13-02-2005 04:51									#1
	Swedish food at... IKEA? Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

Strange but true. Before today I had only been inside an IKEA once or twice in my entire life and during those two trips I decided I didn't like the style or the quality of furniture sold there. Recently, however, I've found myself faced with bare walls in my house and a dire need for home furnishings but a shoe string for a budget thus I decided to check out our local purveyor of Scandinavian designed, Chinese built assemble yourself home furnishings.

The designs were still nasty modernist stuff and the quality was still crap but the prices most certainly could not be beat. Looking around I actually found a few passable pieces which didn't make me want to hurl when I looked at them so it seems I might become an IKEA shopper after all. While I was walking out I noticed that IKEA had a built in Swedish restaurant and much to my surprise many of the staff and patrons were actually Swedish/Scandinavian. I never knew there were so many Sweds in southern California.

Since I'd never eaten at a Swedish restaurant before I decided to give it a try. Turns out IKEAs food is better then its home furnishings; true, the menu could be described as more sensable then exciting but it was cheap and not to shabby. Hormone free meatballs with lingonberry, salmon plate with potatoes and broccoli, Gravad Lax Plate (seasoned salmon, and e shrimp open-faced sandwiches to just name a few. The prices were actually pretty reasonable too. Who would have thought decent food could be had a IKEA?

	13-02-2005 05:01									#2
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So very, very wrong...

	13-02-2005 05:02									#3
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I've only been at IKEA twice in my life. The first time I bought a sofa that broke one week later when a 55 kg (100 pound) girl sat down too hard in it at my house warming party. The second time I went to the original IKEA store in Älmhult (which is also the closest from where I live) and I was annoyed by the fact that the only way to leave, once I had entered, was to walk through the whole store. There was only one possible path through the maze, so that you must see everything on display before you could walk out of the store.

IKEA
A niggardly Swede from my region being the richest man in the world
Swedish food Gravad Lax is our Sushi. I like it very much.

	13-02-2005 05:03									#4
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quote: Originally posted by DRoseDARs So very, very wrong...

Erm...what? That IKEA sells low quality furniture? That their Swedish food is good? What?

Asmodean

	13-02-2005 05:06									#5
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Swedish food is good but I wouldn't hold my breath when eating in IKEA.. It's like saying you eat Scandinavian food when you fly with SAS.

	13-02-2005 05:07									#6
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SAS
Finnair

	13-02-2005 05:08									#7
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Finnair -> MEGAPUKE! Man, it's the most expensive airliner EVER that updates their services and planes the last. Just not worth the money you'll be spending on your ticket..

JetBlue

	13-02-2005 05:13									#8
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IKEA actually made front page news in my country a couple of years ago. Food related, that is.

In most christian countries, there is a tradition of companies throwing a christmas party for the employees. In Denmark, we call this "julefrokost" which means christmas luncheon. This is because at a julefrokost you eat mostly fish and cold cuts on rye, which is the traditional lunch meal here. The fact that a julefrokost almost always takes place in the evening carries no weight in that equation.

Now then IKEA decided to cancel any future christmas luncheon's on the basis that IKEA had many moslem employees, and that moslems don't celebrate christmas. This sparked an outrage in the media, and one tabloid paper actually initiated a "Don't shop at IKEA" campaign. IKEA held on to their position, and eventually the media shifted their attention elsewhere.

Asmodean

	13-02-2005 05:33									#9
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My sister who lives in England actually goes to IKEA to shop some familiar "home food" such as Kalles Kaviar.

	13-02-2005 05:38									#10
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Kallen Mätitahna? They sell it in here in grocery stores... it tastes like old man's poo after really bad week of drinking and fast food.

	13-02-2005 05:39									#11
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I cant resist gravad lax...i could eat only that the rest of my life

	13-02-2005 05:42									#12
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quote: Now then IKEA decided to cancel any future christmas luncheon's on the basis that IKEA had many moslem employees, and that moslems don't celebrate christmas.

stupid corporate decision to cut a meaningless amount of $

they should just add a party for muslems as well!!

	13-02-2005 05:45									#13
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THese things are stupid. If someone doesn't celebrate Christmas, then stay home!! How hard is that? We don't have ramadan, but do we ***** and whine about it? Is it offensive? hell no! Stupid.

	13-02-2005 05:47									#14
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And its bs anyway that muslims dont celebrate christmas...they actually do...

And what religious is it about a christmas party anyway. Every firm does it here...people eat well and get very very drunk and the following days police gets a lotof sex. harrasment suits...

	13-02-2005 05:47									#15
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quote: Originally posted by Pekka Kallen Mätitahna? They sell it in here in grocery stores... it tastes like old man's poo after really bad week of drinking and fast food.

I don't have your experience in pootasting but it goes well with boiled eggs on sandwiches

	13-02-2005 05:50									#16
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Ugh I guess its a swedish thing because my half-egyptian half finnish-swedish room mate eats that too with sandwiches and boiled eggs...the whole kicthen smells like a week old urine afterwards...ugh


I once told him that those were actually fish embryos and he just smiles diabolically back at me.....crazy evil swedes

	13-02-2005 05:51									#17
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laurentius, exactly.. and it's not like we go to other people's homes to tell them what they can or can't do. Quite frankly, if some people feel that a firm shouldn't have christmas party outside work time, well, they should be more tolerant and if they can't, too bad. Are they against casual fridays too.. jeesh. But I don't blame them.. the worst are the ones who actually submit and say OK we will stop that tradition because you are anally retentive and I don't want to have the racist stigma on my forhead because I'm a PC ***** with no concep of my identity.

	13-02-2005 07:10									#18
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sweden, norway

finland

	13-02-2005 07:35									#19
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quote: Originally posted by Chemical Ollie A niggardly Swede from my region being the richest man in the world Swedish food Gravad Lax is our Sushi. I like it very much.

I had the meat balls with the berry sauce and it was pretty good. Next time I'll try the Gravad Lax.

BTW a Swede, niggardly or otherwise, most certainly is not the richest man in the world. Americans have had a lock on that position for over a century and I'd be willing to bet Bill Gates has a good $30 billion on any Swede from the King on down. Still, old Bill hasn't done well since the dot com bubble burst and he's more then 60% off of his $110 billion dollar high before the bubble burst.

	13-02-2005 07:38									#20
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IKEA has some very clever commercials around here. They have a guy with the most annoying fake Swedish accent, and most of the scripts involve him making fun of himself.

Recently they've been advertising the lunch counter part of their stores. The current one has them flogging a dollar pasta meal... combination. 'Have penae pasta for 99 cents, or have it with a boook case for $29.99', and so on.

The furniture may be passable to suck, but the marketing is very good.

	13-02-2005 08:11									#21
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Oerdin, actually, that Swede passed Bill Gates and IS the richest man in the world.

	13-02-2005 08:24									#22
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What has the world come to? At least this "Swede" has a toxic attitude towards his home country and he avoids it like a tax levying plague. Instead he enjoys hanging out in low tax Switzerland and spends his days dodging taxes.

	13-02-2005 08:26									#23
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That's the Amer... oops let me rephrase that. That's the European way .

	13-02-2005 12:14									#24
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quote: And its bs anyway that muslims dont celebrate christmas...they actually do...

... ? In what sense? We take off on Christmas, but don't have a tree or presents or anything like that .

	13-02-2005 12:42									#25
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quote: Originally posted by Pekka Oerdin, actually, that Swede passed Bill Gates and IS the richest man in the world.

According to some bad financial reporting.

	13-02-2005 12:48									#26
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quote: I was annoyed by the fact that the only way to leave, once I had entered, was to walk through the whole store. There was only one possible path through the maze, so that you must see everything on display before you could walk out of the store.

Death to Ikea!

	13-02-2005 12:48									#27
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Yeah, but would you say no to a PARTY?

	13-02-2005 15:03									#28
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Ikea used to be one of the only places to grab a quick meal on the way home after landing at the Pittsburgh airport. Swedish meatballs and lingonberry (sp?) sauce

	13-02-2005 15:09									#29
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While it is true that Forbes last year reported the the IKEA owner is the richest man in the world, he later denied this himself.

It had to do with how he had organized the company, and how he had distributed his wealth in the family. If he had kept everything to himself, he would have had the largest personal fortune in the world. But as things stand, that honor still belongs to Bill Gates.

Asmodean

	13-02-2005 16:16									#30
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Kamprad, for whatever reason, don't want himself seen as a superrichie.


As for IKEA, they're the Stosstrupp of Swedish cultural imperialism. Each time you shop there, they take a piece of your soul.