Cycle 14 – Item 205

29 (Sat) July 2023

Salmon Fillet

2.5

at IKEA

-Gomae, Giheung, Yongin, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

with W and IZ

A long overdue visit, this time ostensibly to buy new book cases for my new “executive” office but more importantly to stock up on ingredients that can only be sourced from IKEA.

At the restaurant, I was pleased to see nuggets shaped as dala horses, which are prominently featured at Scandi Mall, where I’ve been exploring the restaurants lately (see TERSM).  However, the nugget was awful, perhaps the worst food item that I’ve experienced at IKEA.

Come to think of it, I was underwhelmed by the vegetarian meatballs on my prior visit (see 12.278 Plant Balls), also an earlier version of frozen vegetarian meatballs purchased from the store that I’d thrown out after a single use (though didn’t document) – clearly, this kind of plant-based food isn’t IKEA’s thing.

The salmon plate vindicated a recent observation about Swedish food (see 14.186 Steamed Potatoes with Dill Alioli (and Pan-Seared Salmon): “Given the salmon, and the potatoes, and especially the dill, the meal felt Swedish – because I’d never really worked with dill until KSCX (see for example 12.361 Toast Gravad Lax), I now tend to think of anything involving dill as Swedish.”

Cynically, I’m inclined to think that they’re attempting to generate publicity points about promoting a more “sustainable” lifestyle, while in fact contributing to landfills across the world – I have no data to back that assertion, just that I buy a lot of crap at IKEA because it’s so cheap and fun but I don’t really need, so it eventually gets thrown out.

(See also KSCX)

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)