Love crayfish? Then you’d love a crayfish party! Crayfish parties originated in Sweden in the early 1900’s when fishing them was restricted to a few summer months.  Generally held in August the Swedes feast on crayfish outside on long tables decorated with candles and moon lanterns, wearing silly hats, drink lots of snaps and beer and singing songs. Now these parties are widely celebrated not only in Sweden but even here in the UK.

When I discovered that FIKA the Swedish cafe in Brick Lane, East London, was hosting their own Crayfish Festival I had to book a ticket straight away!

Fika is a cosy cafè with a very relaxed and laid back feel. We walked up to the roof terrace where the tables were laid out for the big feast, and of course silly hats to wear! 

The quantity of food that was presented was epic, a great treat and slightly overwhelming too! Along with the plater of crayfish came chicken liver patè, pickle herrings laid on a bed of potato salad, gravelex, sour dough bread (from E5 Bakery) and cheese. So much food!

Getting into the spirit I ordered wine along with Akvavit or Aquavit (traditional scandi snaps). This got me very merry and much braver to crack open these tasty lil crayfish. As the evening passed and drinks flowed the puns came too, ‘this shit be cray!’ ha ha.  

I’ve been avoiding eating pickled herrings all of my life, my Mormor always had some in her fridge and I just hated the look and smell. But after I downed a bit of scandi courage I braved the herring, I was pleasantly surprised! I like them! They’re very strong on flavour so I could only eat a little but I was great to finally get over my pickled herring fear.

This crayfish party was great, I suggest if you go to this one at Fika or do your own, make sure you take your time, share it with friends, drink snaps, relax and feast all night!

More information of the Crayfish Festival at Fika click here

H x