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11/11/2011 12:18 AM

Edible: Scandinavian Glögg Comes To Midtown

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A Midtown restaurant is celebrating glogg season with its take on the Scandinavian drink. Rachel Wharton of Edible Manhattan magazine filed the following report.

The glogg season has officially begun at Smorgas Chef in Midtown.

Glogg is heady mix of wine heated up with sugar, citrus peel, a slew of winter spices, and a splash of hard liquor. In this month's Edible Manhattan magazine, we've scored the recipe from Morten Sohlberg, a Norwegian native who runs three Smorgas Chefs restaurants, including the one in the Scandinavia House cultural center. Beyond Sohlberg's modern interpretations of meatballs, pickled herring and open-faced sandwiches, they serve glogg all winter long, just as they do throughout Scandinavia.

“Glogg is found anywhere and everywhere in Norway and Sweden and Denmark primarily during the season, the Christmas season primarily. If you go into a store or a retailer, they'll offer a free glass of glogg. If you go to someone's friend's house, there will be glogg served. If you're at the corporate Christmas party, there will be glogg. So you'll drink a lot of it in Sweden during the season,” says Morten Sohlberg, chef and owner of Smorgås Chef.

Just as they do back in Sweden, Sohlberg's glogg comes with sides of dried fruit and sliced almonds. You sprinkle them in to soak up gloggy goodness, then eat them with a spoon once you're done.

“It really makes you feel the mood of the season more than anything else we serve in this restaurant,” says Sohlberg.

Sohlberg's been perfecting his recipe for 20 years and now uses brown sugar, whole spices and spiced rum, which is poured in along with vodka and two bottles of wine. In fact, if you think glogg sounds more like the name of a heavy metal band than a drink, that's appropriate: this drink packs a wallop.

“The alcohol and the sugar helps give people temporary energy in case they have to walk home in 20 below zero,” says Sohlberg.

To read more and subscribe to Edible Manhattan magazine, visit ediblemanhattan.com.