smörgåsbord

Smorgasbord or Smörgåsbord (, ) is a buffet-style meal of Swedish origin. It is served with various hot and mainly cold dishes. It assumed its present form in the 19th century, following old traditions.

Smörgåsbord became known in the US at the 1939 New York World's Fair when it was offered at the Swedish Pavilion's Three Crowns Restaurant. It is typically a celebratory meal, and guests can help themselves from a range of dishes laid out for their choice. In a restaurant the term refers to a buffet-style table laid out with many small dishes from which, for a fixed amount of money, one is allowed to choose as many as one wishes.

A traditional Swedish ''smörgåsbord'' consists of both hot and cold dishes. Bread, butter, and cheese are always part of the ''smörgåsbord''. It is customary to begin with cold fish dishes, which are generally various forms of herring, salmon, and eel. After eating the first portion, people usually continue with the second course (other cold dishes), and round off with hot dishes. Dessert may or may not be included in a smörgåsbord.

Etymology

In Northern Europe, the term varies between "cold table" and "buffet": In Norway it is called or ''kaldtbord'', in Denmark (literally "the cold table"), in the Faroe Islands, (cold table); in Germany and in the Netherlands and Flanders (literally "cold buffet"); in Iceland it is called ("loaded/covered table"), in Estonia it is called ("Swedish table") or ''puhvetlaud'' ("buffet table"), in Latvia ("the cold table"), in Lithuania ("Swedish table"), in Finland ("butter-bread/sandwich table") or ''ruotsalainen seisova pöytä'' ("Swedish standing table/buffet"). In Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and the Balkans, it is a called "shvedskyj stol" or "shvedskyi stil" ("Swedish table") (Cyrillic: шведский стол / шведський стiл) or "zakusochnyj stol" ("snack table") (Cyrillic: закусочный стол) or "kholodnyj stol"("cold table") (Cyrillic: холодный стол). In Central and Eastern Europe each language has a term meaning "Swedish table". In Japan it is referred to as / (''baikingu'' / ''vaikingu'', i.e. "Viking").

The Swedish word consists of the words ''smörgås'' ("sandwich", usually open-faced) and ''bord'' ("table"). ''Smörgås'' in turn consists of the words ''smör'' ("butter", cognate with English ''smear'') and ''gås'' (literally "goose", but later referred to the small pieces of butter that formed and floated to the surface of cream while it was churned). The small butter pieces were just the right size to be placed and flattened out on bread, so ''smörgås'' came to mean "buttered bread". In Sweden, the term ''att bre(da) smörgåsar'' ("to spread butter on open-faced sandwiches") has been used since at least the 16th century.

In English the word ''smorgasbord'' refers loosely to any buffet with a variety of dishes (as well as a metaphor for a variety or collection of anything, particularly an extensive or disorganized one), and is not necessarily used to reference traditional Swedish cuisine. In Sweden, ''smörgåsbord'' instead refers to a buffet consisting mainly of traditional dishes. The buffet concept remains popular in Sweden even outside of its traditional presentation. Buffets are for example commonly served at larger private gatherings consisting of any type of food, or at fika with a variety of pastries. For restaurants in Sweden of various types of Asian cuisine it is common to offer an all-you-can-eat buffet (in particular for lunch customers), which is referred to with the more generic term ''buffé'' ("buffet").

In an extended sense, the word is used to refer to any situation which invites patrons to select whatever they wish from an abundant selection, such as the smorgasbord of university courses, books in a bookstore, etc.

''Julbord''

A special Swedish type of is the (literally "Yule/Christmas table"). The classic Swedish julbord is central to traditional Swedish cuisine.

A traditional ''julbord'' is typically eaten buffet-style in five to seven courses (depending on local and family traditions). The first three courses are usually fish courses. The first plate is an assortment of different pickled herrings served with sour cream and chives. The second is a variety of cold fish, particularly several kinds of lox (e.g. gravlax); the third plate is hot fish dishes, particularly lutfisk. Other traditional dishes are (smoked) eel, rollmops, herring salad, baked herring, smoked salmon, smoked char and shellfish canapés, accompanied by sauces and dips.

The fourth course is often a selection of cold sliced meats, the most important cold cut being Christmas ham (''julskinka'') with mustard. Other traditional cuts include smoked sausages, leverpastej, wild game cuts, smoked leg of lamb (''fårfiol''), pâtés and several types of brawn (''sylta''). It is also common to serve the cold meats with sliced cheese, pickled cucumbers

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