted pork with root vegetable mash
Pea soup with pork
Fried Baltic Herring
Fried cured Baltic Herring
Meat patties
Pyttipanna (similar to bubble and squeak).
These meals were hearty foods and needed in the past when most people were manual labourers.
Another traditional dish is nävgrött med fläsk och lingon - an oatmeal porridge blend, with bacon slices and lingonberry jam. Very filling and perfect to keep the labourers energy levels up.
Swedish Breads, Cakes, Biscuits and Confectionery:
Most immigrants find Swedish bread far too sweet, but the sweeter loaves are still the most popular amongst Swedish people. A not-so-sweet alternative is hardbread (knäckebröd) or some of the Middle Eastern type breads such as pitta.
Swedish cakes and pastries almost invariably contain one or more of the following ingredients - almonds, marzipan, cinnammon, cream, raspberries, strawberries, chocolate and vanilla custard. The Swedes adore almonds and marzipan - flavoured or unflavoured and popular cakes and pastries are mostly marzipan based.
Examples of these are:
Semla / Fettisdagsbulle ("Fat Tuesday bun" - traditionally eaten after fish on Tuesdays during Lent) - marzipan and cream buns, often served with warm milk. However due to its popularity its available for most of the year nowadays.
Punschrulle - punsch-flavoured marzipan oblong shaped cakes, with pistacio and both ends dipped in dark chocolate (known commonly as dammsugare - vaacum cleaners 
).
Arraksboll - punsch-flavoured truffle type round cakes, rolled in chocolate vermicelli (hundreds and thousands).
Pepparkakor - thin crisp gingersnap cookies - often shaped like flowers or hearts.
Traditional Festive Meals: The Christmas Table 
The Christmas meal in Sweden was always a vast array of dishes, normally served buffet-style. Today the quantities are not so vast, but firm favourites are still served. The Christmas buffet is served in restaurants all across Sweden during the December month.
Christmas Meal Dishes:
Christmas Ham - boiled or roasted and then covered in mustard and breadcrumbs and baked. (served with apple sauce).
Sausages, pork ribs, meatballs, liver paté, herring, salmon, red cabbage, sauerkraut, beetroot, potatoes and varieties of potato dishes are all served together with the traditional pudding of rice pudding made with liters of cream, vanilla and/or cinnammon spicing with a raspberry sauce.
For delicious recipes from Sweden - go to http://expatsinsweden.proboards33.com (or click on message board at left-hand side of the webpage) and browse through the selection held under "Can't Cook - Won't Cook!"
bravenet.com