I used to work with a Swedish woman, I learnt a few bits then. I got a tape I'd listen to in the car. The thing with languages is that you need to practise and when there's nobody to talk to, you can't. Italian or Greek or, nowadays, asian languages, would be easier to find someone to practise with, but Swedish? Nobody. And just about everybody in Sweden is better at English than we are, so there's not a lot of imperative to learn it.
I find it interesting to see what influences the immigrants have brought to the cooking in an area. Minnesota=scandinavian influence; Texas=Mexican etc. Very big Greek immigrant community in Melbourne, lots of Greek cooking over there.
I love "heavy" bread, dense sourdough, rye bread, pumpernickel (is pumpernickel actually bread?). Anywhere with a scandinavian or german population/background will likely have my favourites (although a baguette is pretty yummy, and so is crusty Italian bread). If I was put in an old-fashioned prison and fed bread and water, I'd be pretty happy as long as it was nice bread.
Really it's 10,000 lakes....
