In the midst of blogging about my adventures in Sweden, I had wanted to include something about the cuisine. Except, I mainly dined at ethnic restaurants and I didn't take photos of the few Scandinavian dishes I did eat. So what's a food blogger to do except dine at everyone's favorite Swedish furniture store. :)
Now, you're probably wondering why the IKEA in Covina is worthy of mention. Well, it's all about the view. From the restaurant, you get a great view of the 10 freeway and the hills beyond. Oooooh. Are you suitably impressed now? ;)
Actually, compared to some of the other spaces, I really do think this restaurant's location is light and airy. If you choose to dine at the white chairs on the right side, you get a view of...
...the main entrance and escalators with the Klippan sofa display. Personally, I'm an Ektorp sofa girl. I don't like hard lines and need comfy cushions.
On the far side of the restaurant, where you bus your trays, there's also a living room set-up for those of you who are used to eating in front of the television. Except this television is for display purposes only.
On this day, I got the kiddie meatball meal with 5 Swedish meatballs, gravy, lingonberry sauce, and home fries. The meal comes with a kiddie-sized refillable juice cup, with lingonberry juice, of course. All for $1.99. So cousin Q's little brother got one too. We had stopped off to buy a new desk for cousin Q.
I also got an open-faced shrimp sandwich for $2.99. A bit dry, but light. It was more like a small side salad on a slice of bread. I never quite got the Scandinavian penchant for open-faced sandwiches. Not nearly as practical as a closed sandwich.
For dessert I got a blueberry cheesecake for 99 cents.
Cousin Q got the regular-sized meatball plate for $4.99, which came with 15 meatballs and the option of mashed potatoes instead of homefries.
The other Scandinavian idiosyncracy is for pickled fish and seafood in a tube. Remember when Norwegian cousin brought me caviar in a tube? The crab pate with dill in a tube was on sale so I bought it. It tasted more like salmon mousse with dill. Actually, it was quite tasty spread on crackers, but very salty.
Long ago when I first visited Norway, I asked my uncle if he knew how to prepare lutefisk (Norwegian cod preserved in lye). He said he could make it if I really wanted to try, but that it tasted extremely fishy. Not a good recommendation for sure.
They do have an array of Scandinavian jams that are hard to find elsewhere such as gooseberry, cloudberry, elderflower, and lingonberry.
I would love to buy elderflower syrup if it weren't $9.99 a bottle.
I'm done furnishing my house, but I still stop in from time to time for odds and ends. That's usually when I head to the food area by the exit and grab a lingonberry juice for $1.
Or a $1 frozen yogurt cone. Not the sour stuff, but good old-fashioned sweet soft-serve. And 50 cent hot dogs. It's not that I have to have one, but I do have to have a bargain and 50 cent hot dogs are definitely a bargain.
And only once have I ever gotten up early enough to enjoy their 99-cent breakfasts, which Elmo of Monster Munching said all shortcomings are forgiven buried underneath a dousing of Tobasco.
IKEA
848 S. Barranca Ave.
Covina, CA 91723
626-732-4532
Restaurant Hours:
Monday to Saturday 9:30am-8:30pm
Sunday 9:30-7:30pm
Breakfast Served 9:30am- 11am
*****
1 year ago today, persimmons.
2 years ago today, Korean barbecue on a rock slab and kimchee fried rice at Seol Ak San - Stanton.
Interesting to see how the Ikeas in different parts of the world look like. In Singapore, the building is blue. Food looks similar ... our meatballs are served in boiled potato but I think I prefer the mashed potato hehe
ReplyDeleteMy dad is part Norwegian & we used to have lutefisk every Christmas Eve. My Grandma would cook steak for the "non-believers" which was everyone but my Dad, Grandfather & me. I still love it to this day but no one else in my life does ..bummer! It's hard to find in CT but I am going to try again this year.
ReplyDeleteWiffy,
ReplyDeleteI've seen blue buildings in other places too. But so far, the layout and food all looks pretty similar.
HB,
No IKEA near you? B/c they definitely have lutefisk. ;) I'd probably give it a try now just to try it.
When they opened the IKEA here in PDX, everyone went apeshit! They had to divert parking to an adjacent empty field. A huge adjacent empty field!
ReplyDeleteMy favorites at their food shop are Daim Torte (a must must must try if they have it in stock!), Daim and Marabou chocolates for Hubby, rye bread mix, pickled herring for making curried picked herring and assorted condiments. I'm sure I've bought everything they offer at some time or another. It's funny that's the only place I can get the Scandinavian foodstuffs!
No no no no no!! That's all wrong! The meatballs are supposed to come with boiled potatoes!
ReplyDeleteWith love, from Norway ;)
Darlene,
ReplyDeleteEvery IKEA opening seems to be like that. I remember when the Emeryville location opened in the Bay Area and traffic backed up the bridge. I wish there were other Scandinavian stores around, but IKEA's got a pretty good selection for some of the basics. Curried pickled herring. I have yet to try that!
Susanne,
Haha! ;)
I remember when that Emeryville store opened! Traffic was insane. They eventually built that parking structure because their lot wasn't big enough. And I think they built another in E. Palo Alto.
ReplyDeleteI have a recipe for the curried picked herring on my site. Be sure to eat it with the rye bread. They go very well together :-)
Darlene,
ReplyDeleteThe worst story I heard was of the IKEA in Moscow. There's some ring road freeway that circles the city and once people hopped on, the IKEA traffic was so bad that people were literally stuck for days. They had to sleep in their cars because traffic didn't move.
I think I'll wait until we meet again and have you make the pickled herring for me. :P
I completely missed this post when you first wrote it. You're output is hard for me to keep up with. The 99 cent breakfast is now like a staple of my diet. The eggs still suck, but heck, that's what that Tabasco's for!
ReplyDeleteI do love those $1 cones!
Elmo,
ReplyDeleteHa! I can't muster up the energy to go that early even when they offer free breakfast during sales. I wanna try the Swedish pancakes with lingonberries though!