For research purposes, I took along a real Swede – my friend, Anna. Our adventure covered the breadth of IKEA’s culinary offerings, which is to say both their restaurant and the food shop.

The restaurant prides function over form. The food is not particularly special, nor is it overwhelming Swedish. A few dishes are typical – Swedish meatballs, some gravad lax (cured salmon) and many of the desserts (which are excellent and are available in the food shop). But although Swedes eat their fair share of salmon, the fact that IKEA serves salmon does not mean you are in for a typical Swedish experience. Rather, the restaurant is more concerned with satisfying your basic needs so you can satisfy IKEA’s basic need: you buying their furniture.

The Swedish food shop is another story altogether. Swedes living in Belgium are short on opportunities to stock up on traditional foods, and IKEA certainly offers a broad selection. To help the non-Swedish, you can pick up IKEA’s cookbook, Proef Zweden!

Anna first steered me to their soft thinbread: flat-as-can-be sheets flavoured with fennel, excellent for making wraps, perhaps with some of their gravad lax if you are so inclined (as I was). To do it right, pick up some of their mustard/ dill sauce.

Anna also took the opportunity to stock up on Swedish fish. She buys one bag of the sweet, multi-colour variety and one bag of the salty, black variety. I have always detested the latter but Anna clued me in: take one sweet and one salty and eat them together. I could feel my horizons expanding.

IKEA’s selection includes some excellent crisp breads and crackers, plus many other items including meats, fish roe, jams and alcohol. You’ll find unusual flavours, such as the ever-present lingonberry; you’ll also find flavours you know in unexpected places, such as blueberry or rosehip soup (another of Anna’s favourites).

It’s easy to breeze by the Swedish food shop; by the time you reach it, you’re past the cashiers with a cart full of furniture. Don’t be afraid to make a stop, though – you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

www.ikea.be