On April 29th I returned from a week-long trip to Sweden, where I spent half the time in Stockholm and half the time on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. This trip was a very long time coming... in fact, since my dear friend Laura moved to Sweden in 1989. Neither Gotland nor Stockholm were places I expected to run into signs of Texas or Czech culture. But to my surprise, there was a Mexican restaurant in the medieval town of Visby on Gotland. We did NOT partake, though, even out of extreme curiosity. I grew up on Tex-Mex and did not want my ideas of it sullied. And with dishes like Fajita Tropicana on their menu, I was not hopeful. Later in the week, we sought out a very popular Czech pub in Stockholm called Soldaten Svejk (Soldier Švejk) named after the character in the satirical Jaroslav Hašek novel about a soldier during World War 1. Laura had been there several times, never able to get a table because the wait was so long. But one quick request to a busy waitress and
family + history + food = me