Lobster in Bohuslän The lobster premiere takes place on the first Monday after the 20th September. And fishing for lobster is then allowed until the 30th April. The species of lobster, a crustacean, first appeared about 300 million years ago. At about the same time as the dinosaurs. Lobsters are probably right-handed, i.e. their right claw is stronger and much more developed than the left. With its right claw, the lobster crushes clams, crabs and sea-urchins that make up its main diet. Lobsters sometimes even eat members of their own species. The lobster’s shell contains a number of colour pigments, two of which are blue and red. The shell is black before cooking, when it gets its tempting red colour. The odd lobster gets the chance to celebrate its fiftieth birthday. The growth rate varies and a portion-sized lobster can be anything from three to ten years old. For more information, visit www.sha.nu

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words: Judy Armstrong, pictures: Duncan Macdonald (top picture: Lisa Nestorson)

GOURMETS ON THE GRANITE COAST

Food in Sweden? I’ll put money on the response. Herring, you’ll say, raw, pickled or rotten. Well, yes… and no. Sweden’s culinary road rolls from castles to old warehouses, and the potential for gourmets is immense.

West Sweden in particular has focused on a winning combination, of sunshine, scenery and seriously good food. And they have pulled together the best of the bunch to form A Taste of West Sweden (or Vastsvensk Marsmak, in Swedish). Launched in 2000, it has forged a partnership between restaurants and food producers. The result is a diverse collection of eating places, in spectacular surroundings, serving astonishing food. So far, so very good. And it gets better. The vast majority of the Taste of Sweden restaurants are by the sea. Many of them are in harbours. And what’s the best way to arrive, in style and with a salt-air appetite? By boat. Boats can be yachts, motorboats or kayaks. I chose a kayak, and over a week paddled my way up the glorious granite coast of West Sweden, stopping at restaurants from Gothenburg to Bovallstrand. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it…

SALT & SILL, Kladesholmen

First stop is Salt & Sill, a wooden restaurant with a deck overhanging the sea. It’s a wonderful, stylish place, with corners for every mood. A rustic bar butts up to guests’ boats, flanked by tables on the seafront veranda. Inside is an airy conservatory, a quieter, intimate interior and a bright upstairs bar for cocktails and tapas.

I’ve arrived at lunchtime, ahead of a sleek couple on a yacht. The menu looks amazing but I can’t read Swedish, so Marielle is despatched to look after me. She arrives with the lunchtime speciality: herring. I flinch – but this is herring as I’ve never tasted it before. Caught locally, prepared in the village, it becomes a vessel for its marinade – and its matching vodka. Made in small Swedish villages, these vodkas include Tallbergs, a perfumed rosehip schnapps to accompany mustard herring, clear Lacko, flavoured with dill and cumin to match dill herring, old-fashioned Odakra to be drunk with fennel and lemon herring. Boiled potatoes, home-made bread and Vasterbotten ost, a strong local cheese, is served as back-up.

Thomas, a Swedish friend, swoons. “This is really good. Oh, very special. This is not like we have at home…” Eventually he has to be dragged out, protesting that he is leaving heaven.

www.saltosill.com

CAFÉ EMMA & RESTAURANT, Mollosund

It’s a tough paddle to Mollosund, the oldest fishing village in Sweden, but the welcome from Berit and Gunnar at Café Emma warms me to the core. The red-painted restaurant dominates the harbour which is packed with yachts. I am tempted to take a table just inches from the water but the cool night air drives me inside.
Here I find ochre walls, wooden tables, crisp linen… and food to die for. It is fresh, local and inventive, with a homeliness that is rare among restaurants this good. “We believe in sustainability and fair trade,” says Berit. “We buy fish that are not endangered, and vegetables that are produced organically. It is our main focus.”
The results are breathtaking. Berit’s fish soup, egg cheese and ice cream are famous, but the entire menu would win accolades in Britain. I eat fresh prawns with roe, local mussels, a giant plaice that Berit calls King’s Flounder, caught that afternoon, and ash-crusted goats cheese made in the next village. Sleek blonde Swedes and Norwegian yachties fill the room, eating and laughing, relaxed and full of sea air. I return in the morning for breakfast, to find Gunnar roasting and grinding coffee beans, baking bread and welcoming the day. I don’t want to leave. Ever.

www.cafeemma.com

HANDELSMAN FLINK, Flaton

I ease my kayak onto the beach by Handelsman Flink. I needn’t have brought my own: every room in the hotel here has a sea kayak as part of the package. If paddling’s not your game, there’s an 18-hole golf course a stone’s throw away… assuming you can still move, after relaxing into island life.

Flinks, as it’s commonly known, is a Swedish institution, made famous by crooner Evert Taube who spent summers here, writing songs. Today it is a sleek operation owned and run by Stefan Hjelmer and his family. The restaurant and hotel are packed most nights, with the café, art gallery and time-warp shop as daytime draws.
I have arrived in time for the seafood buffet: a feast of shellfish, herring, crabs, langoustine. The deck overlooking the sea is packed with people cracking claws and shelling prawns. A few rebels have gone a la carte, with local lamb or just-caught catfish. It’s not always this passive: Flinks runs safaris where you catch and cook your own lobster.

But Flinks is about more than food. Gake, a guitarist with a flair for Evert Taube songs, strums and sings among the tables; by midnight he’s in full flow, voice floating over the island, his public screaming for more.

www.handelsmanflink.se

BRYGGCAFET, Bovallstrand

Set into the wooden floor of Bryggcafet, is a window. During the day it is dark with the sea; in the evening it is flooded with light, pinpointing crabs and small fish swimming under the restaurant. This place is not just in the harbour, it is over it. An exterior bar forms the Bovallstrand meeting place, serving Swedish versions of the classic sundowner. Diners on the large veranda rub elbows with sails and rigging, with views along the pink granite coastline. Inside a high ceiling provides an airy feel to the cosy wooden restaurant; set into the roof space is a balcony where guests can sip coffee or cocktails, and watch the sun sink into the sea.

Johanna, a gorgeous blonde with an Irish lilt (“I am Swedish, I promise, but I am studying business in Dublin”), glides to my table with an enormous seafood platter. “We are famous for this; it takes a while to eat, but everyone says it is wonderful.” Everyone is right. Gratinated crayfish tails, mussels in pesto, langoustine with mustard, prawns that taste of the sea. Dessert is death by chocolate, with sharp berries to take away the guilt.

www.bryggcafet.com

MAGNUS & MAGNUS, Gothenburg

Gothenburg is the hub of the west coast and home to some of Sweden’s top restaurants. Magnus & Magnus, while not part of the Taste of West Sweden family, is definitely one of the best. I enter a room that feels like a Japanese boudoir, with futons, low tables and cool white light. Pushing through a curtain, I find a cobbled courtyard strewn with blankets and cushions, tables on platforms and behind chiffon. Staff in black blousons and knee-length pants play Cuban music and fairy lights twinkle in the trees. Two women and a man lounge on cushions near my table. “This is the cool place to be in Goteborg; it is fun, and funky,” they say. “We’ve come here for cocktails, then we’re crossing the river to a live blues band. Come with us!”
First, the food. I die over seared tuna with feta-stuffed pimento, fresh hake on a risotto with mature cheese and dill, lemongrass crème brulee with mango and chilli sorbet. Three blondes in tight, bright tops and pierced lips sip Chablis at the next table, a skinhead in a lilac shirt shares tapenade with a wild-haired man in a denim jacket. It is classless, casual and cool. Go there.

www.magnusmagnus.com

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