That bun called a 'semla'...

During the fika break Johan brings Monsieur de Villepain, who is on a flying visit from the French office. He takes one look at what is on the table, throws his hands in the air and says:

- Ah! Des brioches suèdoises garnies de pate d’amandes et crème fouettée!

In Swedish it’s called a semla. Or is it?

It's at this point I tell my story:

- Shortly after I had come to Sweden, I saw delicious cream buns appear in the cake shops and supermarkets. They looked like ‘creamburgers’ - big, fat buns with cream in the middle and with a lid on top. I asked someone what they were called. He said, ‘We call that a semla.’ 

Right, I thought, remember that word, and repeated semla, semla, semla.

It didn’t take long before I had forgotten the word so I had to ask another person, ‘What do you call the bun with the cream in the middle and the lid on top?’ He replied, ‘We call that a fastlagsbulle.’

That didn’t sound at all like the first word I had heard. So I repeated to myself fastlagsbulle, fastlagsbulle, fastlagsbulle.

Once in the konditori, and in my best Swedish I said;

- Hej! Jag skulle vilja ha en samlagsbulle.

The young girl smiled. She wrote what I had said on a yellow post-it note and told me to take it home and show people what I had asked for. Basically sex with a creamy bun.

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