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A nice piece of fish -- cod perhaps, herring or salmon -- is just the thing to set a Swedish tone for the July 30 concert by Arrival, a Swedish tribute band playing the music of ABBA at Ravinia.

If you can find one, lightly saute a fresh herring, serve it with mashed potatoes. "I remember eating that," said Asa Anden of Hinsdale. "That used to be and still is a very traditional dish."

Though she's lived in Hinsdale since 2001, where she co-owns Stockholm Objects, a store selling Swedish-designed sport clothing, accessories and home decor, Anden was born and grew up in Uppsala, an ancient university town just north of Stockholm.

To be authentically Swedish, she says, you must cook that fish yourself. "I think people cook a lot more at home there than they do here," she said. "They don't just heat up something."

Cold fish

One dish she's missed most here is baked salmon. It begins with a whole fish, something that American stores don't have readily available. "You cook it in the oven in foil," Anden explains. "Then you let it cool, and you eat it cold, with mayonnaise maybe. That's very Swedish. It's very summer, part of a cold buffet or smorgasbord."

Or you can buy salmon to make gravlax, salmon cured for several days in a dry marinade. But again, says Anden, "People make it, they don't buy it. You marinate it for a couple of days, then you eat it."

While fish, pork and potatoes are the traditional mainstays of Swedish cuisine, the favorites vary from season to season and region to region. In the north of Sweden, for instance, reindeer meat is more easily available, though these days "it is a delicacy," said Karin Moen Abercrombie, executive director of the Swedish American Museum in Chicago.

Also in the north, Abercrombie added, they also eat lefse, a bread common in Norway. "It's a very thin, soft bread. They eat it with butter and Swedish syrup," she said.

Rye rules

More common across Sweden are the many kinds of yeast-raised rye breads, chewy-soft in the center with a hearty crust. "It's more rustic," Anden said. And more flavorful. "You have 10 or 15 kinds to choose from. You can have bread with lingonberries, flax seed. So many things that give the bread more flavor and color."

When it's available, Swedes enjoy a green, leafy vegetable called mangold, that's rather like spinach. It's good in salad, or as a colorful base for a piece of salmon. "We eat it a lot with fish," said Anden.

Living in the U.S., Anden has also missed fruit gardens. Apple, pear and plum trees, black and red currant bushes and rhubarb plants are a cherished Swedish tradition. "If you live in a suburb and you have an older house, you have a fruit garden," said Anden. "I don't see that here."

But she has seen those famous meatballs and pancakes Americans call "Swedish." But are they?

"Yes, we really eat them," said Anden. Meatballs may show up on the average household menu once every week or so.

And pancakes?

"They're never breakfast things. Never, never," she said. In fact a good Swedish breakfast is a savory rye bread, cheese, and yogurt or a thinner, drinkable version of yogurt, more like kefir or buttermilk.

Those cheeses, generally hard cheeses, and cultured-milk drinks, which come in greater varieties in Sweden and with far less sugar, are also on the list of things Anden misses.

The pancakes, however, will show up as part of an evening meal, traditionally on Thursdays. "First you have pea soup, made with yellow peas. Then you have the pancakes afterward," said Anden. "But you don't eat them with lingonberries. That's an American thing. We have them with strawberries or applesauce."

So when do we get our lingonberries?

Another meal, another pancake. It's called an oven pancake, made from a recipe like that of traditional Swedish pancakes, but baked. "Those you eat with bacon or ham," said Anden, "and those you eat with lingonberries."

Gravlax

Salmon fillets

2 T kosher salt

2 T sugar

2 tsp. ground black pepper

Generous handful of fresh, whole dill weed

Remove stray bones, and for every pound of salmon you use, prepare the salmon fillets. Thoroughly mix salt, sugar and pepper in a bowl. Lay salmon fillet, skin side down, on a piece of plastic wrap cut three to four times the length of the fish.

Spread the dry mix evenly over the fish. Lay dill weed on top of that. Fold long dill stems over, or snip off.

Wrap the prepared fish tightly in the plastic wrap. Then wrap again in another sheet of plastic wrap, and place in a dish to catch the juices that will form and leak out. Refrigerate at least 2 days. The longer it marinates, the more intense the flavors grow.

To serve, unwrap the fish, remove from marinade, wash under cold water and gently dry with a paper towel. Use a very sharp knife, slice gravlax on the bias, remove slices from skin. Serve on flatbread, crackers, or toast with a squeeze or slice of lemon.

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