Welcome to 25 for 25 my project to watch and eat my way around the world in 2025 with 25 movies from 25 countries matched with 25 country themed dinners. Today’s entry is Sweden but you can see the full Masterlist to watch and cook along with me.

Country: Sweden
Movie:  Smala Sussie (Slim Susie)
Director: Ulf Malmros
Year: 2003
The Elevator Pitch: Erik’s searching for the shy sister he left behind causes him to uncover the mayhem and secrets of his childhood small town.

How Was the Movie?: 

This film is a total 1990s/early 2000s romp that they just don’t make any more. A smart and saavy comedy that strikes at the heart of non-city living and the intertwined odd-ball characters that live within those worlds. The movie feels like a mix of Lynch, Tarantino, and Kevin Smith and I guess that’s probably going to either be a huge negative or positive depending on your position. It has plenty of unique flares and obviously is informed by Swedish culture but I kept catching glimpses of its influences that it wears on its sleeve. 

At time this felt so breakneck it was almost like it was a music video which is added by the multitude of needle drops. In a way to explores how strange and terrible some of the things lurking in suburbia can be but it never flips over to grim the way, say, The Kid Detective does. It’s a “mystery” movie that has the classic Pulp Fiction timeline cut up but it uses it to really good effect.

I would pretty much recommend this film to anyone who enjoys a touch of 90s/00s nostalgia, liked anything by those previous directors and has a love of absolutely over the top characters.

Fun fact: All but Susie and the police caracters are professional actors which is probably why it kept reminding me of Clerks (positive). It gives the film such a free-flowing/strange feel and keeps it oddly grounded for such a weird film.

What was for Dinner?: 

It is unfortunately true that we did not have a good time with Norwegian food so I was actually dreading Sweden a little bit and tried to pick “safer” options. I was however confronted with the fact that everything in Sweden seemed to be a salad made primarily with mayo. I do vaguely remember this from spending a week around Sweden but that trip was 8 years ago and all the food was (honestly) not memorable. In America a salad of various contents with mayo is seen as “white people food” but I’d never seen a single person make one of those until I was well past my teens because I think it’s a largely mid-west thing where the Swedish descendants all went. Anyway, that aside I opted to make laxsmörgås instead. I’m almost to the point of saying I didn’t make it so much as assemble it. If you can imagine it, a sandwich with smoked salmon, boiled eggs, and a little mayo is actually shockingly decent. I didn’t have quite the right bread but a hearty store rye that I toasted wasn’t the wrong choice for this. 

I also made ärtsoppa which is a staple in most places so I felt like I was cheating but it seems to be hyper popular in Sweden. I made it with some smoked chicken leg instead of ham and it turned out really good. My husband actually ate two full bowls of it. I never eat split peas but I should probably add this soup to my rotation of food, solid B+ food. 

For dessert I made the classic chokladbollar. I couldn’t stand these, it basically tasted like a health food but it was made out of sugar, butter, and chocolate so by all rights it should have been delicious. I found them really wet and dry at the same time and baffling. My husband ate the rest without complaint. Since these are probably a product of rationing during WW2 I forgive them for not being super but at least in its original form these did not appeal to me (I saw some interesting variations while I was recipe searching that I’d like better but I wanted to try the OG style).

We bought some flavored ciders from Sweden also, they were pretty good but a little sweet. 

Honestly not the best or worst food but I’m still happy to have experienced it and what was important was that the movie was way better than the food 🙂

That’s it for Sweden, see you next in South Korea!