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Scotland in uproar over being ‘out deep-fried’ by Sweden

A grease-soaked Swedish monster food has outraged Scots after they realized it may be even worse for you than Scotland's famous deep-fried Mars bar.

Published: 30 November 2016 11:04 CET
Updated: 30 November 2016 13:53 CET

Scotland in uproar over being 'out deep-fried' by Sweden

Sweden has 'out deep-fried' Scotland, and it isn't going down well. Photo: Restaurang Tre Kronor

Chip shops in Scotland have been covering the caramel chocolate bars in batter and deep-frying them since the 1990s, and the practice has since spread to other shores. But local pride has now been dented after a user on the Scottish subforum of Reddit pointed out that Sweden may well have “out deep-fried” the Scots.

The food in question is the “Calskroven”, an invention created in northern Sweden around a decade ago, which involves taking a hamburger and fries then baking it inside a calzone pizza.

“This is outrageous. This is a Swedish thing – not a Scottish one. We’re being out-deepfried-pizzad by the Swedes,” wrote Reddit user TheColinous, who first brought the Swedish creation to Scotland’s attention.

“We can’t stand for this,” replied another user, adding that he was “away to make a calzone out of a haggis supper (deep-fried haggis and fries) and a block of cheddar” before deep-frying it, in retaliation.

For anyone wondering what it's like to actually eat the creation, The Local's former northern Sweden correspondent Paul Connolly said it “tastes like a four week stay in a coronary care unit”.

The Scottish edition of tabloid The Sun claims that a Calskrove can contain as much as 2,000 calories – significantly more than the 1,200 calories in a deep-fried Mars bar and fries.

Scotland’s outrage over being outdone has since made its way back to Sweden, but there's more bad news on the way. A user at Reddit Sweden has pointed out that the Calskroven has long since been overtaken in the horrible food stakes by another Swedish invention, the Vulkan pizza.

The Vulcan pizza makes a Calskrove look like a light snack. Photo: Nya Gul & Blå pizzeria

The monstrosity contains bacon, pepperoni, diced steak, fries, and cheese to name but a few of its toppings, adding up to around 3,700 calories.

Forget the Scots: imagine how that makes the Italians feel.

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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