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The Swedish Number – Talk with a Random Swede
201–210 of 218 posts
Re: The Swedish Number – Talk with a Random Swede
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
And here I was thinking this was a Brazillian invention (they are wildly popular in Brazil, everywhere you go in Brazil, even the middle of nowhere, like Amazon Rainforest, you will find someone that owns one).
That is interesting. I thought that it was mostly and European thing. What kinds of cheese is common in Brazil?
the most popular cheese, far ahead of anything else, is mozarella... it is not high quality as actual italian ones though (it is way less "fibrous").
then we have Prato (it means "Plate" as in dinner plate... or dinner dish...), that has the exact same recipe as Danbo, but is made with brazillian milk, and seemly tastes very differently (I dunno, since I never ate Danbo).
then we have a purely local invention called Minas, named after the state of Minas Gerais, despite being a São Paulo invention... (go figure...), that one is hard to describe, since it refers to 4 different cheeses (or the same cheese with 4 slightly variations in the process to make them, but with end results drastically different).
Then other italian cheeses are popular here, maybe because the large italian community here, and how much Brazillians also love pizza, so here almost every supermarket offers Provolone, Parmesan and Gorgonzola.
In urban areas you can find frequently "Steppe" cheese, it is a russian cheese it seems, it is expensive (double the price of "Prato") but not much as local clones of french/swiss cheese (Steppe is half of the price of local clones of Emmental, Gruyere, etc...)
cheddar cheese is sold a bit, but most people consider it low quality crap, the biggest seller of cheddar cheese don't even bother in selling actual cheddar, and instead sell a clone that tastes mostly the same, for very little... people still prefer to buy more expensive mozarella instead.
Re: The Swedish Number – Talk with a Random Swede
#203Skype has something similar back in 2005. You could ring random person and have a chat. I dont understand obsession about Sweden. It is expensive country in decline with high crime. There are better places in Europe.
We're in 64th place for crime, just behind UK and Australia and way behind the US (obviously). But Japan is absolutely great if you're looking for low crime rates, and the food is fantastic too. http://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp
That index claims that there is less crime in Colombia and Russia than in the US. Also that there is less crime in Azerbaijan than in New Zealand.
Re: The Swedish Number – Talk with a Random Swede
#204Anyone try this yet? I've always wondered what Swedes think about IKEA in America...
As a Swede currently living in California who also has visited IKEA in several different countries I can report that the general experience of visiting IKEA is pretty much as stressful and disorienting here as in Sweden. There are some local variations in the product portfolio both due to different standards like in bed sizes and kitchen and cultural differences. You cannot find a cheese slicer in my nearest IKEA and…
Just some anecdote on Kamprad: Switzerland was also the first country for IKEA to expand into and we now have some of the largest stores. I suspect it had to do with Kamprad's early interest in the country, and possibly because it was a good test market for them. Most Swiss have heard some of stories about him - e.g. him driving an old Volvo, using and washing up plastic dishes and also that he often visited the first Ikea in Switzerland (Spreitenbach) in order to see how things go and optimise the strategy.
For me it has always been impressive how streamlined an Ikea is towards maximising revenue. I'm one of these people who tends to analyse my surroundings constantly for possible optimizations - yet in Ikea I couldn't come up with even one improvement that would make it better for the company. This alone is actually rather refreshing for me, finally a place where I can switch off my brain and just indulge in a bit of consumption!
Re: The Swedish Number – Talk with a Random Swede
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Swedes are using cheese slicers too? I always thought the Dutch were the only people in the world to use cheese slicers.
Finn here. How else are you supposed to slice cheese?
In Switzerland we do cheese shavings like described in the following article (although only for a specific type of cheese, the 'tete de moine' (monk's head). http://itotd.com/articles/217/the-girolle/
For any other hard cheese it's a bit blasphemic.
Re: The Swedish Number – Talk with a Random Swede
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
There were actually postings on 4chan's /pol/ about this. Mostly anons asking Swedes what they thought of Muslim refugees raping women in their country (in the rudest way possible) and Swedes politely denying that claim. Would have been interesting if the anons weren't so hostile; instead it was just aggravating as 4chan always is.
From what I've heard from actual Swedes, any non-leftist opinion (or one that isn't leftist enough) will quickly result in the media turning on you and labeling you as a racist, Islamophobe, etc. It'd make you a social pariah and probably end your career. It's apparently not even kosher to suggest decreasing the number of immigrants coming in each year. I wonder what their responses to that question would be if they…
Do you read Swedish media? I don't say there haven't been a blind spot regarding immigration, but lately the government ministers have acknowledged the current refugee crisis is a problem.
Anyway, portraying the whole immigration issue only in terms of a rightist / leftist divide isn't very truthful. Moderaterna are not exactly a leftist party.
Re: The Swedish Number – Talk with a Random Swede
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think people are mostly concerned with muslims, in effect, whether they're arab or not. Take the Netherlands for example, it features a guy called Wilders who frequently talks about Eurabia (instead of Europe) and calls the labour party (partij van de arbeid) the partij van de arabieren (arabs). When in reality, 90% of muslims in the Netherlands are Berbers and Turks, not arabs. There's an anti-arab sentiment becau…
Regarding the racist tendencies in the Netherlands: take heart, not everybody shares them. Wilders may be a very loud mouthed politician but he still represents just a minority.
Thanks :)
Re: The Swedish Number – Talk with a Random Swede
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not at all. Malmö is one of my favorite cities in the world... I've visited there every year for the last 3 years, and it's still very Swedish. Granted, I haven't been since the Syrian refugee situation began, so it may have changed somewhat this year. Worth pointing out there is something of a rivalry between Copenhagen (Denmark) & Malmö (Sweden), which are just 14km apart via bridge. The difference between the cult…
Sorry for nitpicking, but the Swedish/Danish name of the crime drama is spelled Bron/Broen. Brön could mean breads in some Swedish dialects (and is also slang for boobs). Glad to hear you like our city! :)
Nitpicking is entirely welcome, it's the only way I'll learn! And a very worthy nitpick, since I misspelled both the Swedish & Danish... ouch!
Next time I'm in Malmö I owe you a coffee at Espresso House! I wonder if they still have the Australian flag at their cafe in Emporia. Malmö made my friends and I feel so welcome in May 2013 and we've never forgotten it!
Re: The Swedish Number – Talk with a Random Swede
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
> experience of visiting IKEA is pretty much as stressful and disorienting here as in Sweden Weird- I visited an IKEA with four friends and it felt much like a theme park. There was a cafeteria and everything. Granted, our 5th friend--whiskey--was there too.
If you visited there with 4 friends, wouldn't you be the 5th friend?
Whiskey is usually the fifth.
Re: The Swedish Number – Talk with a Random Swede
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks. I have edited my post :)
It seems most of the profit ends up in the charitable foundation which is now paying a bit out to the needy after some prodding http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/8772...
"Charitable" foundation. Aka IKEA R&D department and funds bunker.