Lunch at the museum

Stockholm, December 11, 2015—

IT CAN BE LESS than ideal — what can't — but lunch in the museum is often a pleasant respite. We've enjoyed lunch at the de Young in San Francisco, at LACMA in Los Angeles, at the Prado in Madrid, the Stedlijk in The Hague, and today the Moderna Museet.

To tell the truth the meal is eclipsed by the view: you look out over the water toward the waterfront of Östermalm, which always reminds me of the Fondamenta San Giorgio, if that's what it's called, in Venice, though it looks like it only in terms of light and orientation. The photo here was taken at 2 pm, a little late for lunch and certainly early, by our standards, for twilight, but there you are: high latitude near midwinter.

But I digress. Lunch, which also stood us for dinner as we were going to an early concert, was the long buffet table, whose daily special was what I call hamburger. When I was young it was also called Salisbury steak; I don't know why. It came in a nice enough gravy, and was accompanied by those delicious little roast potatoes and onions we've come to expect. Also a slice of dill pickle.

I helped myself to green salad, with vinegar and olive oil, and cabbage slaw, and a sort of couscous salad with garbanzos, too, because we all know we depend on roughage.

Cabernet sauvignon, MJ Janéil, François Lurton, 2013: sound, good flavor, well balanced, young even in the tiny bottle

•Moderna Museet Café, Exercisplan, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm
☛Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants