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This bizarre Swedish sausage is Zlatan’s favourite food

Tell us if you like this, and we'll tell you how long you've lived in Sweden.

Published: 18 November 2016 10:28 CET

This bizarre Swedish sausage is Zlatan's favourite food

'I'm starting to feel a bit peckish.' Photo: AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

Zlatan Ibrahimovic grew up in Malmö, which boasts an up-and-coming culinary scene, Michelin chefs and the best fast-food falafel in Sweden.

He has since had the chance to dine at some of the most expensive restaurants in both Italy and France, two countries famous for their cuisine.

But the Swedish footballer's top gastronomic experience is neither Escargots nor Spaghetti Bolognese. In an interview with public broadcaster SVT's news programme for children, he revealed his choice.

Pasta and falukorv.

“I like Helena's food,” he praised his long-time partner when asked what they and their sons Maximilan and Vincent like to eat. “She is a good cook. Macaroni and falukorv is the favourite. We all eat that.”

READ ALSO: Nine Swedish eating habits that confuse foreigners

Swedish falukorv. Photo: Leif R Jansson/TT

What kind of Swedish delicacy is falukorv, some of you may be wondering? It is a cooked Swedish sausage that consists of grated pork, beef or horse mixed with potato starch, onion, salt and other spices.

It originated in the mines in Falun (its name means Falu sausage) in the Dalarna region hundreds of years ago, and has enjoyed EU TSG (traditional specialities guaranteed) status since 2001.

It can be eaten raw as a snack, gratinated whole in the oven, Sausage Stroganoff (a Swedish bastardization of Beef Stroganoff) or as is the most common, fried in slices and served with elbow macaroni and ketchup.

Swedes love falukorv. Many foreigners find this strange.

“It's like the worst kind of fake processed meat,” The Local's British managing editor once described it. “It's not so much the taste but the texture, it has no kind of substance whatsover. Your teeth just glide through it.”

READ ALSO: The ten most disgusting Swedish foods

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits.

SEE ALSO: What’s the tipping etiquette in Sweden?

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user).

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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