Oh Ikea! I Love Your Salty Little Balls!

Everybody should know by now that one of the secrets of lasting through a shopping trip to Ikea is making a pit stop at their cafeteria, which features whimsical Scandinavian delicacies like Swedish meatballs and lingonberry jam. The Burbank location even has a well-stocked food market where you can pick up your own frozen meatballs, cream sauces, lumpfish roe, canned herring, rye breads, cheeses, and countless other little oddball treats like roe cheese spread.

All of this is offered at Ikea's typically ridiculous prices -- $2.99 for a hefty can of delicious orange lumpfish roe. Slather it on some rye crisps with cream cheese and you have got one explosive Nordic tongue-party! (Leery of three-buck fish eggs? Don't worry, they're mild and creamy, more like the roe you get on your sushi than the fancy-pantsy osetra or beluga you find in fine restaurants).

For a complete meal, pick up the frozen Swedish meatballs along with some cream sauce. Prepare according to directions, then serve alongside some freshly steamed spinach, with lingonberry jam on top. How about a vodka cocktail made with elderflower concentrate? If you're really adventurous, choose from a variety of pickled herrings -- top a rye cracker with some fish and you've got a hearty breakfast. And don't forget about desert -- with goodies like almond tart and marzipan cake, the Swedes prove they know how to put together a pastry better than they know how to put together a dresser.

Photo courtesy of the Ikea website.