Stockholm Escapades – Pt 1: Oaxen Slip

One of the small blessings of travel and studying abroad is that you meet and befriend folks from different walks of life, corners of the map which you hadn’t previously visited, people who grew up in different circumstances, with different interests. In the decade since, my path and theirs have often diverged even further on many levels – jobs, education, geography, experience, love, food. But it’s also funny how life (and discount airlines offering an undeniable deal) can reconnect those threads.

We were in Stockholm in mid-winter to visit Antony, an Australian friend from my year abroad in Paris who found a career in foreign service and who was now assigned to the consulate in Stockholm. Stockholm, and Scandinavia in general, was a first for me, so we’d lucked out having a second bedroom in a lovely, light-filled apartment in Kungsholmen as a home base for a few days.

A few of our meals brought us Oaxen, a restaurant on the quiet south side of Djurgarden, past the Vasa and ABBA museums (yes, it’s a thing). Oaxen is split into two parts, the more casual Oaxen Slip and the two-Michelin-starred Oaxen Krog. We ate at both, and had a swell time at both.

This post is just for Oaxen Slip, where we shared a meal with two friends who live in Stockholm. The fried mushroom, meaty and savory, was delicious. Whoever thought to butter-fry the rye bread is a genius – it inverted the experience of that dish. There’s a giant boat suspended over your head, which lends both a surreal quality to your dining experience, but also connects you to the idea of Sweden so far as I have any idea of Sweden, a country and a culture long on seafaring and seafood, on craft and simplicity. None of these dishes felt overthought or overworked – each dish was three or four things done well and in earnest.