[HN Gopher] IKEA's restaurants were failing, then it turned to S...
___________________________________________________________________
IKEA's restaurants were failing, then it turned to Swedish
meatballs
Author : danso
Score : 62 points
Date : 2022-05-02 13:20 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cnn.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cnn.com)
| ncmncm wrote:
| "Swedish meatballs" are really Turkish meatballs. Just sayin'.
| silicon2401 wrote:
| Based on what evidence?
| capitainenemo wrote:
| Always hard to prove things in deep history but:
| https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/03/europe/swedish-meatballs-
| turk...
|
| " King Charles XII took the throne in 1697 at age 15 and
| later spent several years in Bender (now Bendery in Moldova),
| which was under Turkish rule, before returning to Sweden in
| 1715 - allegedly with a recipe for meatballs. "
|
| (allegedly)
|
| "Coffee beans and stuffed cabbage were also brought back to
| Sweden by Charles XII, according to Turkish state-run news
| agency Anadolu. "
| leobg wrote:
| Alex has a series about it: https://youtu.be/JViMCRQ4f44
| netsharc wrote:
| Well, guess I'm making Kottbullar for dinner this week!
| [deleted]
| _Microft wrote:
| The only source for that seems to be a retracted claim of the
| official Swedish Twitter account.
|
| https://twitter.com/swedense/status/992396766808035329
| folli wrote:
| Hard to believe that rolling minced meat into a spheric shape
| and frying them has only been invented once.
| bl0rg wrote:
| Aren't you clever? Good job!
| [deleted]
| 2000UltraDeluxe wrote:
| Meatballs are pretty common all over the world and many
| cultures have their own variants. The Swedish ones are quite
| similar to the ones in the rest of the Nordics, apart from
| their smaller size. I suspect there's as many recipies as there
| are grandmothers.
|
| G'Kar describes it well in Babylon 5:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVLkxSSvegc
| [deleted]
| digisign wrote:
| Love the meatballs, including the veggie varieties, and enjoy the
| store on occasion. Even the article was decent, though a bit
| predictable.
|
| But, woo-wee there's dozens, perhaps sixty? javascript trackers
| linked on that page. Thank god for no-script.
|
| Don't think I'll be back to cnn.
| [deleted]
| floren wrote:
| I finally picked up a frozen bag of the famed IKEA meatballs
| about a year ago. As a Swedish meatball enthusiast, I was excited
| to try them, but honestly they were pretty disgusting--spongy,
| weird texture, bad flavor. Are the ones served in the cafeteria
| different?
|
| My mother makes them every Christmas, just using ground pork and
| a packet of premixed seasoning, and they are far superior. To
| really go to the next level,
| https://www.themeateater.com/cook/recipes/wild-game-meatball...
| is a solid recipe that works well with ground elk meat _or_ pork
| sausage.
|
| All the meatballs I ate when I visited Sweden were fine, of
| course, it's just that IKEA's were bad.
| Xevi wrote:
| I'm a Swede so I think I'm qualified to answer this. Yes the
| meatballs served at IKEA fits your description. They are really
| low quality meatballs.
| robonerd wrote:
| > _spongy, weird texture, bad flavor._
|
| That describes every store bought frozen meatball I've ever
| had, sponginess particularly. But if I make meatballs myself
| and freeze them, they come out fine. Something about the way
| factories make meatballs just isn't right.
| smoldesu wrote:
| I mostly ate it for the gravy, which was pretty solid. The
| meatballs themselves were fine; their only saving grace was
| that you could get quite a few of them for a reasonable price,
| which made them attractive after checking out 50 models of
| bedroom furniture for 2 and a half hours.
| exabrial wrote:
| I've literally gone to Ikea just to eat "Swedish" meatballs
| Hamuko wrote:
| I've gone to just buy the lingonberry jam.
|
| Goes great with plain yoghurt if no one's ever tried it.
| pigscantfly wrote:
| The hardbread and raspberry gumdrops (gelehallon) are great,
| too. I'll usually get Kalle's spread, but it's maybe not for
| everyone.
| kart23 wrote:
| Has anyone been to an ikea restaurant recently? I think post-
| covid they made a bunch of cost-cutting changes, because I
| remember the food being pretty darn delightful and tasty. I went
| a month ago and got cold mashed potatoes, disgusting veggies, and
| just plain horrible mac-n-cheese. Also, all the silverware and
| dishes had been replaced by single-use wooden sporks and paper
| plates.
|
| I'm probably never eating at ikea again. The meatballs are
| decent, but you can get them frozen and they taste exactly the
| same.
| luciusdomitius wrote:
| It is not just IKEA. Besides shrinkflation, there must be
| something like shitficflation, because here in C. Europe, mince
| and sausages became basically inedible over the past 12 years.
| Which is a shame as I used to enjoy both.
| RC_ITR wrote:
| This is going to feel like a personal attack, but it's
| intended to be commiserating:
|
| Welcome to getting old.
| SllX wrote:
| Is that why eating out isn't as much fun as it used to be
| either?
| acchow wrote:
| Yes.
|
| It also becomes increasingly expensive to find
| enjoyable/delightful food.
| radicalbyte wrote:
| I legit prefer the veggie meats to supermarket burgers/mince.
| kzrdude wrote:
| I think so, because we have seen inflation already in most
| areas of life: rising prices (and I'm thinking of pre-2022).
| However food has somehow more or less stayed level. Much of
| it means we were paying the same for ever worse quality food.
| Hamuko wrote:
| How are wooden sporks and paper plates cost-cutting? They're
| single use, so you need to keep buying them, whereas you can
| wash silverware and dishes. And they're probably the cheapest
| possible silverware and dishes known to man since IKEA makes
| them.
|
| Sounds more like a hygiene thing than a cost-cutting thing.
| [deleted]
| luciusdomitius wrote:
| IKEA doesn't make anything. Their entire competetive
| advantage is inventing logistics 2.0
| nicoburns wrote:
| IKEA is well-known for it's innovative designs. They're
| just focussed on cost-saving for the most part.
| bobthepanda wrote:
| Washing does require some amount of labor and water usage. We
| don't get sodas in reusable bottles to return either for that
| reason.
| [deleted]
| znkynz wrote:
| They serve them with mashed potato - in which markets? In the UK
| they are/were served with whole (peeled) steamed/boiled potato.
| Symbiote wrote:
| At least Sweden.
|
| The first picture, showing the advert outside an Ikea in
| Sweden, says "meatballs with mashed or boiled potatoes".
| callahad wrote:
| In Belfast it's mash or chips with the meatballs.
| odiroot wrote:
| I just ate a plate with mash (very generous portion) last
| weekend, here in south England. The other choice was chips.
| znkynz wrote:
| I've not lived in an Ikea Market since 2010, so perhaps a
| change. I always just quite liked the non-mashed option.
| soperj wrote:
| >I've not lived in an Ikea Market since 2010, so perhaps a
| change.
|
| znkynz has had the answer to homelessness all along.
| jwilk wrote:
| Text-only version:
| https://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_d98a496fd4ba614d22b933772f...
| jollybean wrote:
| I wonder how well such a type of restaurant would do on it's own,
| outside of an IKEA.
|
| Basically Scandinavian 'fast food' - healthy but also very
| 'hearty' and simple enough for Western tastes. The brightly lit,
| simply decorated rooms, kind of a 'cafeteria' feel where families
| can eat.
|
| Like 'Denny's' but for middle class and urbanites.
| crooked-v wrote:
| Denny's is already for the middle class, though?
| stickfigure wrote:
| I made Kenji's Swedish meatballs recipe recently:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld5cECqIFU0
|
| If you ever want to enjoy Ikea food again, I suggest you do _not_
| make this dish. It will be an unfortunate standards-raising
| experience.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-05-03 23:00 UTC)