Local for a day at St. Jakob's Stenugnsbageri in Lund, Sweden

St. Jakob's Stenugnsbageri  (stone oven bakery) in Lund, Sweden, is the kind of inviting spot that feels like a home away from home: one of those cozy cafes you would frequent weekly if you were a local in this university town.  

I had to work a bit to find this bakery, though it's just a  stone's throw from the Lund Cathedral, the city's most well known landmark.  

It was my first time in Sweden during Easter time, so I was eager to try some seasonal baked goods, but I knew I had to practice patience.  When bakery hunting abroad, the trick to finding the local favorite baked good source is to refrain from tasting at the first few bakeries that you see.  Keep looking in the storefront windows, and step inside if you need to survey the scene more closely.  But never, I repeat never, hand over your Swedish kroner until you're sure you've found the right one.  While Scandinavian bakeries tend to be impressively consistent, you can only try so many rich, traditional Swedish baked goods in one day, and you should try the best versions you can find. So look for the clues relied upon by every good bakery hunter: try to spot a bakery with a steady line of people.  Lots of traffic is usually a key sign that you're on the right track to get the finest kanelbuller kroner can buy.  And when in doubt, look for full bellies and satisfied expressions.

Swedish cardamom

 rolls 

When you enter St. Jakob's, the aesthetically beautiful pastry and bread display enchants you. Customers line up in a narrow area to place their orders, then find seating in one of the many cozy nooks of the interior, or in the large area by the streetside window, perfect for people watching.  It's the ideal place to find some warmth from the Swedish weather, and curl up with a book, or catch up with a friend.  It's the kind of friendly place where locals walk in and order their cappuccinos "extra hot," and so popular that customers remark to one another at their good fortune when they discover a prime open table.  Two regulars chatting together confirmed that Sunday morning is the best time to visit, as the cafe is otherwise filled to capacity.

Like many other businesses in town, St. Jakob's fills its windows with the traditional Easter birch branches decorated with colorful feathers.  

St. Jakob's is bursting with the charm of a place that is well loved by Lund residents.  It's also bursting with baked goods. Fresh piping hot treats seem to cover every imaginable surface of the place, including several precariously perched trays from straight out of the oven.  

Mazarin and croissants, with lovely loaves of bread in the background 

While I feared for the clumsy customer who might knock these over, I embraced their lack of counter space as a sign that they keep the fresh baked goods coming!

Mini semlor, a seasonal treat with cream and almond paste

Thanks to the people of St. Jakob's, who offer not only great tasting baked goods, but a cozy, inviting space where it feels automatically possible to be a local in Sweden, if only for a day.   

Meeting the Mazarin: a hidden gem

Through travel, we discover hidden gems if we're paying attention. I would never fault anyone for enjoying a photo op at the Eiffel Tower, but I also believe these moments should be balanced with taking in the little details of one's surroundings. For in these details, you can find magic. Take airport people watching as one example.  I once spent an entire pre-boarding period at an airplane gate captivated by a musician picking ever so lightly at his guitar.  A gentleman in his late 60's (?),  he was playing just loudly enough to attract the curious glances of those passengers who could sense his immense talent.  I'm still convinced he was some sort of award winning artist who played backup for all the greats, and he left us wondering for the whole plane ride.  While adventuring around the world, hidden gems can be people, they can be your most favorite local specialty cookbook shops, and of course, they can also be desserts that your palate has yet to meet.  And when it comes to desserts I've never seen, I pay particular attention.  It was during a trip in Stockholm, Sweden that I met the mazarin: a perfectly-sized-to-accompany-a-coffee sweet, with a crumbly outer shortbread dough and a soft almond paste (heavenly) interior.

I also became acquainted with the work of the Stockholm-born artist Bengt Elde, whose whimsical prints I fell in love with right away. The small souvenir budget I had given myself was immediately spent on Bengt Elde postcards. My favorite, a postcard of the horse that reoccurs in many of his works, is captured in the mazarin taste test photos further down in the post.  I visited two bakeries for mazarins-- Petrus, and Chic Konditori, both in the Södermalm neighborhood of Stockholm. 

Lacking plates in my traveler's hotel room, I looked for an improvised solution and borrowed the wine glasses the staff had intended for use with the minibar.  Little did the management know that these make perfect mazarin holders!

Both bakeries made excellent versions, one with a sugar topping (Chic Konditori) and one with a layer of icing instead (Petrus.)  I will admit, after Stockholm, I now have a mazarin vice, and have seriously considered riding the train from Copenhagen across the border to Malmö, Sweden just to try to get my hands on a good one.  This has instantly become a favorite on my top ten list of desserts.

It's worth noting that the Södermalm neighborhood is packed with hidden gems, including 18smaker glassmakeri, which serves ice cream so tasty that is appealing even in a cold climate.  As they say on their website: "Here in the ice cream parlor, it's always summer, come in for a scoop of ice cream and forget the rain outside!"  You need a sense of humor when you're an ice cream shop in a Scandinavian climate.  Then again, this ice cream is seriously good. Their cinnamon and cardamom flavor is like a Swedish cinnamon bun and an ice cream all rolled into one.  After one taste of their ice cream, which I intended only on sampling, I had to buy a cone and willingly spoil my dinner.

Enjoy the pursuit of your own hidden gems!  Happy traveling.