Day 221: Waffle day!

Surprisingly, for a nation which is not ranked too highly in obesity charts, today was another day in a 2 week period in which Sweden indulged heavily in creamy, sugary, fatty things (the earlier day being shrove Tuesday, or fettisdagen). Today is actually Annunciation day but in Swedish this becomes "Our Lady day" or "Vårfrudagen". Apparently "Vårfru" sounds close enough to "waffle" to justify an otherwise religious occasion turning into a scoff-up.

So keen are the Swedes on waffles today that there has been, perhaps predictably, a huge spike in sales of waffle irons. I assume this happens every year, but nevertheless the commuter newspaper printed a story about seldom-used kitchen items such as the waffle iron.

I myself indulged in the purchase of a vårfru iron. It came from a "cheap" shop called Ö&B and cost only 130kr/£12/$20. There was only one left, of course. I sent the boyfriend to get it and he approached the store in the manner of all Swedes: suspiciously. Things in Sweden are not cheap, and in the event that something cheap is found, suspicions are aroused. (This is of course bollocks as all English people know, shops are only there to rip you off and price is not often linked to quality. This is why the waffle iron in the swedish branch of Clas Ohlson is 300kr while in the English branch it costs 150)

My cheap little waffle iron made some kickass waffles even though I've never made a waffle before in my life. Despite his earlier trepidation, my boyfriend enjoyed them too (even though, in his own words, "they're not as good as grandma's.") We had them with jam and ice cream, jam is a necessity in Sweden, and if anyone reading this has their own waffle iron, this is the recipe we used.