Shopping for gourmet food at Ikea sounds like a wacky idea. Once you've dragged yourself and your huge hard-to-pronounce pieces of furniture through miles of store, any remaining energy must be devoted to braving long lines and the Tetris game of fitting your purchases in your car (or, God forbid, on the bus). We usually skip right past the small Swedish food marketplace perched by the entrance, thinking, "Who needs more frozen meatballs, anyway?!"
But on a recent visit we were able to ponder the actually inspiring foodstuffs here.
Not only were there deals to be had on things we usually buy in the city, like Anna's Ginger Thins and elderflower syrup, but we also found intriguing black currant preserves, lingonberry jam, and our favorite find, pearl sugar.
To put it simply, pearl sugar is to granulated sugar as coarse sea salt is to regular table salt. Sprinkle it on top of scones, breads and muffins, where it will stay white and crunchy, or mix it into cinnamon swirl bread and thick waffles for melting pockets of caramelized sweetness. (There's also an intriguing recipe for cinnamon buns on the back of the box.) We can't wait to sprinkle it on top of a pie, for an extra crunchy crust.
Next trip: Hit the food first, and save the Tromsö bed and Bjursta table for later.
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This is by Nina, who is up for one of our new writer positions. Welcome Nina!
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Totally. My favorites are the vanilla sauce (i know, i should be able to make this on my own, but i don't know how!), its got an amazingly subtle pudding-like flavor without being too sweet. Also love the marzipan rolls... they're bright green with chocolate dipped ends and taste like awesomeness.
Oh, I haven't tried their vanilla sauce, but it sounds delicious. Have you tried experimenting with custard sauces? The Joy of Cooking has one that has been successful for me. Although, if you really like the Ikea one, I see no shame at all in buying it!
I remember the first IKEA in LA had a billboard campaign before it opened that just said "More fun than this" and had an arrow pointing to a bag of sugar. Apparently you've found the real thing. Sounds DELICIOUS. I wonder if you could use those big honking things on the rims of glasses for drinks?
Yes, the meatballs may be frozen, but they're still part of the whole experience, as is buyer's remorse and missing allen wrenches
Last time I went I had a gift card that had like $10 left on it so I grabbed a quick cartfull of weirdness from the food section. The gravlax was pretty good, the oat cookies were amazing, but the find was frozen potato Rosti. They taste just like the ones I had in Europe and they are surprisingly low in calories for something pre-made. I'm stocking up the freezer on my next trip.
Also, I made these once with the IKEA sugar.. mmm..
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2006/03/les_chouquettes.html
Excellent post, Nina!
I admit to buying a Princess cake from IKEA once. It was mooshy (from being defrosted) but still tasty!
Oh, there's nothing better than one of their gooey cinnamon rolls after braving that (exhausting, energy-sucking) store!
I've never looked at what else is in the food store, but the sugar sounds very intriguing!
My mom is Swedish and growing up, one of my favorite Christmas cookies was always "Finska Fingrar", directly translated: Finnish Fingers. Slightly morbid, and perhaps better suited for American Halloween, they are essentially shortbread-esque butter cookies. You roll out a snake, then cut it into cookies the size and shape of fingers. They are brushed with eggwash then sprinkled with Parl Sokker (missing an umlaut but still AKA Pearl Sugar). The cookies become barely golden when baked, while the sugar stays bright white. Both the cookie and the sugar share a crumbly texture where conventional sugar would interupt with grit.