Gatukök are usually located near busy roads and car parks and are often small with few seats. Gatukök has a blend of fast food that is hard to find anywhere else.
What is served?
Common dishes include sausages, burgers, chips, mashed potatoes, meatballs, and kebab.
A classic dish that is almost exclusively served in Street Kitchens is a "Tunnbrödsrulle" consisting of sausage and mashed potato wrapped in a thin bread. In a Tunnbrödsrulle, you'll also find classic gatuköks accompaniments such as räksallad (mayonnaise, prawns, onion), bostongurka (pickled cucumber, finely chopped sour pickle), and rostad lök (roasted onion).
Another classic that many Street Kitchens serve is "halv" or "hel" special, which is one or two sausages served with bread topped with mashed potatoes. As for drinks, Pucko is a milk-based drink with a chocolate flavour that is a characteristic gatukök drink that is rare in many other restaurants.
History of gatukök
Sausages have a natural place in a gatukök as it was first time served as fast food in a kiosk 1897 at the 'General Exhibition of Art and Industry' on Djurgården [1].
In the 1930s, Oskar Lithell started serving sausages from carts, which became the start of gatukök. Hamburgers came later, in the 1950s, and gained popularity in the 1970s when Sibylla started serving hamburgers in their branded gatukök chain [2].
Kebab came later into the gatukök menu, in the 1980s [3], but is not as closely associated to gatukök, because there are specific kebab restaurants with its characteristic kebab menus.
Gatukök today
Most Swedes do not eat at gatukök, but there is certainly a large group of gatukök enthusiasts who often visit their favourite gatukök. If you've never eaten at a gatukök, we at Sweden Herald recommend trying a "tunnbrödsrulle med räksallad och rostad lök". It's a classic Swedish dish that can hook you!
