Market Classic · Open Sandwich

Räksmörgås (Shrimp Sandwich)

📷 Closely related photo — Photo via Pexels/Unsplash — free for commercial use

The Swedish idiom 'glida in på en räkmacka', to slide in on a shrimp sandwich, describes someone who got where they are without having to work for it.

An open-faced sandwich piled with hand-peeled cold-water shrimp, mayonnaise, egg, lettuce and a squeeze of lemon on buttered white bread or crispbread. A fixture at fish markets and harborside kiosks along Sweden's west coast.

Why it's made this way: Built around the sweet, cold-water shrimp caught off Sweden's Bohuslän coast, it turned an everyday catch into a fast, no-cutlery lunch that fishmongers could assemble to order at the counter.