West Coast Archives - Gothenburg Tours

This week, my dad is visiting us. I still remember the first time he came to see me here in Sweden. To show him my new home town is always an honor, and slightly scary. Will he approve? We’ve just spent two days on the West Coast, and he liked it, despite the cold and windy weather, something even the best guide isn’t able to influence.

Nobody’s as honest and critical as family

If you think that guiding your family is easier than clients? Think again. And to think you get any favors? No sir. Guiding family (and friends) is not a grateful job, but it provides great opportunities to learn and grow, not to mention test new things, try new restaurants (or make sure known ones are still up to par), etc.

A trip to the West Coast

Dad has been here many times over the years, and yesterday and today, I took him back to some of the places he’d been to before, although it’s been many years. He’d mostly forgotten and this time the weather was better.

We covered Marstrand yesterday, a small island city off the coast about 40′ drive north of Gothenburg, and today we drove even further, although we ended up just a good 15′ boat ride north of Marstrand, on the island of Tjörn and its outlying isles of Klädesholmen, Åstol, and Dyrön.

Good food and amazing nature to round off a successful day

Our first stop for today was Skärhamn, a coastal town on the island of Tjörn. It is famous for it’s arts museum, focusing on aquarelle paintings. But it also sports a beautiful harbor and a smiling church.

After a quick coffee (it was cold) we took the ferry from Rönnäng on a short trip around to Åstol (beautiful on a sunny, calm summer’s day), and Dyrön. Afterward, I drove us back to Klädesholmen for lunch at Salt & Sill. That little islet is famous for herring canneries and boy, their lunch is good. Six varieties of herring as an appetizer, followed by a fish burger with mashed potatoes and pees. Yummy!

Enjoy some pictures of today’s trip:

Åstol
The harbor of the island of Åstol
Marstrand, looking north
Typical street on Marstrand
Typical house on Marstrand (and the color, the light blue is indigenous to the West Coast)
The Fortress on Marstrand
Entrance to the fortress
Another view of the Fortress on Marstrand
Lunch with a view: Salt & Sill on Klädesholmen

Practical Information

To visit Marstrand from Gothenburg (incl. Carlsten fortress) you’ll need about five hours, two of which you’ll spend getting to and fro the city. In the summer, with a lot of tourist traffic, you may need to allocate more time as parking is scarce and you may need to walk longer from the parking lots to the ferry.

Tjörn and its islands are also a good hour and fifteen minutes away from Gothenburg, further north, but there’s more time on the freeway, so you cover more ground. Again, summer traffic will add time, particularly as you cross the bridge over to Tjörn. We’ve literally spent hours in queues. Parking is a thing, too and you may need to leave your car up to a kilometer or more from ferries, harbors, etc. The town roads are very narrow and you share the space with walking visitors and locals. Be mindful and patient. Five to six hours is recommended. If you visit Åstol or Dyrön, be mindful of the ferry timetable. Summertime (June-Aug) you might find an open café or restaurant, but off season, expect to eat on Tjörn or simply bring your own lunch.

Gothenburg is a temple for foodies

When I first moved to Gothenburg, back in 1992, I was shocked after my first visit to a grocery store: strange looking (and tasting) sausages, five types of cheese, tons of cabbage and apart from that, there really wasn’t much to choose from. I’m exaggerating, of course, but this country and its cuisine have changed so much in the years since.

1995, joining the EU, was revolutionizing for Sweden’s food industry

By Steffen Wurzel [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], from Wikimedia Commons — By Steffen Wurzel [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

After we joined the EU and importing food from other countries became easier, our grocery shops changed, radically, and the range of supplies increased dramatically. But not only grocery stores, our restaurants changed, too, from serving “classic” cuisine, based on red meats, pork, venison and locally grown vegetables like carrots, potatoes, onions, and cabbages (we are, after all, a Nordic country, meaning, our climate isn’t ideal for a lot of produce.) and brown sauce and lingonberry jam.

Here on the west coast, people have always eaten fish, often pan-fried, served with potatoes, some vegetable and sauce. And there is something to be said about a delicious home-style cooked classic dish. Sadly, in the past quality was not necessarily something Swedish cuisine was known for.

If you’re interested in learning more about traditional Swedish cuisine, feel free to ask us. From IKEA meatballs to smörgåsbord and “halv special”, we’ve got you covered.

Modern Swedish cuisine is among the best in the world

I say this with pride. Our cuisine is among the top in the world. Our chefs are proud to use fresh ingredients, locally sourced products, and the suppliers are keen on trying out new ideas.

While Sweden may never be a cheese country like my own home country of Switzerland, there are some cheesemakers who produce some amazing cheese these days, a far cry from the industrialized and tasteless, wax-covered stuff you get in your next-door grocery store. For some, like my husband, a cheese plate for dessert is the highlight of a meal.

Fish, seafood and then some

Last night, I served my family a fillet of cod. Just lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. Delicious. You should see what a real chef can do with cod. One of my favorite fish. Or a catfish… Mouthwatering!

Definitively a favorite of mine is salmon, which you can catch right here in Gothenburg, in our moats. Swedes eat a lot of salmon! Most of it comes from farms in Norway where salmon are kept in huge basins in their deep fjords. Environmentally not without question marks, but things are getting better. If you go to a quality seafood store here in Sweden you’ll have a choice between Norwegian salmon and wild salmon, caught either in Sweden or abroad.

Salmon can be served in many different ways…

© Copyright Walter Baxter and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence..

It’s a very versatile fish. I’m having a bit of a love story with warm smoked salmon right now. It is pink in flesh, very tender, moist and tasty that I could eat it daily. But that wouldn’t be good. Salmon is a very fatty fish, healthy fat mind you, but still. Lots of calories, and besides, if you eat something as good as salmon every day, you grow tired of it… There’s also cold smoked salmon, which I’m sure we all know, that orange thin slice you find on smørrebrød or canapés around the world. Here in Sweden we also eat cured salmon, which is available year-round, but particularly popular on our smörgåsbord and for Christmas.

Salmon is also easy to fry fresh or from the over. One amazing way to cook your salmon is to cover it entirely in salt and to cook the entire fish in the oven.

Seafood isn’t just shrimp

Shrimp are a staple food and Friday night favorite not just in our house, but all over the West Coast of Sweden. It’s a quickly prepared meal with a good baguette and aioli, paired with a dry, fruity white wine. Great when you have friends over. You can take your time and eat slowly.

But did you know that we have amazing oysters right here on the West Coast? And we also have amazing clams and scallops that are grown here? We even grow our own seaweed for Japanese inspired seaweed salad.

Crayfish or “scampi” is also a Swedish delicacy and while most of Sweden prefers sweetwater crayfish, cooked in dill, the West Coast prefers their ocean-dwelling cousins, bigger, cooked in salt water and with a pink/orange color. Needless to say that we’re about to begin our lobster season, and while our local lobsters may be smaller than what most people remember, properly prepared (which isn’t easy!), they’re an amazing dish.

Where to go? Where to eat?

Luckily, these days, there are few places where you will not eat well here in Gothenburg, whether it’s Swedish or international cuisine. There is a case to be made that you’re more likely to eat well when you eat local cuisine because it’s easier to get fresh ingredients. And more difficult to find a chef who truly knows how to prepare e.g. Szechuan, Salvadorian or Angolan dishes… Having said that, there are people from over 190 countries living in Gothenburg, and they all like to taste a meal from their ancestral home every now and then. You’ll find a lot of international restaurants in town, not just pizza and kebabs.

Welcome to Gothenburg. Enjoy your meal!

PS: Don’t eat meat? We have some excellent choices for vegetarians and vegans, too. Ask us!

Tag: West Coast

Guiding our most valued guests to the West Coast