'Let's stick to the facts!' Sweden wants it to be known that meatballs are actually Turkish.
ADVERTISEMENTOne of the fundamental things that springs to mind when you think of Sweden — meatballs — actually originates from Turkey.
The humble meatball, according to Sweden.se, is not as local to the Elongated Country as the likes of ABBA and Ikea.
The official Twitter account for the country confessed: “Swedish meatballs are actually based on a recipe King Charles XII brought home from Turkey in the early 18th century. Let's stick to the facts!”
Indeed, the origns of the ground meat snack go back to when Charles was forced to flee Sweden for Bender, near Moldova in the Ottoman Empire, after loosing a war against Russia.
His exile lasted five years and when it ended he brought back a haul of meatballs, coffee and stuffed cabbages — all specialities from Istanbul.
Sweden.se was quick to point the country's other great inventions for those who were disgruntled about the discovery: "Few people know that the three-point seatbelt is a Swedish invention," it wrote.
Many Turkish people thanked the site for pointing out the real origin of the foodstuff.
But for some Swedes, the news was just too much.