I am a strong believer that food is the most important element of diverse cultures. So when I travel, my first thoughts are "what is the food like? What do they consider delicacies? What are their most famous dishes? What are their local resources? What do they eat?" The most exciting thing about traveling is trying new foods. Let's be honest, everyone loves to eat. So when the opportunity comes where I can experiment with different flavors, smells, and textures I immediately get excited.
            Food says a lot about ones culture. For instance, I am proud to be a citizen from the land of the worlds greatest lobster, I also feel privileged because other parts of the world find it a delicacy. Other countries are known for the worlds best seafood, worlds best baklava, meatballs, cheese, fruits etc. When I travel, I feel privileged to have the opportunity to try dishes that you cant get anywhere else.
             I have traveled to many countries and each country had very special traditional meals. All the countries I have been to have had very exotic fruits, spices, meats, sauces, you name it. Everything is soo different in Turkey, Jamaica, and Scotland but not in Sweden. So far, I have been in Sweden for a little over a week and I have yet to discover a true traditional meal. It has been very difficult for me to distinguish what Swedish cuisine is. Even if I did know what it was, I wouldn't be able to find it in any of the restaurants. Swedish foods seem to be very Americanized. The only food I have been eating is pizza, hamburgers, hotdogs, and salads. This was not what I had expected. I figured that unlike the U.S, European countries had street food, exotic foods, and better quality.
Later I came to realize that Sweden does have traditional foods such as Swedish meatballs, salted salmon, craw fish sandwiches, and an interesting display of sandwiches. Yet, this food is not easy to find and can be very expensive. It seems as if Swedes find their own traditional dishes a delicacy and hard to come by. I find this to be very sad, and they should embrace their past culture and keep their traditional recipes alive. Their foods should be flaunted around the city at venders like a hotdog stand, or a food truck. Traditional Swedish food should not be hard to come by because I believe if you are ashamed of your food, you are ashamed of your culture.