You know how its so easy to fall into the, "Let's go to the same restaurants because at least we know they are good" trap? But having said that, the standard at our regular restaurants do fluctuate too, so sometimes we walk out being disappointed that the food wasn't up to scratch.
Once in a while, I start on my rant of, "Oh Stuttgart is sooo small! There's nothing to do here!" Such that the poor hubby has to deal with his ever-emotional preggy wife and her unending mood swings.
Hence, we've been on the lookout for other restaurants / new experiences in this little city we live in.
While we were in Ikea a few weeks ago, we saw this poster that advertised this Midsummer Swedish Festival with crayfish. It costs 20€ p.p. but this is fully-redeemable by a purchase of more than 100€. Since we needed some new cupboards anyway, we decided to make use of this special promotion and went for a "free" dinner!
It was a pretty cool experience. There was Swedish music, all the staff were dressed in the yellow and blue signature colours of Sweden, cocktail was served at 1€ / drink and we were even served sparkling wine.
Hubby famished after a long hard day at work
Some digestive biscuits as starters - which we didn't even try!
We had to wear party hats (which kept falling off, so I removed mine eventually) and the bibs are to protect our clothing because of the crayfish
The platter of crayfish that we were served. Ikea apparently ordered 1.5 tonnes of crayfish!
Verdict? Its a LOT of work to de-shell the crayfish to get to a meagre amount of meat. But the main drawback was that there was no accompanying sauce! I kept thinking that I should have brought some chilli garlic sauce. **Am I too Singaporean or what?** Still, for the price one pays, one really gets to eat a LOT of crayfish!
Close-up shot of the crayfish
Smoked salmon and cheese platter was on the house.
And so was bread...
And Swedish meat balls and everything else above!
Free-flow of crayfish!
What the restaurant at Ikea looked like
Overall, it was a very fun and relaxing experience! Somewhat like being invited to an adult birthday party with over 100 people. We would certainly like to be part of this again next year, but this time, we would ask wayyy more people along and as I mentioned earlier, I would smuggle in my chilli sauce so that I can savour the taste of crayfish in its full glory!
14 comments:
Hi Pris,
That's a LOTTTTTT of crayfish! It looks like you had a fun time! Always nice trying out a new place.
The feeling of "XXX country is so small!" .. trust me, I feel that a lot in Singapore :)
Take care!
Maybe even bring along some Thai chilli sauce. I don't think we have a Swedish festival here at Singapore's Ikea.
Wah this looks super shiok!! How come we don't even have this in Ikea here in Sweden during crayfish season?? :S hehe :) happy you got to eat your fill, and what a spread it was too!
This reminds me of the time when hubs and I were in Sweden during Malmo Festival, and there were loaddds of signs saying there was gonna be a crayfish party, and we eagerly went to the square hoping to buy some crayfish there, and were perplexed to see everyone ALREADY eating. So apparently, everyone brings their OWN crayfish plates/trays etc and gather as a party to eat em. In the end we didnt taste a single crayfish LOL though it was all around us.
Hey Andrea!
Yeah! Its super a lot of crayfish hor??? I would have eaten even more if I had some sauce! Hahah.
Yeah, I know what you mean. SG is small too, but at least the FOOD is YUMMY!! Hahaha. I'm all about food these days!
Hey Cyn!
Yeah, my thoughts exactly! Thai chilli sauce! Yum yum! I think if Singapore's Ikea had crayfish festival, they really need a LOT of crayfish for kiasu Singaporeans!
Sarah!
Seriously? You don't have this in Ikea in Sweden? I thought that's how the whole crayfish thing started? Hmmm... You'll have so much food to eat over the next few weeks! Wish teleporting existed now!
Whimsicaljottings - Oh what a pity!!! The signs must have been pretty misleading. So weird that there's a crayfish party without any opportunity to buy crayfish there!
the 'digestive biscuits' are not really digestive biscuits. They are called 'knekkebrød' it's a type dry baked flat bread. Swedish or norwegians eat it for breakfast or snack with toppings like cheese, ham or jam..etc...very much variations and it's good source of fibre :)))
Chrish - Thanks for the clarifications!!! Now I wish I tried them! I got distracted when the crayfish came along!!!
Great recap! I happened upon your blog as I was considering attending the crayfish festival at my local Ikea. :)
We went to the crawfish festival last night at the IKEA here in Utah. No wine but free deserters. Lots of Mormons live here and alcohol is a no no for them. Dessert are OK though.
Blessing on your new baby!
BigAppleNosh - Hi! Nice of you to have popped by my blog! So did you attend the crayfish festival in the end? Did they provide any sauce?
Thoughts on life and military - Oh yeah I've heard that Mormons lead a very strict lifestyle. Thanks for your well wishes! :) We're excited to meet our little baby soon!
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