r/mildlyinteresting • u/Coneskater • Dec 06 '16

Quality Post Grocery store in Germany has started importing Arizona Ice Tea Cans and covers up the 99¢ with mini American Flag stickers

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u/Cheben Dec 06 '16

Yeah. It works both ways. I found a jar of Swedish jam in a delicacy store in California among nice wines and other expensive stuff. The jar was about $8 for 300g, they cost $2.50 in Sweden, and that is WITH 25% VAT. It is one of those normal, eat-with-meatballs-any-day-of-the-week jam. Nothing really special at all.

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u/tri-flow Dec 06 '16

Y'all eat jam with meatballs? I've... I've been doing it wrong.

110

u/fuckinea Dec 06 '16

Oh yes. Meatballs with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam.

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u/HughGnu Dec 06 '16

Does IKEA in the US serve it this correct way?

5

u/FloppyDiskFish Dec 06 '16

Yeah. You can even buy the jam and meatballs. I visited IKEA this past weekend and walked away with meatballs and lingonberry jam.

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u/Cheben Dec 06 '16

Correct enough at least. My sister got stuff there when she was feeling like "going home" for a while when she lived in the US.

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16

IN A SEA OF GRAVY!

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u/dante662 Dec 06 '16

...they sell this at Ikea in the US. It's pretty much the only exposure to "Swedish" food anyone in the States gets.

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u/manInTheWoods Dec 06 '16

It's not a bad choice, not at all. Mmm... meatballs...

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u/fuckinea Dec 06 '16

It's the only Swedish food worth getting exposed to. They only make meatballs and surströmming.

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u/Kinslayer2040 Dec 06 '16

Ligon berry jam tastes like cranberry sauce to this Canadian. Which is usually served with turkey

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u/Grumplogic Dec 06 '16

Good thing your country is neutral; I'd never want to go to war with crazy fuckers like that. Next you'll tell us you put ketchup on spaghetti.

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16

Hmm, I worked at a grocery store in the midwest that had someone decide we needed like six cases of this stuff around the holidays and we never sold any.. it's still pretty much all there.. really over stocked. Kind of feel bad now D:

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u/shame_confess_shame Dec 06 '16

So, kind of like cranberry sauce?

1

u/SnakeskinEyes Dec 06 '16

I'm confused as to HOW you eat the jam with meatballs. Do you spread it on the meat? Inject it? Spoonful of one then spoonful of the other? HELP ME UNDERSTAND

1

u/DanielLamplugh Dec 06 '16

Lingonberry Jam is my favorite jam

1

u/BillSkarsgard Dec 06 '16

Don't forget the brown sauce, bror.

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u/darexinfinity Dec 06 '16

I've tried lingonberries at IKEA, bitter as fuck. How does anyone eat those?

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u/xaxa43 Dec 06 '16

You don't have Jam with your meat? Christ, even the Swedes are more cultivated than the Americans!

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u/HonkersTim Dec 06 '16

They do, it's just presented slightly differently. Cranberry with turkey, apple with pork, mint with lamb, melon and prosciutto, mangoes with chicken, duck with plums, etc ad infinitum.

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16

[deleted]

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u/HonkersTim Dec 06 '16

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Cristo_sandwich

Yes, but that might be a little too refined :) We're talking more like the cronut, or the ham & cheese in a jelly donut thing you can get at Disneyland.

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16 edited Dec 07 '16

[deleted]

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u/Petraretrograde Dec 06 '16

You must be here in vegas. there is actually nothing better than Capriottis.

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u/Sierra419 Dec 06 '16

Who puts jam on meat? If I saw someone slathering a porterhouse with some smuckers grape jelly I'd lose it.

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u/Cheben Dec 06 '16

You can't just put any jam on. It should not be too sweet, your normal toast jam don't work. I would imagine it is closer to cranberry sauce (haven't tasted cranberry sauce, but seems similar). Probably would not have it on porterhouse, it is better with tougher meats, such as less lean beef or moose.

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u/PhilxBefore Dec 06 '16

The Swedes love their meat and balls; they put that shit on everything.™

1

u/Trollygag Dec 06 '16

Check out this guy... never been to Ikea and had lingonberry meatballs.

1

u/bigguy1045 Dec 06 '16

Yeah I generally only eat meatballs with spaghetti..

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u/Gbcue Dec 06 '16

It's like cranberry sauce.

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u/Norci Dec 06 '16

Eating jam with meat is one of the more fucked up things Sweden managed to come up with.

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u/imronburgandy9 Dec 06 '16

Lingonberry? Very expensive in my town

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u/rachelleeann17 Dec 06 '16

Aww yes was it lingonberry? Cause that stuff is delicious.

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u/No_More_Shines_Billy Dec 06 '16

I don't think that's because of shipping. I think that's just the price hipsters are willing to pay to have European foods to show off.

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u/SaturdaysOfThunder Dec 06 '16

It probably is a combination of shipping and quantity discounts (which is often cheaper because of shipping/delivery cost reasons). The store probably orders 100 bottles of that imported jam per year, vs a similar store ordering 10,000 smuckers jars plus 100,000 other products made from the same company and sold from the same supplier.

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u/Kpc04 Dec 06 '16

Wait, meatballs and jam? Or are you calling tomato sauce "jam" like (American)Italians call it gravy?

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u/faiIing Dec 06 '16

Meatballs with lingonberry jam is delicious.

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u/Kpc04 Dec 06 '16

I couldn't even imagine.

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u/xhandler Dec 06 '16

We don't eat meatballs with tomato sauce. We eat it with lingonberry jam

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u/BroaxXx ​ Dec 06 '16

Seriously, you guys are talking about it but it just seems like some weird abomination to me... I... Is it any good?

5

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16 edited Dec 07 '16

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16

[deleted]

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u/capincus Dec 06 '16

All of which I've never heard of...

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u/kuupukukupuuupuu Dec 06 '16

B-but how do you eat your reindeer then? Or your liver casserole? Or your western capercaillie? Living without lingonberries must be tough.

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16 edited Dec 07 '16

[deleted]

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u/kuupukukupuuupuu Dec 06 '16

I know you're joking, but some people actual think reindeer aren't real (shitty buzzfeed article warning)

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16 edited Jan 13 '17

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u/lantech Dec 06 '16

Now, that is something you can never say again.

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u/xhandler Dec 06 '16

Yes it's good. It's not a purely sweet jam, the lingonberry has a tart/sour taste.

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u/Kpc04 Dec 06 '16

Never with tomato sauce?

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u/Naitso Dec 07 '16

No, tomatoes are no good with lingonberries.

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u/Kpc04 Dec 07 '16

I mean instead of whatever skyrim berries you use to craft sauce with.

1

u/Naitso Dec 07 '16

Heh, skyrim berries.

Anyways swedish meatballs as a dish is traditionally served in a brown gravy. The jam is speparate from the gravy. Serving meatballs in a tomato sauce is also common, but then you would call it meatballs in tomato sauce.

Picture of swedish meatballs

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u/Piratengold Dec 06 '16

Nope, it's actually cranberry jam. I don't really like it tho'.

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u/TommiHPunkt Dec 06 '16

Lingonberry >>> cranberry

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u/Piratengold Dec 06 '16

Woops, was a translation error, lol... don't know what I typed into dict.cc to get cranberry, but I meant lingonberry. :D

1

u/Cheben Dec 06 '16

No, actual jam. It is not as sweet as the stuff Americans usually calls jam, it is a bit more bitter and sour. Really delicious with mashed potatoes and sauce. You can find it at Ikea, not nearly the best stuff but it works.

1

u/IsomDart ​ Dec 06 '16

Jam with meatballs?

1

u/TheGiantGrayDildo69 Dec 06 '16

Tyttebær? If it's anything else I'm disgusted by your eating it with meatballs.

1

u/Waffleman75 Dec 06 '16

What's a VAT?

1

u/SaturdaysOfThunder Dec 06 '16

There's this tasty deli mustard that's made in my state that's very cheap: $1, it's pretty much the cheapest deli mustard you can get here. I went to a Vegas grocery store and it was $4, while they had similar sized deli mustards selling for around $1. It was weird seeing my usual cheap option being the luxury option.

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16

Did you just say meatballs with jam?