Trailblazing Chinese restaurant in Sweden is showing what the culture is really all about
From baijiu to Sichuan cuisine, Surfers in Stockholm has it all. Now, this Chinese culture hub is gearing up to celebrate 20 years
Partway through our meal at Surfers, a Chinese restaurant in Sweden’s capital of Stockholm, Ludvig Saaf bursts into song. It is a Mongolian drinking song about fermented mare’s milk, but few in the dining room can understand the Mandarin lyrics.
We join in, though, answering each rousing “Hey!” with a rowdy one of our own. At the end, we shout “ganbei” – a Chinese term meaning “cheers” – and down our thimble-sized glasses of baijiu, a Chinese spirit.
Saaf, tall and blond with a pierced lower lip, chose a strong multigrain baijiu with an alcohol volume of 52 per cent to pair with the full-flavoured spread before us: blue and white porcelain dishes of peanuts with roasted chillies, lotus root in red oil, grilled oysters topped with confit garlic and chilli, and steaming dandan noodles.
Earlier, we sampled a jasmine tea lager from Master Gao, China’s first microbrewery, and a Tibetan pale ale, which is brewed 3,000 metres (9,800ft) above sea level.
We also enjoyed Cantonese shrimp balls and glossy stir-fried greens, and fish wrapped in banana leaf – a delicacy of the Dai ethnic group from the southern part of China’s Yunnan province. Saaf chose a far mellower baijiu with a rice aroma to match these more delicate dishes.
