Swedish Government Admits Country's Signature Meatballs Are Actually Turkish

Marcel Antonisse/AFP/Getty Images
By  Gwen Ihnat

In today's topsy-turvy world, we try to stick to the truth as much as possible. Lord know there's enough misinformation out there to sort through. So maybe that's why the Swedish government decided to come clean after all these years to recently reveal that one of the country's signature dishes was actually swiped from a different nation?

Facts! What a great concept for a government to grab hold of. Whatever the reason for this revelation, many longtime meatball fans offered their public despair over over this legendary falsehood, with one Swede tweeting, "My whole life has been a lie."

The Guardian says that the Turkish response sways from gracious, like local chef İbrahim Veysel saying that "it was an honor that the Turkish dish should have become 'an example to different cuisines all over the world" to outright outrage. For example, "Serdar Çam, president of the Turkish Cooperation And Coordination Agency, complained that Ikea, which sells 2 million meatballs a day in its in-store restaurants, should not be selling the dish as though it were Swedish."

While we applaud Sweden for its truth-telling, we can't also be filled with a sort of envious longing toward a country where the greatest daily—nay, weekly—scandal erupts over meatballs. In other news, Sweden is also cracking down on garlic smuggling by issuing "international arrest warrants for two Britons suspected of masterminding a garlic smuggling ring," transporting Chinese garlic to Norway, and then attempting to drive it over the Swedish border. Get some real problems Sweden, is what we're trying to say.

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