Semla – only for Tuesdays!

Sweden has a special pastry for Fat Tuesday called a semla.  It is pastry perfection and very hard to resist.  They are only sold about 6 weeks before Fat Tuesday each year.  You can’t buy them at other times.

There was once a Swedish king who died from eating 16 semlor.  If you don’t control yourself, you will look like this:

That’s why many of us make a rule of eating a semla only on a Tuesday until Fat Tuesday.  One would not be enough, but it would also be cruel to deny yourself.  One a week is about all the body can take.

This week I missed having a semla on Tuesday, so I went to a bakery to order one on Wednesday.  Keep in mind, there are about 50 semlor behind the counter.  It’s the current seasonal treat.

As soon as I ordered it, another customer in line said, “But it’s not Fat Tuesday!  Isn’t that in February?”!

Assuming she was a normal person and only joking, I smiled and said, “Yeah, I know.”

Then she demanded that the girl behind the counter tell her the exact date of Fat Tuesday this year.  After that, she turned to me and yelled, “You’re  cheating!”

There’s really nothing to say to that except to grab the semla, take a huge bite, and walk off with whipped cream all over your nose.