I HÄRT LINGONBERRIES

October 19, 2010 1:58 PM

What's the best/most interesting food to be had in the IKEA Food Store?

So, I was just a-wandering the little food store that's inside IKEA and while there's lots of cute little cookie stuffs and interesting things in their freezer case, I have no idea what might be good or even really, really good. What are your favorite things to buy?

Bonus question: other than the meatballs, what else is tasty in their cafeteria?

posted by amanda to food & drink (38 answers total)

Their horseradish sauce is pretty fantastic.
posted by goethean at 1:59 PM on October 19, 2010

I always pick up a few bottles of the elderberry flower syrup. I think it's technically meant to be mixed with water and made into juice but I like using it in cocktails. Best summertime drink = gin, elderberry syrup, fizzy water, and lemon.
posted by joan_holloway at 2:03 PM on October 19, 2010 [12 favorites]

Cloud berry jam.
posted by lunalaguna at 2:03 PM on October 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

There are these.. crispy cookie sandwiches that have a dark chocolate in the center and then are drizzled with more dark chocolate.

They are very delicious and evil.

my Mom loves their coffee.
posted by royalsong at 2:04 PM on October 19, 2010

I've never set foot in an Ikea, but after seeing this I kind of want to try all of their baked goods.
posted by phunniemee at 2:05 PM on October 19, 2010

I love, love, love their crispy gingersnap cookies.
posted by donajo at 2:07 PM on October 19, 2010 [5 favorites]

I enjoy their lox (but I haven't met a smoked salmon/lox I didn't like...). Their lingonberry sauce is yummy, as are their Daim chocolate/toffee candies.
posted by miss_kitty_fantastico at 2:09 PM on October 19, 2010

The abovementioned elderberry syrup/concentrate is great.

Some of the cookies are also awesome - I'm a fan of the crispy ginger cookies (Anna's is the brand, I think?).

They have very cheap chocolate bars which are a million times better than Hershey's.

Sometimes the one near me has frozen salmon fillets which aren't half bad considering they're frozen and purchased at IKEA.
posted by Sara C. at 2:09 PM on October 19, 2010

I like their little jars of lumpfish caviar a HELL of a lot - $3.50 a jar!

We stock up every time we go. Just like the stuff in jars at high-end grocery stores (for 4x the price), it will last in the frig as long as the container is unopened. Use like any other caviar. DO check the date on the jar, they are a little lax about that:)
posted by jbenben at 2:18 PM on October 19, 2010

Their cinnamon buns are awesome. Pretty standard, but done well, warm and with lots of cream-cheese icing. At least they used to be, I haven't had one in a couple years.

And heck, 2 hotdogs and a pop for a $1 isn't bad either, if you're into that sort of thing. I've always thought that if I needed to feed a bunch of kids for cheap and was without a kitchen, that's where I'd go.
posted by cgg at 2:21 PM on October 19, 2010

The letter-shaped cookies -- they only come in I, K, E and A -- are cinnamony and delicious. Horribly addicting.
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:21 PM on October 19, 2010

Err, $2. But still cheap. Edit window, please!
posted by cgg at 2:22 PM on October 19, 2010

Dammsugare/punschrullar, Prinsesstårta, cloudberry jam, and since it's almost the right season - Julmust!
posted by elsietheeel at 2:26 PM on October 19, 2010

I, too like their salmon. I also buy the ABBA jars of chilled lumpfish caviar (around $3.50). Their frozen desserts are good, especially the chocolate tart.
posted by ericb at 2:27 PM on October 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

Punschrullar are pretty good. And you can get ammonia-flavoured liquorice fish. of course. If you like the sort of thing.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 2:29 PM on October 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

They have some dried/fried onion things that I really enjoy.
posted by backwards guitar at 2:29 PM on October 19, 2010

Or, what jbenben said!
posted by ericb at 2:29 PM on October 19, 2010

nthing the elderberry cordial. Also, the gooseberry jam, which reminded me how much I miss goosegogs.

I don't think the US IKEAs sell alcoholic glögg, which is a pity.
posted by holgate at 2:42 PM on October 19, 2010

That salmon pate in the tube is pretty freaking great. My kids call it Fish Toothpaste and would squirt it directly into their mouths if I didn't keep an eagle-eye on them.

If they have the applecake, grab it--it's not always around. Having a Daim torte in your freezer is a very smart idea, in case of surprise guests (or cramps. Daim torte cures cramps).

I've never been disappointed by anything in the cafeteria. Sometimes they have ham and brie baguette sandwiches that are very nice. The various gravlax platters are delish. Here is another opportunity to seek apple cake, too.
posted by padraigin at 2:43 PM on October 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

At the cafeteria, their princess cakes are awesome. Also available in the frozen goods.
posted by annsunny at 2:52 PM on October 19, 2010

I was just coming in here to give a big thumbs up to the Fish Toothpaste (what a lovely name for it....).
posted by nebulawindphone at 3:47 PM on October 19, 2010

Nthing Salmon Innä Tube. Tasty on crackers for humans and perfect for sneaking pills into one's cats or dogs.

They occasionally have small cinnamon rolls in a plastic bag, each roll is about the size of a golf ball. They keep very well in the freezer and 15 seconds in the microwave gives you just enough warm pastry to go with the morning coffee (their large ones are awesome too but everyone needs a nap after eating one).

Earlier this year, I bought a sack of frozen crawdads there too. Who knew 'dads were a feature of Swedish cuisine but they tasted just fine under non-Nordic Cajun seasoning and they were significantly less expensive than the frozen 'dads I get at the supermarket.
posted by jamaro at 4:27 PM on October 19, 2010

I like the many varieties of herrings pickled in jars - mustard, citrus, dill, etc. I think there are about nine different kinds.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:41 PM on October 19, 2010

I love the tubes of creamed herring roe. Squeeze a squiggle onto bland, dry, not-too-salty crackers (or onto my wrist in the car on the way home because I can never wait) for salty goodness. It would also pair well with something tart, like tomato sauce or something mild, like hard-boiled eggs. My cats dig it, too.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 4:43 PM on October 19, 2010

I love it all - I really do. But every time I go I end up buying a jar of herring chunks in dill sour cream. Oh, my.
posted by dirtdirt at 5:54 PM on October 19, 2010

I love their gravlax. It's cured rather than smoked salmon, and it is delicious. I really like smoked salmon but often find it a bit too salty and I certainly can't eat it plain. This stuff? I can, and do eat plain, and it is delicious.

The syrups are good too, and make for a variety of tasty drinks.
posted by quirks at 6:00 PM on October 19, 2010

The Princess Cakes and the cinnamon buns. And the breakfasts - $1 gets you a full breakfast. And the lingonberries.

Heck, it's all pretty good, and all pretty cheap. Kind of like Ikea itself.
posted by smistephen at 7:08 PM on October 19, 2010

Seconding the Julmust. There's no other pop like it, seriously.
posted by flod logic at 7:11 PM on October 19, 2010

The little green pastries - are those the princess cakes? Whatever they're called, the green + chocolate things are delicious.
posted by aimedwander at 8:02 PM on October 19, 2010

Seconding the Daim chocolate/toffee candies. Damn/Daim they're good.
posted by TrarNoir at 8:57 PM on October 19, 2010

Princess cakes/prinsesstårta are round, made of green marzipan, whipped cream, jam, and sponge cake.

Punschrullar/dammsugare are rectangular, made of green marzipan, chocolate, crumbs, and booze.

Both of them are awesome. But anything made of green marzipan is.
posted by elsietheeel at 9:30 PM on October 19, 2010

It's so incredibly stereotypical, but I have to confess to buying their frozen meatballs on occasion and enjoying them with the lingonberry jam. Or just buying the same in their cafeteria. It's good and filling. And all at a reasonable price, so what more could you want?
posted by barc0001 at 10:25 PM on October 19, 2010

I'm hooked on the "Graddsas," packets of powdered mix that make a creamy sauce with a very umami punch. Pic

The cafeteria here has little "vegetable cake" things, potato and green veg made into short cylinders and slightly crisped, that I'm always irked about not being able to get for take-away. (Yeah, the cafeteria won't do take-out orders. Sadly.)

Yes to the apple cake. The sauce sold for it is not bad, vaguely 'melted vanilla ice cream.'

And some sort of frozen potato something that comes in a bag with balls of frozen potato, balls of fresh cheese, a bit of onion... You dump it into a dish, bung it in the oven, and it comes out all potatoey good with some bites having a great moist chewy cheese bit. Mmm.
posted by kmennie at 1:55 AM on October 20, 2010

I'm in the UK, so I don't know if the product range is identical. I don't get to go very often, but when I do, I stock up.

I love the lingonberry jam and use it all the time in place of cranberry sauce or to sweeten up gravies or whatever.

I also buy lots of bags of malaco skumkantarell, which are foamy gummy mushroom-shaped candies.

They also have something called “Punschrullar”, which elsietheeel mentioned above. They're fabulous marzipan cakey rolls flavored with arrack.
posted by sascha at 5:39 AM on October 20, 2010

Nthing the elderflower cordial. Great for use in cocktails - I just had an elderflower martini last night.
posted by thejanna at 9:32 AM on October 20, 2010

Nthing the crispy cookies with the chocolate in the middle. Do NOT leave without a package of these. (They're in the yellow(?) box with the clear cellphane around it.)
posted by Work to Live at 10:33 AM on October 20, 2010

My staple IKEA runs are for knäckebröd, Kalle's (the smoked roe spread inna tube rather than the salmon cheese, which is too smoky-tasting for me), lingonsylt, Daim, meatballs, gräddsås for meatballs, and prästost, which is a mild cow's cheese with a little zing of vodka (sometimes currant vodka) for bite.

The shrimp sandwich is my go-to in the cafeteria. When I lived in Sweden, I would eat one any time I encountered one, and have never really been able to perfectly replicate all the ingredients at home.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:51 AM on October 20, 2010

I got some salmon there once that my son cooked on a very hot grill pan. It was incredibly delish, but we can't remember its name. Love the apple cake, all the salmon, which is priced well, and didn't love the meatballs at home. So far, the cafeteria has never let me down.
posted by theora55 at 11:14 AM on October 20, 2010