'Flavourful food and friendliness': What foreigners in Sweden miss from 'home'

Diverse, flavourful food and chatting with strangers: from Mexico to India to the UK, these are the things most readers said they missed about "back home".

A French Londoner now living in Skåne, for example, said he misses "eating cheaply in a healthy and tasty and varied restaurant," and here in Sweden just "cooks at home instead".

Others were more specific about the type of food they missed: Alan Castro, a creative director from the US, said he misses going out for "delicious but cheap dim sum", and describes the experience as full not only of different flavours but also the "hustle and bustle of the room with steam carts and people talking".

Manuel, a scientist from Mexico, said he misses not only "eating decent Mexican food", but "the flavour, the culture, and the tradition behind it, and the way it brings people together". Manuel said he's found that while it can be "imitated, it can never truly be replaced".

Similarly, an anonymous respondent from Greece said he misses "the good food" from home, adding that "the ingredients and flavours here are simply not the same". However, he added that he's done his best to replace the experience with Swedish fika.

The contrast of home-country social norms with the famously subdued and reticent nature of Swedish social habits was another pervasive theme among readers.

One anonymous respondent from the UK said she missed "chatting to people in shops, taxis, public transport, on the street", and joked that she had replaced it with "talking to myself".

Dale, an Englishman now living in Stockholm, said he loves his life in Sweden, where he's been for 15 years, but he still misses "going to the pub after work to meet friends and wind down over a couple of drinks before going home", especially the sense of "camaraderie and a healthy and guilt-free embrace of the notion of having a few drinks after work".

"Pizzerias don't count," he added.

Sisirnath, who is originally from India but has been in Sweden for two decades, said he still misses "the casual conversations and socialising aspects" of "small neighbourhood family shops" in India, which he said "are usually the eyes and ears of the whole neighbourhood and serve as conversation starters".

Ioan Sambeteanu, a planning specialist in Malmö who described himself as being from "everywhere", said what he missed about other places was an "open and direct communication style", and "being able to understand other people's mood and be aware of their perception of me and my actions".

Some people missed specific activities along with their unique social or cultural elements.

A New Zealand software developer in Stockholm said she misses "having meat pies available in bakeries" as well as the social connection she felt while "playing social netball", although she added that she's done her best to substitute it with fika and the Stockholm netball club.

Elizabeth, a retired computer programmer from UK now living in Gothenburg, said that even after 20 years in Sweden she and her partner still miss the variety of classical music concerts available where they'd lived in the UK, saying that by comparison there is "very little choice here".

A Spotify engineer who has lived in Sweden for eight years said she misses the festivals and "big community celebrations" of her native India, along with "watching live cricket matches" and the unique experience of Indian movie theatres. She added that she also loves things that are particular to her life in Sweden, including "time in nature, appreciation for seasons and activities around each season, and the ability to take long vacations".

Overall, an anonymous respondent from Pakistan and Malaysia summed it up when she said what she missed was "flavourful food, warm weather and the friendliness of people who don't know you."