Unpopular opinion: IKEA meatballs are the very best
Most people go to IKEA for BILLY, PAX or MALM, but that’s not why I go. I don’t go for the cushion covers, glasses or dish brushes either. I drive to IKEA especially for those deliciously sloppy meatballs with cream sauce and lingonberry jam. And if you skip these when visiting the Swedish furniture giant, you should be ashamed.
I know IKEA’s meatballs aren’t at the top of the culinary pyramid, because they’re no caviar toast, brioche with foie gras or Wagyu burger. But sometimes (or actually always, because this FavorFlav editor can’t stand foie gras), you don’t feel like any of that at all. Every now and then, you simply want something simple, tasty, cheap, quick and plenty of it. As far as I’m concerned, nothing beats IKEA meatballs at moments like that.
Taking a detour for IKEA meatballs
Ever since I was little, we never left IKEA without a bag of Daim (but that’s another story) and a pit stop at the restaurant. And I still do that today—except now I take a special detour because my craving for HUVUDROLL (as we IKEA-meatball connoisseurs call these meatballs) is unbelievably strong. The restaurant is ideally positioned by the stairs going down, halfway along the route. I take that football-canteen look in stride—I’m practically pulled inside like a magnet so I can wolf down a bizarre number of meatballs as quickly as possible.
What makes them so delicious?
Why are these meatballs so delicious? That’s a difficult question to answer. Because honestly: the meatballs aren’t particularly flavourful, the cream sauce is often very bland and thin, and the lingonberry jam isn’t anything special either. But when you put those three components together in your mouth, something magical happens. It’s the perfect combination of a soggy meatball with sauce and jam, which means I can’t stop devouring the meatballs. Maybe it has something to do with childhood nostalgia, but as far as I’m concerned, these are the best meatballs you can buy. These days, I even keep them in my freezer so I no longer have to leave the house for them.
Bring on the meatballs
An additional advantage of these top-notch meatballs is the price. At the restaurant, you pay €7.95 for a portion of 12 meatballs with fries and peas—a bargain! We recently wrote about the ridiculous price of sushi at all you can eat restaurants, but IKEA clearly doesn’t play along. Want to take the meatballs home? A one-kilogram bag costs €8.99.
I don’t know what you’re eating tonight, but I’m having meatballs.
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