Pickled herring and vodka shots

That's the main menu for Midsummer in Sweden, where it's celebrated more than the national holiday.
In this part of Europe (Scandianvia and Central Europe) it's either Midsummer or St John's (in Poland), or Kupala (in Lithuania).
Any other GSers who celebrate Solstice?
Maybe at Stonehenge?

Er man I did a Stonehenge equinox when I was like a lot younger man and er you know smoked a lot.

I love vodka shots and pickled herring.

I love pickled herring and martinis, but it seems like more of a winter thing to me.

I once had a Swedish girlfriend, and it I mentioned to her that it seemed that Swedes never had to plan a menu. They'd look at the calendar and have the dish that was traditional for that day.

Better than pickled vodka and herring shots I guess.

I quite like pickled myanmarbound and herring shots.

Pickled herring and vodka sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

I have mentioned here before a cocktail I invented, the skaggerak, like a vodka martini with a tablespoon of the juice from a jar of pickled herring added, and a bit of herring on a toothpick as a garnish. Skål!

Pass..

It's similar to my Krasnaya Zvezda, same idea but with pickled beet juice replacing the herring juice.

Swedish Midsommer party

As a kid, we would often have pickled herring with our bagels, cream cheese and lox for Sunday breakfast. There was no vodka involved. While I like an occasional shot of vodka, I don't generally like it with food.

I may try the skaggarak one day.

It's the traditional bonfire night in many parts of Ireland (though not in Dublin where I'm from - we do our bonfires at Halloween). In some areas, people would jump through the bonfires - I don't know if this happens any more. I don't think there's any traditional food to go with it though. In Dublin, colcannon and barm brack are traditional at Hallowe'en.

Like all slightly disruptive traditional pastimes, the Irish authorities are inclined to try and stamp it out:
Busy bonfire night for Cork fire services

Edited by: fear_rua

#11 - I do think of it as more of a winter thing.

If there ever were midsummer festivities in the US, they've been elbowed out by the Fourth of July. In Boston they eat salmon and peas but in most places it's grilled and picnic foods. The amount of German influence on American food really shows up on the Fourth of July: hamburgers, frankfurters, sauerkraut, potato salad, macaroni salad, all washed down with lager beer. Watermelon (from Africa) and maybe cole slaw (Dutch) are the only non-German elements.

Where did baked beans originate?

Vinny--what about the ice cream? Food Timeline says
>Food historians tell us the history of ice cream begins with ancient flavored ices. The Chinese are generally credited for creating the first ice creams, possibly as early as 3000 BC. Marco Polo is popularly cited for introducing these tasty concoctions to Italy. This claim (as well as his introducing pasta to Italy) are questionable. The ice creams we enjoy today are said to have been invented in Italy during the 17th century. They spread northward through Europe via France.

The beans used in baked beans are New World in origin. Many historians credit American Indians with coming up with the first baked beans, done by adding maple syrup (or sap) & animal fat to beans, then burying the pot with coals for slow cooking. There are other theories as well, one being that Quebecois altered a French dish made with Old World beans and white sugar.

The first published recipe is not until 1829. It just called for salt pork & beans, no sweetener. The first instance of "Boston Baked Beans" is 1853.

#9; Hah! for once it wasn't Poland they were taking the mickey out of...

A picture from Midsommar lunch..
Out of the twelve dishes on the table eleven are made with/from herring. The one that isn't is salmon paté.

#9 and 15.
That was an ad for IKEA on German tv. It wasn't appreciated by Swedes and was eventually banned. I thought it was quite funny (with a bit of exaggeration).

The people here speak better Swedish than the people in that IKEA ad. To my ears.

What about this guy?

Vinny, that sounds more like Yidish with Iclandic accent. It's funny to see (or hear) how people perceive a language they don't speak. Here is another take by Catherine Tate

...must add...
the ad from German tv is obviously pure Swedish and made with Swedish actors.

Swedish made simple

"Out of the twelve dishes on the table eleven are made with/from herring. The one that isn't is salmon paté."

Lovely looking meal-Thanks for the pic!

#19

"Yeah! I did a TEFL in my gap year! " Love it!

Or, there's my take on a Swedish band's song, admittedly sung in English, with largely Polish accents:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-DwHF-IG-A

I think there is another group called BABA that does ABBA music. Technically, though, they are not an ABBA tribute band. BABA stands for Bjorn Again Bjorn Again and BABA is a tribute band to the group Bjorn Again, which is an ABBA tribute band. Bjorn Again do pretty good Swedish accents in interviews. It was from the Agnethe Fallskjold equivalent on the BBC that I heard about BABA, and she had to make it clear: "It is trrrue vot I em tellink you now."

Well, we aren't a band, I just made the name up for that one night performance to celebrate my 50th in style. Hence the lack of professionalism which was made up by the great fun we had performing ( especially during rehearsals, they were a scream!).

I was supposed to teach my friends the lyrics in English and after practicing with them for a few weeks, the result was not them singing with my RP accent, but me singing with their Polish accent!