Pea soup and pancakes thursday

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I'm really enjoying exploring all the new food in Sweden. One thing that I think is absolutely fantastic is pea soup and pancakes on Thursday. Last Thursday I went to the uni refectory at lunch time with a colleague and discovered that the special for the day was pea and ham soup and pancakes.

Apparently it's a Swedish tradition to have pea soup and pancakes on thursdays. Not really sure why, the guy I was with thought it might be something to do with the meal being served in the army on thursdays or something. Anyway, I was delighted - I love pea and ham soup and am quite fond of pancakes, especially the thin crepey ones they make here.

So I was a very happy camper, but was still intregued - do you use the pancakes to dip in the soup? or put soup in the pancakes and roll them up? And what about the jam and cream - do you put them on the pancake first and then dip in the soup? As it turns out, I was totally off the mark! The soup and the pancakes are two different, SEPARATE, courses. It's just a nice combination. So you eat the soup like soup with a spoon and then eat your pancakes for dessert with jam and cream. Very civilised. And much easier than the dipping combo I had in mind!

So, today it is also a Thursday. No surprises what I just had for lunch.....