"Swedish people, when they get here they order that because that is a typical dish," said Tre Kronor owner, Larry Anderson.
It's essentially a shrimp salad. During lunch, it's stuffed into giant baked potatoes, and at dinner, it arrives with toast and fish roe, as a more elegant appetizer. But the key in either case is the Nordic shrimp.
"Some people call them Icelandic shrimp or Greenland shrimp, but they're a coldwater shrimp; they have a lot more flavor than say, a Gulf shrimp or a Southeast Asian shrimp," he said.
Anderson combines the shrimp with healthy dollops of sour cream and mayo. He combines those ingredients in a large bowl, then adds a handful of freshly-chopped dill, plus finely-chopped red onions, and finally, a healthy squeeze of fresh lemon juice to brighten it up. To assemble the appetizer version, he simply mounds the skagen on top of some thin toast, adds a pretty generous dollop of whitefish roe and tops it off with another slice of toast and fresh dill.
"You want to make something Swedish, you put dill on it or you serve lingonberries with it," said Anderson.
So all the Swedish hallmarks are here: dill, fish roe and Nordic shrimp; add a little bit of aquavit to the mix and you are suddenly back in Stockholm.
Tre Kronor
3258 W. Foster Ave.
773-267-9888
http://www.trekronorrestaurant.com/
