At Djurgården there are a lot of restaurants offering something very Swedish this time of year, called julbord, or translated into Christmas smorgasbord. It is a kind of collection of what we usually eat in Sweden for Christmas, set up at a table, like a buffet. It is usually very traditional but nowadays it has been more and more popular to switch to a more sustainable julbord with more greens instead of meat for example.
What usually is included in the classical julbord is of course the very important Christmas ham. This is the piece of food that the whole table is about! It is usually very big and takes many hours to cook. It lasts for days and is almost always the food you have to keep eating even after Christmas is over just to get rid of it, but you are actually quite tired of the taste by this time.
Other delicious things you can find at a classical julbord at Djurgården is many different kinds of pickled herring with a lot of different tastes and combinations. With that you usually eat boiled potato, boiled and sliced eggs decorated with shrimp, roe and dill. Another very important thing on the table is also the meatballs, the food Sweden is known world wide for, and of course they have to be hand made from scratch!
Janssons Frestelse is also something very important and traditional at the julbord, which is basically like a potato gratin with onion and anchovy. But what do Swedes drink to their beloved Christmas food you might think? Usually special Christmas beer, wine or julmust, which is a type of soda that looks a lot like Coke, but with a specific sweet taste hard to describe, you just need to try it! For dessert it is common to drink some snaps or some kind of avec with the coffee.
The dessert at the julbord usually consists of a lot of different small sweets and mostly with chocolate or fruits as a base, in many shapes and combinations. Rice pudding is also common in different styles, and typical Christmas flavors for all these sweets are cinnamon, citrus, saffron, ginger and mint, among others.
The more sustainable and modern julbord has become more popular over the past time and many of our restaurants here at Djurgården are embracing the alternative way of serving delicious, healthier variations of the classical julbord, which is better for the environment.
If you want to visit Djurgården before Christmas and try out any of the traditional or modern julbord, you have a lot of options to choose from. Try for example the julbord at Gröna Lunds Tyrolen, at Oaxen, The Museum of Spirits or The Viking Museum. You can also find julbord at Hotel Hasselbacken, Villa Godthem, Villa Källhagen, Ulla Winbladh and Rosendals Wärdshus.
