Swedes Love Cardamom

Add the Swedes overuse of cardamom to my growing dislikes of this country. They appear to love this stuff. It is in most of the baked goods, in granola, in everything. I expect someday soon my milk will be cardamom flavored. Anywhere else I wouldn't have to worry about accidently purchasing something with cardamom as the spice has to be actively searched for, but in this country I find myself reading the ingredient list of every product I purchase just to be sure and asking every cafe barista if a pastry has cardamom.

To be clear, cardamom is a terrible spice. It tastes awful. Arabic coffee is the worst in the world due to this spice. Instant Nescafe tastes a hundred times better, I rarely use spices as they cover up the taste of food instead of bringing out and improving the flavors as salt does. Their only use is covering up the rancid taste of rotten food. Hence my dislike of spice laden foods, especially Indian cuisine.

It is amazing that Swedes have not found a central point of decent food. They are at one extreme or the other. Either rotten fish with no spices that is inedible, or extremely powerful spices that ruin the taste of whatever they touch and make them nearly inedible.

The best I can say about Swedish cuisine is that it is.....unique, and that is being generous and kind as some other words are much more accurate.