The Swedish chef on a crazy Malmö restaurant, an unexpectedly great local chocolate factory and farm shops where you fix your own price
EATING OUT
Bastard
Mäster Johansgatan 11, 211 21 Malmö; +46 40 12 13 18, www.bastardrestaurant.se
“This is really good. It’s a crazy place – they do a high volume and after 10.30pm it gets a bit wild – but the food is simple and honest. The menu changes all the time. You can sit outside in the summer and they barbecue and make really good pizzas. The cocktails are good too. You have to go – I know you will love it.” – Daniel
Kvarteret Åkern
Nobelvägen 73b, 214 33 Malmö, Sweden; +46 40 96 96 00, www.kvarteretakern.com
We go to this easy-going neighbourhood restaurant on Daniel’s recommendation and it’s one of the most enjoyable meals of our trip. “In Malmö actually there are some really good places that aren’t so expensive and you can go in and have a three-course menu for 250 krona. This is one of them. It does really simple food and natural wines, and the chefs are really good. It’s nice.”
Hörte Brygge
Hörte Hamn, Dybäck 465, Skivarp 274 54, Sweden; +46 73 997 13 42, www.hortebrygga.se
“This restaurant is south of here, between Ystad and Trelleborg. It’s really close to the water and they serve simple food and good wines and you sit out on the grass. Yeah it’s a good place, a nice place. Of course the food is really important, but for me it’s so much more about the feeling at the restaurant.”
BUYING IN
Möllevångstorget market
Möllevångstorget, 214 24 Malmö, Sweden
In this neighbourhood square in Malmö, there is a daily fruit and veg market. “You can buy really good vegetables here and good meat if you’re lucky. It’s in the more hipster area of Malmö so it’s got a nice atmosphere, not so stiff.” Daniel also mentions a weekend farmers’ market in Malmö but doesn’t go into detail.
Österlenchoklad
Tranesvägen 37, 273 92 Skåne Tranås, Sweden; +46 417 201 25, www.osterlenchoklad.se
At the end of our lunch, we are given thin slabs of excellent dark chocolate from the factory in the village, and afterwards we go to check it out – the factory-shop is just a few hundred metres away and it seems incredible that such a tiny village can boast a great chocolate-maker as well as a world-class restaurant. “The chocolatier is really good. He buys whole beans and does everything here in the village. You can buy raw chocolate from them as well.”
Bokeslundsgården
Norrto 3217, 242 93 Hörby, Skåne, Sweden; +46 70 456 48 09, www.facebook.com/Bokeslundsgarden
By coincidence, we are due to visit this farm (pictured above) and interview its owner Johan Widing the day after our lunch with Daniel. It turns out that Bokeslundsgården is one of Daniel’s suppliers. “We have a really good bird guy 40 minutes from here – his name is Johan Widing. We get duck eggs from him. We have such bad chickens in Sweden as a rule but he is using old Swedish methods and getting some really good results. Also in Sweden we try to butcher everything as fast as possible, but his idea is to take a little bit longer. We have birds that are 2 or 3 years old from him. And his farm is amazing. He has everything: vegetables, honey. I’m sure you’re going to like it.”
Farm shops
“If you travel around in Österlen [the southeastern part of Skåne] you have a lot of small houses where you just open the door, go in and grab whatever produce you want and put the money in the box… You just pay what you think it’s worth. It’s nice.”