Where to find a great smorgasbord

Merriam-Webster defines a smorgasbord as a “luncheon or supper buffet offering a variety of foods and dishes such as hors d’oeuvres, hot and cold meats, smoked and pickled fish, cheeses, salads, and relishes.” It is a combination of two Swedish words, “smörgås,” which means open sandwich and “bord” which means table. A simple definition would be a table of open sandwiches.

Most smorgasbords today are not necessarily Scandinavian nor do they serve traditional food. As a matter of fact, one area of the country where there are numerous restaurants that have the word smorgasbord in their names is the Amish country of Pennsylvania. For example, the Bird in Hand website lists Bird in Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord as a place to eat.

The Bird in Hand Family Restaurant begins serving what they refer to as a breakfast smorgasbord at 7 a.m. and continue well into the evening with the lunch and dinner smorgasbords. In this case, the dishes offered are traditional Pennsylvania style food. They offer soup, salad and a dessert bar in addition to the meals that alternate daily for lunch and dinner.

Some things you can expect to find at this smorgasboard are ham balls, roasted chicken and pork, and sauerkraut. At dinner, there is a carving station. While this is not what you will necessarily find in Norway or Sweden, the concept of a groaning board is certainly evident in the phrase “all you can eat smorgasboard” and “salad bar.”

Every fall, the Norwegian Capital of Texas, Clifton, offers a traditional Norse Smorgasbord. It takes place at the local Lutheran Church and there are two seatings of 120 people each for two nights. The food served is much more traditional and tickets are a hot commodity that must be ordered in advance. Not only will you get a taste of recipes that have been passed down for generations, you can buy a cookbook so that you can duplicate some of them at home.

What Clifton is to Norway, Solvang, California is to Denmark. There are several Danish restaurants in town that offer a smorgasbord and every year there is a Taste of Solvang, which some people might consider a walking smorgasbord.

To create a Swedish smorgasbord at home may be easier than traveling around the country trying to find a restaurant that serves traditional smorgasbord. Some of the Scandinavian foods that have a place on the traditional smorgasbord buffet are pickled herring, Swedish meatballs, potato salad, pickled beets, shrimp, salmon, cheeses, salads, bread and butter and plenty of delicious desserts. Fish should have a prominent place as well.

So what is a smorgasbord? It can be a cold summer buffet, a warm winter spread or just about anything in between. The common denominator is that there is a table laden with lots of different dishes and offering plenty of choices.