You Belong in Australia

Ace! Sunny, upbeat, and cute You make the perfect surf bum Now stop hogging the vegemite!

Now there's a surprise! :)

Thursday must be the longest day of the week. The excitement of last weekend has worn off, plans are made for the coming weekend and still there is that pesky working day in between before you can relax.

A friend here reminded me last week that Thursdays in Sweden are pea soup days. I come from a place that does not have particular foods for particular days of the week, so I always found this rather intriguing. When I was a child, we did have a rule about not eating meat on Fridays, but that was only in catholic families. This tradition however covers the whole country.

Apparently, this soup, called ärtsoppa, dates back to the Viking age. It was cheap and easy to prepare. When Sweden became catholic, pea soup became the traditional meal for Thursday dinner--thick and hearty, especially och fläsk (with pork) to tide the hardworking farmers over the fasting day on Fridays. Later, when Sweden became a Lutheran nation, pea soup continued to be eaten as a standard for Thursday dinners.

This is the case even today, where it is served every week in many homes, schools, work cafeterias and restaurants (not to mention the army, where it is made up in 200 litre batches!). It is traditionally served with brown mustard, a sprinkling of thyme or marjoram and Swedish crisp bread (knäckebröd). Over time, other traditions have grown up around it. When Sweden began importing arrack from Indonesia and Java in the 18th century, warm punsch, an arrack-based, sweet yellow liqueur, became drink of choice to accompany the pea soup. Then later, thin Swedish pancakes, topped with jam or fresh berries was added as a dessert.

So what's with the arsenic, I hear you say? Well, apparently, in the 16th century, one of the kings of Sweden (Erik XIV) was poisoned by the addition of arsenic to his Thursday soup by none other than his dear brother (who then became King Johan III). Don't you just love family feuds?

The soup is readily available in tins or fresh in the fridge section of every Swedish supermarket. If we eat it (and that is not often because of the unfortunate after effects) I prefer to make my own, using this recipe. I haven't tried the arsenic addition - YET!

It's okay to eat, but not a patch on our great South Australian tradition of the pie floater. This is also a thick, hearty soup, based on dried peas, but we add the essential meat pie and then smother it in tomato sauce, vinegar and white pepper. On a cold winter's night, it can't be beaten as a filling meal, especially when eaten standing at one of the pie carts dotted around town (the Adelaide Railway station one being my favourite). I looked around for a picture of a floater to show you, but I could only find this one, which is obviously taken by a foreigner as every self respecting croweater knows that the pie should be face downwards!

*shaking my head at lost traditions*