Fika

The love of coffee… ..the two syllables of the Swedish word for coffee ..kaffe… were reversed to eventually evolve to “fika.”  It can be a noun or a verb and is the all important break for coffee plus something to eat that is so traditional in Sweden.  I can attest to that with my relatives here and in Sweden but I confess I never heard this lovely word from them.    This book is a gift from my brother in law and sister in law who wrote in the front “Happy Belated Birthday, Sis!  We know you hate to cook but couldn’t resist this book for our favorite Swede!  Thinking of you at the Cleveland Museum of Art “ where they happened to be visiting…  For the blip,  of course I didn’t have 7 traditional kinds of cookies waiting in my freezer…or even one homemade or made in a cafe and will probably never bake the recipes in this book…. so had to resort to these…and an Italian cup. (Not a proper Swede I guess)    Kind of odd to think of the Scandinavian countries topping the list of global coffee consumers, when the beans have to be imported (as they have been since 1685.)   
There was always a pot of strong coffee keeping warm at our house growing up. (you would not want to drink that pot late in the day.!)…and on special occasions it was boiled with an egg thrown in the pot ( to settle the grounds?) …Today I think espressos and lattes are just as popular and acceptable there. And tea too.     And now I don’t drink coffee after 1:00PM to try to help my sometime insomnia (a blip subject for another day) .  But meeting for coffee  ( or tea!) in this country is much the same I think…a chance to slow down,, put things on hold, have a bite to eat..pastry or sandwich, with your coffee and spend some quality time together with someone.  I think I’ll start using this word.   Shall we fika?

See Swedish blipper heanku who is a “self appointed expert on fika”. (and didn’t know there was a book about it)