"For me, the word that encapsulated the way we eat in Sweden is lagom. The Swedes themselves are the first to admit to their peculiar attachment to this small, loaded word, even to the extent of joking about how lagom they are. "Lagom är bäst" (lagom is best), they say, rolling their eyes. Notoriously difficult to translate, lagom can be used to describe almost anything: you can be lagom well, your friend can be lagom tall, your coffee lagom strong and the weather lagom warm. But to dismiss it as simply a quantifier would be to underestimate its importance. Lagom goes right to the heart of Sweden's national psyche and characterizes everything from Sweden's political leanings and stance on to their aversion to anything too ostentatious. It is at the core of many typically Scandinavia ideals like fairness, consensus and equality."