The center of the young social scene in every small Swedish town. Every visitor to Sweden needs to know the basics of the korvkiosk.
THE place to meet and greet
The korvkiosk (literally: "hot dog kiosk") has two reasons for existing: Feeding ravenous post-pub hordes and as a central meeting point for the town's lay-about youths. Those lay-abouts include every teenager in town. And their mopeds too.
Of course, I was also one of the lay-abouts and have plenty of fond memories of the local korvkiosk. At least with nostalgia coloring my memories.
Of course, as people of all stripes show up at the korvkiosk late at night, there can be trouble:
It's also quite common for the local 'gangs', loose groups of friends really, to have 'their' korvkiosk and have scuffles if other youths visit the place. Just normal teenager rowdiness!
What is there to eat at a korvkiosk?
Hot dogs, bratwursts, hamburgers, pirogi, french fries... if it's fried or grilled and basically bad for you, it's here. You can of course top up with toppings such as pickled cucumbers, mustard, chili sauce and so on. If you're English, you can think of the korvkiosk as the Swedish version of a kebab stand. Though we have those too.
The food's fatty and unhealthy, but it's reasonably cheap. A hamburger and a coke will be around SEK 60 and fill you up.
The korvkiosk and the future
With social media, the connective role of the korvkiosk could be endangered.
Well, there may be fewer thirteen-year-olds hanging around them... But I can't see the korvkiosk's role as a meeting point be replaced by that most important group: High school kids trying to pull!
See more photos of korvkiosks. If anyone has something to add, Wikipedia's 'korvkiosk' article could use some help... or you can leave a comment here on eyeflare.com.
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Hello! Just want to say thank you for this interesting article! =) Peace, Joy.
Joy on 26 January, 2012