Gunillocentrism – web diary of a freelance journalist

I just came back from my inaugural visit at a new food shop that has opened up in Harlem: Citarella on 125th Street.

This is another very strong indication on the current gentrification in this neighborhood, and a huge leap forward as of quality food. In a few years, Harlem has moved from offering mostly bodegas that sell dusty beer, canned food and dried plantains, to having a fair amount of boring supermarkets as well. And now there is also a ‘food boutique’ with a gorgeous selection of artisan cheeses, fresh vegetables, pastries, organic meat and seafood.
I am still a hardcore Fairway fanatic, and Fairway will continue to be a big reason for me to live in Harlem – but Citarella is only half way. I will have to split my loyalties – or double my amounts of gourmet shopping…

And even if Fairway is much larger (and so has a larger selection) and Citarella might be slightly more expensive, it certainly has an edge as of service. At Fairway’s, it’s sometimes difficult to find someone to ask, and more often than not the staff does not speak English. At Citarella I was immediately surrounded by employees who were giving compliments, treating me with samples, asking questions…well, perhaps because they still have so few customers.
Such interaction can easily be too much, and my first instinct was certainly to shy away from it. But then I realized “Hey, this is my neighborhood – why not become a regular from the beginning?!”. So I quickly found myself munching raspberry tart, crostini with Citarella’s olive oil, nectarin wedges, stuffed chicken breast, olives, and goat cheese, while engaging in conversations with the staff. (I hope they will provide food samples beyond the opening phase!)

One of the sellers, a Broooklyn gentleman with long experience from Citarella’s shop in Upper East Side – who I would think they have sent to this very start-up because he is black and they want an all-black staff to look good in Harlem – guessed that I was Swedish. So he wanted me to try their “Swedish meatballs”, from the hot kitchen. I did – and they were OK. But the sauce was not exactly “Swedish”. It was full of sliced mushrooms and onions, and some weird spice I couldn’t identify.

I have been thinking a lot about what exactly “Swedish meatballs” is, since food cultures all over the world have meatballs (Frikadellen, polpette, köfte etc).
So far, I have come to the conclusion that serving them with boiled potatoes, brown sauce, lingonberry jam, and pickled cucumber really is what makes them “Swedish”. Yes, this is the way you get them at Ikea, and I know they are immensely popular not only among Swedish customers (my friend Emilie from Kamerun loves them). Despite of the boring brown sauce.

I told the seller, who was very grateful to hear The Truth about Swedish meatballs – even though I stressed that their sauce was good, too, and didn’t have to be taken off the menu just because I didn’t recognize it as Swedish. But he was very anxious to tell the chef, and we were both pleased when I later found jars with lingonberry jam among their groceries so I could show him what that was… He said: “Next time you come here, we will serve the Swedish meatballs as they should be, and then you will know you have made a contribution.”
Hmmm… I didn’t want to complicate things further by telling him that I almost always prepare _my_ meatballs with Indian spices and serve them in an Italian-style tomato sauce and with rosemary-and-garlic-infested potato wedges…and to me, that’s “Swedish meatballs”, too.

/Gunilla