Matregionen Södra Roslagen : en etnologisk studie om lokala beskrivningar av en regions mat

Sammanfattning: North of the city of Stockholm lies the area called Södra Roslagen composed of several municipalities. The purpose of this essay is to discover how local informants describe the food culture of the region and analyse why some types of food are mentioned and others are excluded. Several people within the food industry of Södra Roslagen were given surveys asking them to describe the food habits of the area, from commodities and certain dishes to traditions. These answers were analysed using the theories regional food, regiocentrism, revitalisation, placeless food and the idea of viewing culture through the long and the short perspective. One informant mentioned that professionals in the food industry of the region tend to follow trends from the rest of the world and another that many producers work with ecological requirements. Södra Roslagen was also defined by some as having a taste of summer as this coastal area sees an influx of visitors during that season. Mostly though, the informants struggled with defining the food of the area with a few identifying it as anonymous. This might be due to no marketing attempts having been made to give foods of the area a regional profile or add a symbolic value. It might also be because these municipalities are composed of many families originally from various places of the world. Therefore this cultural melting pot has a rich mixture of global food instead of things the locals would specifically associate with the region. Instead of using a short term perspective and mentioning this foreign food as part of the contemporary culture of Södra Roslagen the informants use the longer perspective where traditions need to have existed in a place for many years for them to be considered as part of the regional culture and contemporary culture is ignored.