Vaddo, Wednesday night

A Swedish summer tradition is to have a kraftskiva – a crayfish feast. There are rules to this. First off, traditionally crayfish season started the first Saturday in August. No crayfish eating before that date, although the well connected to the underground crustacean black market could procure the little devils ahead of time. Hosting the first kraftskiva was a great coup in Swedish country home social scene. Everyone gets together around a table decked out in everything red, they drink akavavit and beer and sing silly drinking songs, and consume up at least a pound of dill-infused crayfish each. That is many, many crayfish.

However, this is no longer the case. The indigenous Swedish crayfish population crashed in the Great Crayfish Plague of the 1970’s to 80’s. Now, crayfish can be purchased year round, but they are imported from Turkey or China (although the Chinese crayfish must be eaten immediately upon opening as they tend to be of low quality and break quickly). The price I saw in the store yesterday was 380 Kronor/kilo, about $30.00 a pound.

Per has declared the dawn of a more eco-friendly, wallet friendly, and really fantastically delicious alternative to the imperial crayfish: the mussel skiva. Per ordered 4 kilos of fresh Swedish mussels yesterday from the market. These mussels were farm raised on the west coast of Sweden. Eco friendly, they are sustainable, actually improve the environment with their natural filter feeding, and don’t travel in a plastic bag halfway around the world. Price was 55 Kronor/kilo. And they were the largest eating mussels I had ever seen. As an added culinary bonus, mussels can be cooked in a myriad of sauces; they are not culturally limited to dill seasoning. Per cooked the mussels in a white wine, shallot, fresh parsley and goat cheese broth, AND IT ROCKED!!! Jordan ate his fill. Justin dissected them, claiming many times to have found the tongue of the critter.

Since children of non-drinking age, and non-drinking spouses commanded the table, we skipped the stupid drinking songs. I bet the old standards like, “Vi tar det nu, vi tar det nu, vi tar det nu, skal,” (We take it now, repeat, repeat, drink) would work just fine in the presence of mussels. The table clothes should be a light blue, Eva Lotta’s favorite color. The sun even came out this afternoon. Mother nature approves of the mussel skiva. May your bread sop up delicious broth.